Neither of these are housing law cases, but sometimes judgments come along at which you can only stare in horrified (or amazed, or amused) fascination. These are two such judgements, in case you are in need of diversion, or a cautionary tale, or lessons in the multifaceted, boundless and ever creative human capacity for stupidity.

First, a relatively short, but very pointed judgment from the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)

https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2025-ukut-00305 

This was a Hamid hearing on whether a barrister, Muhammad Mujeebur Rahman, should be referred to the Bar Standards Board on conduct grounds. There were a number of issues, but one was non-existent case citations that had been put in grounds of appeal. It will not surprise you to find out how this happened, but still this plumbs new depths of ‘oh no, you didn’t…’ The Tribunal at hearing had picked up on a cited case of Y(China), which could not be found and had the citation for a different case.

The Panel then decided to take a break and provided by Mr Rahman with a copy of Ayinde and asked him to consider his position over lunch. After lunch Mr Rahman said he had undertaken ChatGPT research during the lunch break and the citation for Y (China) was correct, and it was a decision made by Pill and Sullivan LJJ and Sir Paul Kennedy. The Panel then directed Mr Rahman to provide them with a copy of Y (China) by 4pm on 24th June, or, alternatively if that was not possible, to explain what had happened. The Panel then started the next case and while this was happening Mr Rahman provided the Tribunal clerk with nine stapled pages which were not a judgment of the Court of Appeal but an internet print out with misleading statements including references to the fictitious Y (China) case with the citation for YH (Iraq). The notes contained no mention of the key case on delay JT (Cameroon) v SSHD [2008] EWCA Civ 878.

This is the point in a Roadrunner cartoon where the coyote has gone over the cliff edge, but is still running. Despite being given a copy of Ayinde – basically the equivalent of being handed a bottle of whisky and a loaded revolver and directed to an empty room – Mr Rahman instead asks ChatGPT to confirm that the case it had hallucinated actually existed, then handed that output to the Tribunal.  There is only one way this was going – down, rapidly. Mr Rahman was referred to the BSB.

The next judgment… well, I suggest settling down with a drink or two of whatever you prefer, drawing the curtains and readying yourself for an hour or more with one of the most extraordinary judgments you are likely to read.

Shani v Ozekhome (2025) UKFTT 1090 (PC)

It comes from the unlikely setting of the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) as a referral from the Land Registry on disputed registration of transfer of title. But it very rapidly turns into a melodrama worthy of a Netflix serial.

We have an applicant who doesn’t exist (and not just because they have supposedly died). We have a witness who apparently physically existed, but very likely wasn’t who he said he was, at least at the relevant time. We have another witness who blows apart both parties’ cases (while called by the respondent), but then dies. We have counsel for both parties withdrawing as professionally embarrassed after day 1 of what turns into a four day hearing. And a non existent doctor, faked witness statements, an English solicitor doing things that they really shouldn’t have been doing, and the Nigerian equivalent of a KC (self-described ‘big time lawyer’) who wasn’t entirely sure if the property had been supposedly transferred to him for payment of legal services, or as a gift, or whatever, but it was definitely from and by the person who wasn’t who he said he was (but was, perhaps surprisingly in the context of this case, at least still alive). Oh and secret Jersey bank accounts.

All over a terraced house in Neasden.

A couple of quotes as a taster, but there is so, so much more…

“If there is a genuine “Dr Johnson Osa” from a hospital at this address, who nevertheless uses a Yahoo internet email address for his professional correspondence, (…) no doubt he will emerge with evidence to angrily rebut this aspersion on his integrity (& existence). I do not expect him to do so”

“One might have thought that General Useni, as the then Minister for the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, had weightier matters on his plate at that time than collecting rents for someone else from a house in Neasden.”

If you can keep yourself from laughing out loud when you get to the red hat, you are made of sterner stuff than I.