This will be a busy few weeks for me on the Homes(Fitness for Human Habitation) Act. On the off chance that anyone wants to hear and question me and others on the Act, here are some dates and details: 15 May 2019 - HLPA meeting, with Steve Lawrence of the...
No isn’t an answer – access for works
Liverpool Mutual Homes v Mensah, County Court at Liverpool. 31 August 2017. (Thanks to Legal Action Housing Repairs Update May 2019 for this case) This is perhaps a rather obvious point, but reminders can never hurt. M was LMH's tenant. Following a disrepair...
Troubles with TLAs – HMOs and EPCs
Home Group Ltd v Henry. County Court at Newcastle. 21 May 2018 For post October 2015 assured shorthold tenancies section 21A means that no s.21 notice may be served when the landlord is in breach of a prescribed requirement. One of those prescribed...
Song from under the floorboards*
Fouladi v Darout Ltd & Ors (2018) EWHC 3501 (Ch) Although the judgment is dated December 2018, this has just appeared - a case on the perennially vexed topic of noise from a flat above. In fact it is an appeal and cross appeal on a county court judgment...
Deposits – Better to give than to receive
Sebastiampillai v Parr. Central London County Court, 11 April 2019 (Our thanks to William Ford of Osbornes for note of this case) Does a change of landlord require provision of fresh prescribed information? How does this operate in view of section 215B...
When an ‘or’ is an ‘and’ in Wales
Evans v Fleri (2019) EW Misc 12 (CC) A lesson in drafting from Wales. The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 provides at Section 7(1) The landlord of a dwelling subject to a domestic tenancy must not do any of the things described in subsection (2) in respect of the...
Prohibition Orders and ending tenancies
T v W. County Court at Central London. 16 April 2019 (Unreported) T was the owner of a property. The property was subject to a prohibition order served by LB Croydon. Nonetheless, T let a dwelling in the property to W. (T denied knowledge of the prohibition...
But, it’s a long, long while…
Ward & Ors, R (on the application of) v The London Borough of Hillingdon & Ors (2019) EWCA Civ 692 Regular readers will remember the judicial reviews of Hillingdon's allocation policy requirement for a 10 year residence period (those without 10 years...
When is a licence a secure tenancy?
Mohamed v London Borough of Barnet (2019) EWHC 1012 (QB) Ms M was placed in temporary accommodation by LB Barnet following a homeless application. Barnet found her to be intentionally homeless but continued to provide accommodation under Children Act 1989....
The End of Section 21
I'd suggest sitting down before you read this. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, has announced/is to announce depending on when you read this, that the Government is to abolish section 21. Honest....
The wrong doctors
R(Al-Ali) v Brent LBC (2018) EWHC 3634 (Admin) (not on Bailii. We have seen a judgment and it is also reported in March 2019 Legal Action Housing: recent developments). There is, I think little of legal significance in this judicial review permission...
Homelessness – capacity to apply
R(Uddin) v Southwark LBC (2019) EQHC 180 (Admin) (Not on Bailii. We've seen a copy of the judgment. Also reported in the March 2019 Legal Action Housing: recent developments). Mr U is a single man. In May 2018, he was assaulted and suffered a serious brain...