Birmingham CC v Ashton is a case which illustrates the difficulty that judges face when they are invited to make possession orders on the grounds of nuisance and anti-social behaviour against tenants with mental health problems. The Council relied...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Cold and wet… Disrepair quantum
Courtesy of Beatrice Prevatt's disrepair update in the December 2012 Legal Action, here are a couple of County Court disrepair cases. Both proving the general rule which we have previously noted, that it is only the least competent of private...
Consultations, bills and mysterious advisors
A bit of a miscellany, with Government skullduggery and posturing galore. First up, Grayling's MoJ has announced a consultation into revising the rules on Judicial Review. Broadly, he is against it. Responses are due by 24 January 2013, so a busy...
Relationship breakdown and intentional homelessness
Amanda Carthew v Exeter County Council (2012) CA (Civ Div) 4 December 2012 [Not on Bailii, on lawtel only as a note - if anyone has more information or a transcript of judgment, we'd be very grateful...] Where a homeless applicant had previously...
Leases, repairs and ‘errors’
For long leases, outside the provisions of s.11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the repairing obligation of the landlord is limited to the exact terms set out in the lease, as is the extent to which the landlord can recover the costs of repairs from...
Nothing to see here
Just two short notes on recent UT(LC) cases that I was asked to cover. They're pretty unimportant in the scheme of things, but we do try to be comprehensive. In Freehold Managers (Nominees) Ltd v Piatti [2012] UKUT 241 (LC), the issue was the...
Welcome to the Property Chamber
Fun and games awaits us on May 1, 2013. You may remember that the government has previously announced plans to merge a range of property-related tribunals (LVT, RAC, etc) into the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (see our notes here and...
Deposit scheme – a new wheeze
So, I gave a talk on the deposit scheme post Localism Act on Tuesday morning, then surface to immediately find word of a new wheeze being tried by landlords. Just how quickly can one become outdated? The Housing Act 2004 as amended by the Localism...
Give Me Back My Money
We bring you two interesting reports from the world of Rent Repayment Orders. Briefly, these stem from a power under s73 and 74 of the Housing Act 2004. These sections allow a Residential Property Tribunal to award a tenant or local authority the...
Disputed facts, s.204 appeals and Article 6 to the ECtHR?
You may recall Ms Ali of Ali & Ibrahim v Birmingham CC (heard in the Supreme Court as Tomlinson & Ors v Birmingham City Council [2010] UKSC 8 (our report here) The issue in Ms Ali's case was a dispute of fact about whether an offer of...
Housing Law Conference 2012
11 December 2012 – The Royal College of Surgeons, London Yes, it is time for the annual HLPA Housing Law conference. We advertise it (for free) because it is good and some of us are involved with it. A number of the NL team will be there, looking...
A makeover…
After much swearing, faffing and fiddling with the placement of semi colons in the underlying code of the site, the new look blog is here. It is hopefully cleaner and easier to read, while keeping all of the functions of the old site. It should...