Leicester City Council v Masters LRX/175/2007 (links to a .pdf) Pursuant to the Right to Buy provisions, the respondent purchased a leasehold interest in his flat in April 2005. As readers will know, where someone is purchasing a leasehold interest under the...
Procedure in the Lands Tribunal
The Lands Tribunal has handed down a number of important decisions in the last week that those working in the field of leasehold enfranchisement need to be aware of. Earl Cadogan v Erkman LRA/56/2007 & LRA/68/2007 (links to a .pdf file) concerns attempts...
Discretionary Housing Payments
R (Gargett) v LB Lambeth [2008] EWCA Civ 1450; on appeal from [2008] EWHC 663 (Admin). A Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) is a discretionary payment made by a local housing authority to a person who is (a) in receipt of housing benefit or council tax...
Effluxion of time and enfranchisement
Ackerman and another v Lay and others [2008] EWCA Civ 1428 (not on Bailli, but available via Lawtel) The appellants/tenants were the leasehold owners of a building and the respondents were the freehold owners of the same. The building had been subdivided...
Enfranchisement – is it all hope(value)less?
Earl Cadogan and other v Pitts and another; Earl Cadogan and another v Sportelli and another [2008] UKHL 71 Enfranchisement is the process whereby leaseholders can force their freeholder to sell them the freehold of the property. The Leasehold Reform Act...
What is a service charge?
Morshead Mansions Ltd v Leon Di Marco [2008] EWCA Civ 1371 Service charges. Much more interesting than tolerated trespassers. Honestly. Sections 18 - 30 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 contain a detailed regulatory framework for service charges in residential...
Wednesday morning – 9.45am
The House of Lords will give judgment in Knowsley v White; Islington v Honeygan-Green and Porter v Shepherds Bush HA (the tolerated trespasser trilogy) at 9.45am on Wednesday (links to a .pdf).
The powers of the appellate court
Admiral Taverns (Cygnet) Ltd v Daniel and another [2008] EWHC 1688 (QB), and [2008] EWCA Civ 1501. We seem to have missed this important case when it was at High Court level. Sorry about that. An appeal against the High Court judgment has just been dismissed...
The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 – an update
Two new Statutory Instruments have just come out relating to this Act, and, given that I'm updating my seminar notes about the 2008 Act, I thought I'd share them with you. The Allocation of Housing (England) (Amendment) (Family Intervention Tenancies)...
Enforcing Postponed Possession Orders
LB Wandsworth v Whibley [2008] EWCA Civ 1259. If a postponed possession order is made and the landlord takes the view that the conditions of postponement have been broken, the application for a date for possession should be conducted on a summary basis and...
Pour encourager les autres
Webb v Wandsworth LBC (Court of Appeal, November 12, 2008, extempore judgment and only noted in Arden Chambers Eflash 328) Ms Webb was the secure tenant of LB Wandsworth. Between 2005 and 2006 her son was involved in a number of serious criminal and...
It's the end of the world as we know it
Housing Minister Margaret Beckett dropped a bit of a bombshell yesterday. The Government has (according to leaks in the Times) responded warmly to a CIH proposal to end secure and assured tenancies as we know them and replacing them with fixed term contracts...