R (FZ) v LB Croydon [2011] EWCA Civ 59 -or- Not In My Admin Court We have written before about age assessments for those who might be under 18 - see most recently our post on R (CJ) v Cardiff CC and, prior to that, our post on the Supreme Court decision in R...
Brave New World or Same Old Story
Pinnock v Manchester City Council [2010] UKSC 45 (Supreme Court pdf & BAILII links) Whenever a battle weary group of housing lawyers gets together, conversation inevitably turns (after the routine complaints about the less congenial DJs) to the thorny...
Equality Act 2010
I’m going to level with you, dear reader(s), I’m a bit late with this one. In my defence, I point to the fact that the Act as printed is around 250 pages long, consisting of 218 sections and 28 schedules. The explanatory notes run to over 160 pages. There is...
No room for ravers
Oluić v Croatia (application no. 61260/08) is a decision of the First Section of the European Court of Human Rights demonstrating, if further evidence were needed, that Croatia, housing and article 8 just don’t get along all that well. Mrs Oluić complained...
Shake your windows
Craighead v Homes for Islington & LB Islington [2010] UKUT 47 (LC) is a decision of Andrew Trott in the Upper Tribunal on an appeal from the LVT. 21 leaseholders faced bills of £30-40,000 for service charges between 2006 and 2008 relating to "external...
Each had a wooden horse
R (A) v Croydon & R (M) v Lambeth UKSC [2009] 8 This was an appeal heard by the House of Lords over the course of four days in July, but with judgment delivered by the new Supreme Court. We reported the Court of Appeal's judgment here. At issue was to...
Child in Need, Indeed
The Supreme Court has handed down judgment in the case of R (A) v Croydon and R (M) v Lambeth [2009] UKSC 8. This is an important decision about the duty of LAs under s.20(1) of the Children Act 1989 to "provide accommodation for any child in need within...
Deep (Equality) Impact
R (Domb) v Hammersmith and Fulham [2009] EWCA Civ 941 This is somewhat off our usual turf here at Nearly Legal, but should be of interest to anyone involved in public law challenges. This case involved a challenge to a decision by Hammersmith and Fulham to...
Changing Horses Midstream
Konodyba v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea [2009] EWCA Civ 890 was an appeal against a decision that Dr Konodyba was not entitled to housing assistance as she was subject to immigration control. It turned out to be a cautionary tale about getting rid...
Outstanding and Relevant
Scinto v London Borough of Newham [2009] EWCA Civ 837 is an appeal from Bow County Court on whether the tenant was still entitled to exercise her right to buy on terms first set out in December 1999. Miss Scinto initiated the right to buy process in...
House of Lords Newsflash
A full report on Birmingham v Ali and Moran v Manchester [2009] UKL 36 will follow in due course, but for those of you who simply can't wait for your fix of House of Lords homelessness judgments, the headline is that both appeals are allowed to limited...
RSL meet HRA, HRA meet RSL
Well, well, well. Or perhaps well, well, oh heck. The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in R (Weaver) v London & Quadrant Housing Trust [2009] EWCA Civ 587 and, by a majority, L&Q have lost. It will be remembered that Mrs Weaver was a...