I am strangely and unaccountably late with this one - I can only presume it was released late by Bailii and it was August anyway. But finally, here is R(M) v Barnet LBC [2008] EWHC 2354 (Admin), a judicial review on a decision to assist a 17 year old under...
Catch-up miscellany
Thanks, as ever, to Jan Luba and Nic Madge in Legal Action for putting out notes on cases, including those that don't make the reports. There were a few of those in December's Legal Action that are worth a mention - of course, all I have to go on is the LA...
Equality bill to tackle Malcolm judgment
From Usefully Employed (hat-tip) comes the news that the consultation on the Equality Bill proposes the introduction of indirect discrimination as a category, which would help with the horlicks that the Lords made of the 1995 Act in Malcolm v Lewisham: [the...
Sad News
We are saddened to be told of the untimely death of Bob Lawrence. Some of us knew him, some of us knew of him, but hadn't had the chance to meet him. As many readers of NL will know, Bob Lawrence was a special adviser at the DCLG and a driving force behind...
Unsung heroes Part 2
The shortlist for the Legal Aid Practitioners Group Legal Aid lawyers of the year awards is out (see previous post here), and given that housing only featured as a subset of social welfare, there is a good crop of housing lawyers in there. Not NL, of course....
Request for info – Ground 8
Ah, Ground 8. How we love it. We have been asked by some researchers, who are investigating housing association rent arrears management as well as their use of Ground 8, if readers would get in touch with them if they have experience of RSLs using Ground 8...
Darling's Keynesian splurge
And what is promised for housing? According to this DCLG press release, the following (with my comments in brackets): * Agreement with major lenders to wait at least three months before initiating repossession proceedings, in order to explore all other...
Not enough of a house
This is another of the occasional cases on s.2(1) Leasehold Reform Act 1967 - the definition of a 'house' for the purposes of leasehold enfranchisement. Not strictly on point for Nearly Legal, but I enjoy them, so you get them... Grosvenor Estates Ltd v...
HMO licensing actually working?
Thanks to Tessa at landlordlaw for pointing me to this news snippet from Liverpool, in which the HMO licensing scheme is not only enforced, but the Local Authority aids the tenants, Following conviction of the landlords, Raymond Whalley, and Ray Whalley Ltd,...
For old times' sake
This is only for for those of you who have been reading this blog for some time, but I'm quite pleased to be able to say that Nearly Legal (the person) has finally been admitted to the roll as a solicitor. Everyone else involved in the blog is, of course,...
Harassment by possession claim
In what appears to be a good week for somewhat bizarre cases, may I present Carlos Allen v London Borough of Southwark [2008] EWCA Civ 1478. This was an appeal by Mr Allen to the Court of Appeal of the striking out of his claim for harassment against LB...
Retaliatory Eviction Campaign
As many readers will know, Debbie Crew has been conducting a campaign about retaliatory evictions - typically in private tenancies where a tenant has complained about conditions in the property and got Environmental Health in, and the landlord promptly...