The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill enters report stage in the House of Lords from 5 March. Any further amendments to the bill in the Lords must happen at this stage. It is likely that the social welfare provisions, including housing,...
What is the difference between a jacuzzi and a sauna?
This may be one of the more esoteric points to be heard by the Court of Appeal on terms of a lease, but one of the issues in Newman v Framewood Manor Management Co Ltd [2012] EWCA Civ 159 was whether Mrs Newman was entitled to damages for loss of...
Homelessness, proportionality and children
A very welcome guest report on this s.204 Housing Act 1996 Appeal by Alice Hilken of 1 Pump Court, who acted for the appellant, instructed by Rahman & Co. Kumaning v London Borough of Haringey December 2011, Central London County Court, HHJ Saggerson The...
Access to justice, between 11 am and 1 pm only
As of April 2012, all Civil and Family Courts in the London region (and apparently throughout England and Wales) will be changing the opening times of the court desks. They will be open only between 11 am and 1 pm. According to HMCTS: Court users attending...
Pigeons in the flat alas*
Siveter v Wandsworth LBC (2012) CA (Civ Div) 16/02/2012 [Not on Bailii yet, just a Lawtel note] S was the secure tenant of Wandsworth in a 4th floor flat. She had complained to Wandsworth about pigeons nesting outside her flat, in a cupboard that had an...
“I could be a lawyer with stratagems and ruses”*
Wasted costs orders are scary things. There is the censure by the Court, of course, but worst of all, the solicitors then have to pay and, no matter how much or how little, that rips shreds out of the very essence of their being. Threats to pursue wasted...
No comparing
When considering 'general housing circumstances in the area' under Housing Act 1996 s.177(2) on a s.202 review, can the review officer conduct a comparative exercise? A s.204 appeal decision in Chawa v Kensington and Chelsea RLBC (Central WLondon County...
Proportionality and stay of eviction
One of the questions posed as a result of Hounslow LBC v Powell [2011] UKSC 8 [our report here] is what happens if a proportionality argument is raised after a possession order has been made, but before eviction. Powell found that s.89 Housing Act 1980,...
When is a warrant executed?
Royal Bank of Scotland v Bray Halifax County Court 25 November 2011 At what point in the course of an eviction and securing of a property is the warrant considered to be executed, so that no application for a stay can be made? This is a County Court case,...
Full of Sound and Fury…
Signifying nothing* (*And yes, I am aware that the preceding line is 'A tale told by an idiot'.) The much trumpeted Wandsworth riot related eviction has stalled even before possession proceedings were issued. According to a press release from Liberty,...
Occupy LSX update
As you may well have seen in the news, the Corporation of London was granted a possession order and injunction against the tents and camp of Occupy LSX in the churchyard area outside St Paul's Cathedral by the High Court on Wednesday 18 January. The judgment...
Housing benefit and available accommodation
The Chartered Institute of Housing and the Guardian have put together the results of a survey into the effect of the housing benefit/LHA limits and the pegging to the bottom third of market rents coming into force in January. Specifically the survey looks at...