After much swearing, faffing and fiddling with the placement of semi colons in the underlying code of the site, the new look blog is here. It is hopefully cleaner and easier to read, while keeping all of the functions of the old site. It should also make it...
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Property Guardians seem to be a growth industry. If you haven't come across these yet, you probably will at some point. The Guardian agency puts people into a vacant commercial or residential building to live as occupiers, effectively providing security to...
Suitability: Of time and distance
With perfect timing, a County Court section 204 appeal judgment reaches us, on the issue of suitability of temporary accommodation. With the context of out of borough placements and the post Localism Act situation, this seemed worth considering and quoting...
‘Homeless Legislation – a thing of the past?’
[Update at the end of the post 15/11/2012] Now that the Guardian has the story, I feel able to quote a briefing paper by Andy Gale of the DCLG that had found its way to me. This is the briefing that Andy Gale has been giving to Council officers (not...
Homelessness post Localism Act – Statutory Guidance
The DCLG has released statutory guidance on: the changes that the Localism Act 2011 makes to the homelessness legislation. It also provides guidance on the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2012. This supplements parts of the...
Withdrawn, dismissed or discontinued – the extent of consent
A case perhaps best filed under the 'Ooops' category, which only took a trip to the Court of Appeal to sort out Spicer & Anor v Tuli & Anor [2012] EWCA Civ 845 Spicer and Shinners were Law of Property Act 1925 receivers, appointed under a charge in...
Tempest Tossed?
Does the landlord's repairing duty under Section 11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 extend to damage by fire, flood or tempest? LB Hammersmith and Fulham v Carty is a County Court judgment reported on Hardwicke Chamber's site which raises some interesting...
Proportionality – between claim and hearing
Well, well. A successful proportionality defence on an introductory tenancy and one upheld on appeal. There is also some helpful confirmation about what can be considered in assessing proportionality. Southend-on-Sea Borough Council v Armour (2012) QBD...
Not round these parts
R(Carney) v Bolton-at-Home Limited [2012] EWHC 2553 (Admin) Did historic ASB by the daughter of a former evicted tenant allow the local authority to refuse to allow her accommodation in the same area? This was the issue in this judicial review of...
New Regulations 2 – Private Sector Suitability
The Government has today laid The Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2012 SI 2012 No. 2601. It comes into force on 9 November 2012 This sets out the issues for determining suitability (or the lack thereof) of accommodation for...
New Regulations 1 – ‘Zambrano’ eligibility
In response to Zambrano (C-34/09) the Government has laid new regulations today, to come into force on 9 8 November 2012. The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) (Amendment) Regulations...
More on more on damages
Or Simmons v Castle round two Simmons v Castle [2012] EWCA Civ 1288 As you may know, the original Court of Appeal decision in Simmons v Castle on the 10% uplift in general damages (our report here) was revisited after representations by the ABI and APIL. I'm...