Awad v Hooley CHI/21UD/HMG/2020/0003 5 August 2020 (link to PDF) This is a First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) decision on an application for a Rent Repayment Order (RRO), which unusually deals with the issue of the tenant's rent arrears. Ms Awad was the...
Don’t believe the type – N11B Defence form goes wrong
Our grateful thanks to Jo Underwood of Shelter for spotting this. The N11B Defence form to a section 21 possession claim via form N5B - both released April 2020 - doesn't add up. Quite literally. Question 2 of the N11B asks Do you agree the date, in section...
Yet more new CPR – and no eviction without notice coming soon.
In the excitement last Friday about the Rules laid in Parliament introducing PD 55C, I completely overlooked another set of Rules, also laid last Friday. The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2020, in force as of 17 July 2020, makes changes to the CPR...
Reactivation!
After the mystery of the Rules laid last Friday, we now had the text of Practice Direction 55C, which will come into effect on 23 August 2020 at the end of the Part 55.29 stay of possession proceedings. The text can be read here. The key elements are. This...
Mystery directions
In the evening of Friday 17 July, The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) (Coronavirus) Rules 2020 appeared, having apparently been laid earlier that day. These will come into force on 23 August 2020. What the Rules do is amend the Civil Procedure Rules to add...
Discrimination and ‘No DSS’
As we have seen before, Shelter have been supporting discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010 against letting agents who operate a 'No DSS' policy (meaning a refusal to even consider people claiming housing related benefits - who are often employed...
Getting late legal advice not a ground for set aside of possession order
Sangha v Amicus Finance Plc (2020) EWHC 1074 (Ch) This was Mr Sangha's appeal of a refusal of his application to set aside a possession order against his property by a lender who had a charge on the property against a bridging loan which was not repaid. The...
Either/Or, not Both.
Karimi v Southwark LBC, County Court at Central London, 26 April 2020 (note in July/August 2020 Legal Action - Housing: Recent Developments) Mr Karimi had applied to Southwark as homeless. Southwark found he was not in priority need in a s.184 decision. Mr K...
We don’t do that in Wales
Jarvis v Evans & Anor (2020) EWCA Civ 854 The question for the Court of Appeal on this second appeal was does failing to be licensed under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 prevent a landlord from serving any notice seeking possession, or just a section 21...
Evidencing a joint tenancy
Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust Limited v Richens (2020) EWHC 685 (Ch) An appeal of judgment in a possession claim where the status of the occupant was in issue. Mr Richens occupied VAHT’s property. The property had been owned by Aylesbury BC, at which time...
Dispensing with section 20 – requirements on landlord
Aster Communities v Chapman & Ors (LANDLORD AND TENANT : SERVICE CHARGES) (2020) UKUT 177 (LC) A quick note on this one. Where a landlord is looking to do works that would cost residential leaseholders more than £250 each under the service charge, they...
Two thirds of a stay
TFS Stores Ltd v The Designer Retail Outlet Centres (Mansfield) General Partner Ltd & Ors (2020) EWCA Civ 833 (02 July 2020) Another Court of Appeal challenge to the PD 51Z stay (and, by extension, the CPR 55.29 stay) this time brought to you courtesy of...