Terrorism insurance is an increasingly contentious issue in service charge cases; in short, many leaseholders think it is unnecessary and simply serves to increase the their service charges (and, potentially, acts as an additional source of...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Former landlords and s.20B LTA 1985
In Ground Rents (Regisport) Ltd v Dowlen [2014] UKUT 144 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) had to – once again – grapple with s.20B, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The facts are quite straightforward. Imagine, if you will, that there is a...
On the naughty step: The unacceptable face of London landlords
Some of you, those in London at least, might have noticed Boris Johnson announce a new, and completely voluntary, no compulsion here, landlord accreditation scheme. The idea being that tenants, desperate to find somewhere in the middle of the worst...
The state of that bedroom
This is a rather unusual bedroom tax First Tier Tribunal decision from Islington. (Decision notice. Also on the FTT decisions page.) There was one additional room, classed as a bedroom by the landlord, Islington Council. The tenant appealed on the...
Declining gracefully
In honour of our 8 year anniversary, and in the temporary absence of any interesting case law, I am considering commissioning a suitable bas-relief. The classicist in me fancies something like this: Because this is more or less exactly how I...
Formerly known as.
Here is an interesting FTT bedroom tax decision from Runcorn, received via RAISE who are clearly doing good work in supporting such appeals. The detailed statement of reasons is here (and on the FTT decisions page). The appellant is the tenant of...
What’s another year*
Astoundingly, the blog is now 8 years old. Apart from being generally glad that I'm still going, and that the blog is too, I'm genuinely not sure what I think about that. Put as bluntly as that, it seems like a long time. Still, here we are, some...
Götterdämmerung
Well, featuring fire and flood at least. As we've noted before, the '1996 exemption' to the bedroom tax only applied if one was in the same property or if: the dwelling so occupied was not the same by reason only that the change was caused by a...
Don’t ask the surveyor
Windermere Marina Village v Wild [2014] UKUT 163 (LC) is an important decision about the vexed question of apportionment that arises in many residential service charge disputes. Many residential leases for flats divide up the total service charge...
Succession and Sharia
A quick note on a recent Court of Appeal decision: Northumberland & Durham Property Trust Ltd v Ouaha. From 1/8/1980 until his death on 19/11/2010, Mr Al-Faisal held a protected Rent Act tenancy of Flat 15, 1 Royal Avenue House, London, SW3. In...
An obligatory discretion?
Rutherford & Ors v Secretary of State for Work And Pensions [2014] EWHC 1613 (Admin) This was the judicial review, supported by CPAG, of the failure of the bedroom tax regulations to address the position of tenants where a bedroom was needed...
How much is a secure tenancy worth?
London Borough of Lambeth v Loveridge [2013] EWCA Civ 494 We are appallingly late with this one, and have no excuse. But this case has just been given permission by the Supreme Court, so this is a good moment to make amends. Mr L was the secure...