R(Carney) v Bolton-at-Home Limited [2012] EWHC 2553 (Admin) Did historic ASB by the daughter of a former evicted tenant allow the local authority to refuse to allow her accommodation in the same area? This was the issue in this judicial review of...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Lease variation in the LVT
2012 seems to be a bumper year for cases under s.37, Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. Having had (so far as I can tell) none in the previous 20-odd years, we've now had two. The first was covered by us here and the second has just been handed down by...
Where’s Wally?
The Where's Wally? books are surprisingly good fun. You spend hours pouring over a page (or pages) trying to find Wally as he hides in ever more obscure places. Reading Day v Hosebay Ltd; Howard de Walden v Lexgorge [2012] UKSC 41 did rather feel...
New Regulations 2 – Private Sector Suitability
The Government has today laid The Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2012 SI 2012 No. 2601. It comes into force on 9 November 2012 This sets out the issues for determining suitability (or the lack thereof) of accommodation...
New Regulations 1 – ‘Zambrano’ eligibility
In response to Zambrano (C-34/09) the Government has laid new regulations today, to come into force on 9 8 November 2012. The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) (Amendment) Regulations...
Housing Ombudsman consultation
One of the less well-remarked upon changes in the Localism Act 2010 was a set of radical changes to the role of the Housing Ombudsman (the current incumbent being the lovely Mike Biles). In short, the HO takes over jurisdiction for local authority...
Go West
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...
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...