It is not a housing case at all, but the opening paragraphs of Sir Alan Ward's Court of Appeal judgment in Wright v Michael Wright Supplies Ltd & Anor [2013] EWCA Civ 234 are a remarkable and powerful statement of the position that the Court...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Back in time*
I thought the landlord would lose Daejan v Benson, and, as you all know, the landlord won (see our note here). When NL flagged the next case up to me, I predicted the landlord would lose. And it won. Quite remarkably in my view, but, as is becoming...
Unclear judgment on unclear occupancy
London Borough of Brent v Tudor [2013] EWCA Civ 157 This was an appeal of a Circuit Judge's finding that LB Brent's possession claim under Ground 16, Schedule 2 Housing Act 1985 failed because the property was reasonably needed to accommodate those...
Phoenix from the flames
There was an interesting case-note on Lawtel this week which I suspect most of you saw. The case was LB Enfield v Phoenix and others, High Ct, March 19, 2013, and seemed to concern the circumstances in which a possession claim can properly be...
Tell me a storey
London Borough of Islington v The Unite Group Plc [2013] EWHC 508 (Admin) This is an interesting appeal in relation to the counting of storeys for HMO licensing purposes. It actually repeats an argument dealt with in an appeal in a criminal...
In the teeth of it …
In El-Dinnaoui v Westminster CC [2013] EWCA Civ 231, the Court of Appeal found that the offer of a flat on the 16th floor of a block to a household which contained a person with fear of heights was perverse. The offer of accommodation was "in the...
Article 8, Undue Influence and much, much more…
The recent case of Birmingham CC v Beech contains a wealth of legal issues but sadly for the Defendant, none of them was decided in her favour. Mrs Beech's parents had been joint tenants of a 3 bedroom property at 31 Tilshead Close, Birmingham...
A brief interlude: The gov.uk disaster
While my NL colleagues are reporting hard law and dealing with lots of important stuff, with so much more to come, I have but a mere puff to offer for a Friday afternoon. It's about the new government website to which departments, including DCLG,...
Bedroom Tax: Shifts, U-turns and rumours
Now that was a busy day on the Bedroom Tax front, complete with a parliamentary statement, new DWP Guidance to Local Authorities, rumours and conjecture. Let us start with the definite bits. The new Guidance on disabled children unable to share a...
Would you like ketchup with that hat?
Ok. Confession time. For the last year or so, I have been confidently predicting (often vocally and to unsuspecting passers-by) that the landlord would lose its appeal in Daejan Properties Ltd v Benson [2013] UKSC 14. Well, the landlord won.* And...
The Tolerated Trespasser Rides Again!
OK, so the title of this post may be an exaggeration of what is only a passing reference to an old friend in Fareham BC v Miller [2013] EWCA Civ 159. But it is interesting to see it used as part of the 'nuts and bolts' of an Article...
Catching up with the LVT
Sorry (both to readers* and the rest of the NL team) for the delay in getting these done. We've had a few Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) cases over the last few weeks and I've been rather less efficient than I had hoped. So, here goes. LB Southwark...