Following the Upper Tribunal judgment in SSWP v David Nelson and Fife Council, SSWP v James Nelson and Fife Council [2014] UKUT 0525 (AAC) [our report], the DWP has issued a Circular - HB U6/2014 The thing is that it isn't quite right, in some...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Conscious Re-coupling and Succession
In R (Turley) v LB Wandsworth , the Claimant was the partner of the late Mr Doyle, who was the secure tenant of a property at Battersea Park Rd, London, SW8 from 1995 until his death on 17/3/2012. Mr D and Ms T had 4 children together and they...
Shared ownership – new guidance
The CML, NHF, HCA, BSA have produced new guidance on handling arrears and possession sales of shared ownership properties (the previous guidance was in 2010 and the contact details provided were out of date). I am not sure that there is a huge...
Suspending belief
We have dealt with the basic facts in Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd [2014] UKSC 52 when considering its previous incarnations (Cooke v Mortgage Business [2012] EWCA Civ 17 and Re North East Property Buyers Ltd [2010] EWHC 2991 (Ch)). In...
Paying it on.
As we head into the holidays and the weather turns cold, it is about the time that we usually make a pointed suggestion. We do what we do on this site for free. No payment is received from any source. (And also Tessa Shepperson rather wonderfully...
The elephant in the bedroom
Finally, the long awaited Upper Tribunal decision on room size and the bedroom tax has been released. A copy of the decision can be downloaded here. SSWP v David Nelson and Fife Council, SSWP v James Nelson and Fife Council [2014] UKUT 0525 (AAC)...
How much?! Damages for unlawfully evicted secure tenants
Loveridge v London Borough of Lambeth [2014] UKSC 65 So, if a local authority unlawfully evicts a secure tenant (and yes, it happens) what should the measure of damages be? Under s.27 and s.28 Housing Act 1988, damages fall to be assessed under a...
Human Rights Round-Up Part 2
Lemo and others v Croatia [2014] ECHR 755 (10/7/2014) Both the facts and the outcome in this case are highly reminiscent of Brezec v Croatia (see our note here). The applicants had occupied flats under protected tenancies from the 1970s until their...
On the naughty step. What Brad did next
Readers with a mid to long term memory might recall 'lawontheweb', which featured in a naughty step post (and indeed a Guardian article) in 2012. Behind lawonetheweb was Brad Askew. Despite my best attempts at the time, Brad didn't respond to any...
Stop Retaliating!
The Tenancies Reform Bill has now been formally published following its second reading. The Bill has changed substantially from the original version that was put forward by Sarah Teather MP and drafted by Shelter. We commented on the Bill before as...
Southwark: Not appealing
It is not unknown for losing parties in a case to not be happy, indeed very upset. There are two basic options. To shut up and put up with it, or appeal. Rather unusually, faced with one of the most coruscating High Court judgments I can recall, in...
Penal notices and warrants
Lawtel had a short note on a case called Bank of Ireland v Shah and another (QBD, 20.11.14) this week and I was wondering if anyone knew any more about it. According to the note, the Bank had a possession order against Mr Shah arising out of a...