NJ Rickard Ltd -v- Holloway (CA 03/11/2015) (Lawtel note of extempore judgment only so far) Sometimes winning isn't enough... A cautionary tale, in all sorts of ways. This was a Court of Appeal hearing on an appeal on costs. The original case was the...
Affordability and intentionality – adding it up
Samuels v Birmingham City Council [ 2015 ] EWCA Civ 1051 A second appeal from a s.204 County Court appeal that addressed the council's decision-making on whether the property from which Ms Samuels had become homeless was affordable (and thus, whether she was...
Closure, possession and legal representation
Courtesy of Jim Shepherd of Doughty Street Chambers comes this account of a county court appeal of a Ground 7A possession claim, following a closure order. The appeal of the possession order was partly on the basis that the Defendant could not get legal aid...
When is a deposit repaid?
Our thanks to Bahareh Amani-Kholsari of SSP Law for this interesting County Court possession/deposit case. As per s.215(2A), if a deposit was not protected in the required time, no s.21 notice can be served until the deposit has been returned to the tenant...
Deposits – the White Book is wrong
The 2015 White Book, (the bible of the Civil Procedure Rules) contains a serious error in the sections on tenancy deposit claims under s.214 Housing Act 2004. It appears that the notes do not correctly deal with the effects of the Localism Act amendments,...
Trial judge and costs. Ooops.
I've heard about a few costs decisions by trial judges recently which might be considered, to put it politely, interesting, or brave, in the Yes Minister sense. So it was with some interest that I read the Court of Appeal decision in Begum v Birmingham City...
Bedroom tax and landlord’s bedroom count – UT again
The Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals) seems to have taken an opportunity to re-state, in clear terms, one of the findings of SSWP v David Nelson and Fife Council [2014] UKUT 0525 (AAC) [Our report here]. The key issue was the extent to which the...
End of days miscellany
No, I am not going to comment much on the ongoing, unravelling farce of the NHF 'voluntary deal' on housing association right to buy. Partly because nobody seems to have a clue what is going on and what it would actually mean - apparently including the NHF....
Putting section 21 right – again.
Just a quick note to record that The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 have been made. The only purpose of these regulations is to address the mess that had been made of the prescribed...
1 October 2015 – section 21 day
[Update 29/09/2015. New regulations correcting the obvious errors in the new prescribed section 21 notice have now been made. See here.] On 1 October 2015, a whole range of changes come in, which affect whether or not a landlord can serve a s.21 notice on an...
All of the wrong. And then some more.
Kazadi v Martin Brookes Lettings Estate Agents Limited & Faparusi, Edmonton County Court 14 May 2015 Thanks to Legal Action September 2015 Housing law updates for this one. An assured shorthold tenancy deposit and unlawful eviction case in which everyone...
Right to Rent – just how bad is it?
We though it would be bad. And thanks to the JCWI, we can now have an evidence based stab at an answer. JCWI co-ordinated an evaluation of the West Midlands pilot of 'Right to Rent' and have published the report (summary here, and full report here). Notably,...