Things have moved on about the idea of a letter from housing lawyers. A letter has been prepared for housing lawyers and law academics to sign and arrangements are under way for getting it publicity. I'm sending the text of the letter to everyone who...
On legal aid and letters pages: bits from last week
Some bits and pieces from the last week that didn't quite fit in elsewhere. First - developments in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. At the committee stage a large number of amendments were tabled, both by the Government and by the...
Helpful Housing Hints
Two, quite distinct, bodies have put out some free guides. The DCLG have released some booklets aimed at private landlords and tenants, giving guidance on requirements and best practice: Top Tips for Tenants: Assured Shorthold Tenancies Top Tips for...
Sinking feeling
I'm afraid that this is beyond parody, but couldn't go unremarked. Anyway, it is a quiet time for judgments. Today the National Housing Federation took the view that housing provision in the UK, or England at least, is basically demented, with millions to be...
Ain’t no Cicero
This, the second post on the riot related possession proposals (the first is here), looks at an article published on the ConservativeHome website by Jake Berry MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Grant Shapps, and Tory MP for the gritty urban constituency...
Losing localism
Or, more accurately 'locality'. Sorry if that got anyone excited over nothing. As has been widely announced, the DCLG consultation on introducing a mandatory ground for possession on grounds of conviction for a housing related ASB offence etc, previously...
Starter tenancy: proportionality ‘just about arguable’
West Kent Housing Association v Haycraft [2011] EWCA Civ 992 (Not on Bailii. We've seen a transcript) This was a renewed application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal on a second (or perhaps first- see below) appeal from the granting of a...
Wandsworth: headed for the naughty step?
As is now pretty well known (and as I noted in the comments below this post) Wandsworth Council apparently made a bid to bring the first riot related possession proceedings. There are some things about Wandsworth's behaviour that should be pointed out, but...
‘Not otherwise available’
SL v Westminster City Council & Ors [2011] EWCA Civ 954 This is a significant judgment by the Court of Appeal on the ambit of s.21(1)(a) National Assistance Act 1948. It addresses the interrelation of 'care and attention' and the provision of...
Evicting rioters: a brief note
As a number of Councils and Housing Associations in London, Manchester, Salford and Birmingham say that they intend to evict tenants involved in rioting (and Grant Shapps has jumped in to back them, as has David Cameron), we've been requested to take a quick...
Under a bit of pressure…
For the last couple of days - and ongoing - we have been getting vast quantities of comment spam, over 1,000 per day. 99.99% are automatically filtered out by our defences and I mop up the rest. However it has a couple of consequences. I usually scan the...
And what kind of chocolate would you like your teapot?
The DCLG has put out a consultation, announced by Grant Shapps (again), on proposals to bring in a mandatory ground for possession for Anti Social Behaviour. The closing date is 27 October 2011. I had a look at Shapps' initial announcement back in January....