Livewest Homes Ltd v Bamber (2018) EWHC 2454 (QB) This was Ms Bamber's appeal of a decision on a preliminary issue in possession proceedings. The first instance court held that in the circumstances of the case, Livewest were not obliged to give 6 months...
Assorted bits
The post on Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz (gas safety cert and s.21) now has the approved transcript of judgment attached, which may be useful for anyone arguing such cases. The section 21 validity flowchart wasn't updated to include Caridon v...
Property guardians and ‘non-domestic rates’
This is an interesting decision of the Valuation Tribunal on the effect of the occupation by property guardians of a commercial building. Some (though not all) property guardian companies have made a sales feature of the alleged freedom from non-domestic...
Erratum and forthcoming consultation
A couple of notes. First, an erratum. In yesterday's post on long leases as ASTs, I originally suggested that once a leaseholder had sublet the whole, assured status was lost and could not be revived. On prompting, I concluded that this was wrong. In fact,...
When a long lease is a shorthold.
[Post rewritten on 1 March 2020] While on leasehold issues, this has been floating around for a bit, but I don't think it has had the attention and awareness it deserves (perhaps particularly from conveyancers). With all the fuss/scandal around leasehold...
‘Renovations’ and Forfeiture – Don’t do this!
The Times reports on a story of forfeiture of a residential lease (paywall or limited free access). I'm noting this not because of any particular legal complications, but because it is one of the relatively rare examples where forfeiture actually happened....
Still more on 1 October – HMOs, storeys and rooms.
I thought we'd already covered this, but it turns out we haven't fully. So, from 1 October 2018, the definition of a HMO subject to mandatory licensing changes, and separately there are new room size requirements. The Licensing of Houses in Multiple...
More on 1 October – breach of Suspended Possession Order
On 1 October 2018, The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2018 will come into effect. The bit that concerns us is basically a one line change to Part 83 Civil Procedure Rules 1998 codifying the position that there is no need to make a separate Part...
Autumn – mellow fruitfulness and new section 21 rules
When we reach 1 October 2018, provisions of the Deregulation Act 2015 come into force, affecting all assured shorthold tenancies that commenced before 1 October 2015. Quite what those provisions are is a bit complicated, and may yet be subject to further...
Eviction companies, conducting litigation, and defective notices
Kassam v Gill & Gill (13th August 2018, County Court at Birmingham) (copy of judgment here) Regular readers and long term twitter followers will know that we tend to take a dim view of unqualified, unregulated 'evict your tenant' set ups. Here is a very...
Appealing rent increases for assured tenancies
Robertson v Webb, Re Honley Road (LANDLORD & TENANT - rent determination) (2018) UKUT 235 (LC) Just a brief note on this - where a landlord serves a notice of proposed increased rent under section 13 Housing Act 1988, the tenant can apply for a...
When service charges become indisputable
Marlborough Park Services Ltd v Micha Leitner (2018) UKUT 230 (LC) Tenants/Leaseholders can seek a determination of the payability and reasonableness of service charges under s.27A Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. It has been something of a question about how...