We don't often publicise events here, but given that this one involves at least couple of the NL team, we are damn well going to. Housing Law: The Welsh Devolution Effect 1st May 2014 Cardiff Law School, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX A one day...
Child’s rooms and odd rooms
I've added a couple of new bedroom tax First Tier Tribunal decisions to the FTT page. There is a Newcastle decision (Reasons here. Known as the Isos decision after the landlord who supported the appeal) which is a separated family decision. The appellant's...
Minimum Space (standards)
This is a post by Alan Richards, a journalist and blogger on legal matters, financial affairs, politics and economics, who blogs at Alrich. We are happy to add it to the blog, dealing as it does with size standards for housing, both social and private....
A game of forfeits
The flexible tenancy, that marvellous and oxymoronic invention of the Localism Act, is now in place and in use by a number of Councils. The last time I considered flexible tenancies it was largely about how they were created and how they were terminated at...
Room use and Uratemp
A successful FTT bedroom tax appeal in Birkenhead has raised some new questions over 'room use' as an argument. The decision notice is here (HT Speyejoe). The appellant had moved into the '3 bedroom' property on marriage. He and his wife had lived there. A...
Bedroom tax notes, only just out of date.
I was one half of a seminar at Garden Court Chambers on Thursday last week on the bedroom tax for housing advisors. The excellent Liz Davies of Garden Court tackled the Court of Appeal decisions in MA & Ors and the benefit cap judgment in SG & Ors, R...
March miscellany
A couple of bits and pieces. The DWP has issued a circular in the wake of the Court of Appeal judgment in MA & Ors, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2014] EWCA Civ 13 (Our report coming soon, honest). The...
Legal Advice in Lewisham?
We have been asked to circulate the following. Given the difficulty people face in accessing housing advice and representation in this area, we are very happy to do so. This is for anyone who lives or works in the borough of Lewisham. You will know that the...
Bedrooms and a family home
A new First Tier Tribunal bedroom tax appeal decision from Liverpool, again a successful one, and this time on wholly new grounds. The decision statement is here (and also on the FTT decisions page) The Applicant was separated from his partner in 2006, when...
Discharge of duty by helping eviction.
This sounds like a rather odd case, noted on the Garden Court bulletin. It is a refusal to grant permission for Judicial Review of a Council's refusal to carry out a review of the method it had decided upon to discharge its full housing duty. Still with me?...
Deciding without a decision
R (on the application of PK) v Harrow LBC (2014) QBD Admin 30 January 2014 [Lawtel note, no transcript yet] This judicial review is possibly one for the 'what were they thinking?' pile. The Claimants were the children of M. The family was street homeless and...
On folding beds and sleeping bags
A new bedroom tax First Tier Tribunal decision from Monmouthshire raises some issues on the FTTs' approach to room use. The decision notice with summary reasons is here (and also on the FTT decisions page). The Claimant lived in the property with his wife...