[with apologies to the most cited, and brilliant, socio-legal article: Marc Galanter, "Why the 'haves' come out ahead: Speculations on the limits of legal change"] Mr Justice Beatson dismissed a renewed application for judicial review in R(Husband) v...
Proprietary Estoppel: Detriment and Remedy in the Privy Council
In Henry and Mitchell v Henry [2010] UKPC 3, the Privy Council have given further consideration to the doctrine of proprietary estoppel. The judgment of the PC was delivered by Sir Jonathan Parker and it will be of particular interest as it demonstrates the...
Tenancy Deposits: A retrospective
In advance of the brace of Court of Appeal hearings on the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS), contained in sections 212-4 and Schedule 10, Housing Act 2004, and after the High Court decision in Draycott & Draycott v Hannells (discussed with additional,...
Trigger happy?
In Barber v Croydon LBC [2010] EWCA Civ 51, the Court of Appeal found Croydon's decision to pursue possession proceedings of a non-secure tenancy occupied by Mr Barber Wednesbury unreasonable, being by my estimation the third such successful use of a gateway...
Allocations: Scope of Medical Reports
R(Bauer-Czarmonski) v Ealing LBC [2010] EWHC 130 (Admin) is a kind of a classic post-Ahmad decision in that, rather than being a challenge to the CBL Locata scheme as a whole, it relates to the way in which Mr Bauer-Czarnomski's application was treated by...
Housing benefit: Two decisions
Two HB decisions from the Upper Tribunal, Administrative Appeals Chamber have appeared, which are interesting because they demonstrate the approach of the Tribunal to the construction of the HB Regs (Torbay Borough Council v RF [2010] UKUT 7 (AAC) (14...
Transfers and rent arrears
The question of the interaction between housing debt and prioritisation for an allocation under Part VI, Housing Act 1996, appears to have been in issue in R(Osei) v Newham LBC Lettings Agency, decided on 27.01.10. I say "appears to" because, as of yet, no...
Credit where it's due?
Walsh v Singh [2009] EWHC 32 is a fascinating case about constructive trust (CT) and proprietary estoppel (PE), or at least it could have been. First credit goes to HHJ Purle QC, sitting as a judge of the High Court, who has managed the seemingly impossible...
The HRA and precedent
We've been a bit slow on this one, but R v Horncastle [2009] UKSC 14 offers further light on the quarter pounder v royale with cheese debate, which has occupied much of our time this year. J noted that R v Purdy suggested that the UKSC would offer some...
Family allocations
Now, personally, I intend to chuck my kids out as soon as possible and return to "normal". But, for Mrs Ariemuguvbe, this was not possible because her children were subject to immigration status and had no recourse to public funds (no doubt, they didn't...
A curious footnote (with benefit of transcript)
We previously wrote up Mich-Onyibe v Wandsworth LBC [2008] EWCA Civ 1649 as "a curious footnote" to homelessness jurisprudence, basing our note on an Arden Chambers e-flash. Thanks to the Chief we now have the benefit of the transcript. The facts were as...
Section 2, LP(MP)A and proprietary estoppel: Where are we now?
The Issue One of the slight frustrations of being an aspiring academic is that you tend to think in bite-size terms as and when the tutorial cycle demands. We've just "done" the now familiar peaks and troughs of the "new model" constructive trust and...