A short note to pass on some exciting news for West Country readers: if you were unaware (as I was until my very wonderful Head slapped the press release on my desk), the Administrative court starts in Bristol in the w/c 5th November 2012. I heard...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Let’s all move to … Wales
This is another one of our irregular posts on our theme of happenings in Wales; this time with an apology because it's all rather later than I had hoped and SO much is going on in Cardiff that they must be in a state of permanent combustion. ...
More on more on damages
Or Simmons v Castle round two Simmons v Castle [2012] EWCA Civ 1288 As you may know, the original Court of Appeal decision in Simmons v Castle on the 10% uplift in general damages (our report here) was revisited after representations by the ABI and...
More on ECtHR, Article 8 and the Private Sector
Hot on the heels of Buckland v UK follows a further decision of the ECtHR: Pelipenko v Russia, which is likely to add further weight to the Article 8/private sector debate. The case is distinctive for the State's shocking mishandling of the...
Get back in your box
There is, it is fair to say, a degree of inconsistency in the approach and practice of LVTs up and down the country. In particular, some LVT members seem to see it as part of their role to act as quasi-audit bodies, looking into all aspects of the...
Arrears, warrants and abuse of process
A report of a County Court mortgage possession case has reached us, in which the secured lender's behaviour resulted in a finding of abuse of process. The question was when (an if) an arrears payment had been received. Blemain Finance Ltd v Andrea...
Housing eligibility via a child?
Not sure how this one didn't make it on to the blog before... Back in March 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union gave judgment in Zambrano (C-34/09) [For a report on that judgment, see Free Movement, here] The upshot of Zambrano was...
Haigh, Squatting is Now Illegal
The Evening Standard is reporting the sentencing of the first person under the new anti-squatting provisions in the LASPO Act. Alex Haigh received 12 weeks in prison. Unfortunately Mr Haigh appeared to be unaware that squatting was now an offence...
New Practice Direction for s.204 appeals
The 59th update to the CPR comes into force on October 1, 2012 and, importantly, it brings in a raft of new practice directions for appeals. For we housing lawyers, page 81 of this document sets out the position for s.204 appeals. The appellant...
Article 8 and Possession
The ECtHR's recent decision in Buckland v UK [updated link to amended judgment 5 October 2012] demonstrates again how wonderfully delphic the subject of housing and Article 8 rights has become. In one sense, the outcome was fairly predictable...
The JP, the BBC trainee and the Unlawful Eviction
An unlawful eviction case with some unusual dramatis personae. Rebecca Claire Webb v Samina Amreen Birmingham County Court 31 August 2012 [Unreported elsewhere] Ms Webb was the assured shorthold tenant of Ms Amreen, for a 6 month term from...
Survivorship and succession
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council v Hickin [2012] UKSC 39 We reported this case in the Court of Appeal here. Briefly Ms Hickin was the daughter of joint tenants of Solihull and had lived in the house since she was born. The father moved out...