A quick note on a succesful bedroom tax First Tier Tribunal decision in Islington. Unfortunately there is no statement of reasons [Update 21/01/2014 - Statement of reasons and adviser submissions are here] and the decision notice, which I have...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Wrong to RTB
I see that the Master of the Rolls has just issued a practice direction in respect of (what appears to be) many tens (if not hundreds?) of negligence claims arising out of RTB sales (see here). Reading between the lines, a firm called Tandem Law...
A bit too unrestrained
Emery v Wandsworth LBC (2013) QBD 14 November 2013 [not reported elsewhere, note on Westlaw] This was an application by Ms E for permission to apply to discharge a Civil Restraint Order made against her in the High Court. Ms E had made an urgent...
More on JR and Costs
We have been blogging lately about costs in settled JRs and S.204 appeals (see here and here) and we can now report that the Admin Court Office has published guidance on costs following settlement of JR claims, which can be found in this link. The...
Get your excuses for your excuses in early
Poorsalehy v Wandsworth LBC (2013) QBD 07/11/2013 {note on Lawtel, not on Bailii yet] A cautionary tale, albeit one that was rather hard on Mr Poorsalehy. Mr P had applied to Wandsworth as homeless. His application was rejected by s.184 decision...
Sleepwalking into error
I've posted before about the vexed issue of s.81, Housing Act 1996 and default judgments (see here for the most recent county court case; note also the comments to that post which explain that Woodfall has changed its mind). Well, we now have...
I don’t want to go to… Lambeth
Can a refuge be a 'residence of own choice' for the purposes of Local Authority decisions about local connection in homeless applications? This is a rare Court of Appeal decision on the issue. In addition, can a Reg 8(2) 'minded to' letter...
Outsourcing marketing. How to look ridiculous.
To return to a theme discussed here, 'guest post' search engine optimisation is, at best, a dubious, not to say scummy, way to go about things. I get 4 or 5 'guest post' proposals a day, but today brought a classic of the genre....
Who’d be a judge?
I've just been reading Ahmed and others v Mahmood and others [2013] EWHC 3176 (QB) (Lawtel only I think) and I'm totally confused. If anyone who was in the case can help, I'd be very grateful. The defendants lived in a property owned by the...
Accept no substitutes
P v Ealing Borough Council (2013) CA Civ Div 05/11/2013 [Not on Bailii yet. Note on Lawtel] This was Ealing's appeal from a s.204 appeal brought by Ms P. At the s.204 appeal, the Circuit Judge had varied Ealing's review decision that Ms P was...
Of Superglue and Residence
A prosecution under s.144 LASPO that came unstuck* R v D Duputell 31 October 2013 Hove Trial Centre [Newspaper report] This was the retrial of Mr Duputell after his earlier trial on charges of breach of s.144 LASPO together with two other...
Homelessness Appeals and Costs
This is a brief note on a recent High Court appeal dealing with the issue of costs on withdrawn s.204 appeals (Unichi v LB Southwark 16/10/13-from a Lawtel summary, not on Bailii). The Local Authority discharged its duty towards Ms U under...