Some bits and pieces from the last week that didn't quite fit in elsewhere. First - developments in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. At the committee stage a large number of amendments were tabled, both by the Government...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Some footnotes: Helden v Strathmore
Helden v Strathmore [2011] EWCA Civ 542 contains lots of useful footnotes and pointers on different issues, so it's worth a read. In this note, I'm going to focus on two such footnotes, which have a bearing on issues with which it's fair to say...
Helpful Housing Hints
Two, quite distinct, bodies have put out some free guides. The DCLG have released some booklets aimed at private landlords and tenants, giving guidance on requirements and best practice: Top Tips for Tenants: Assured Shorthold Tenancies Top Tips...
Three for the LVT mavens
I promised to write the second of these case reports a week ago. Mea culpa. Still, by delaying, I've managed to find two other cases to include. So, without further ado... Ayres and others v Roberts and others In All's Well That Ends Well (Act.1,...
Sinking feeling
I'm afraid that this is beyond parody, but couldn't go unremarked. Anyway, it is a quiet time for judgments. Today the National Housing Federation took the view that housing provision in the UK, or England at least, is basically demented, with...
Ain’t no Cicero
This, the second post on the riot related possession proposals (the first is here), looks at an article published on the ConservativeHome website by Jake Berry MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Grant Shapps, and Tory MP for the gritty urban...
Losing localism
Or, more accurately 'locality'. Sorry if that got anyone excited over nothing. As has been widely announced, the DCLG consultation on introducing a mandatory ground for possession on grounds of conviction for a housing related ASB offence etc,...
Starter tenancy: proportionality ‘just about arguable’
West Kent Housing Association v Haycraft [2011] EWCA Civ 992 (Not on Bailii. We've seen a transcript) This was a renewed application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal on a second (or perhaps first- see below) appeal from the granting...
Wandsworth: headed for the naughty step?
As is now pretty well known (and as I noted in the comments below this post) Wandsworth Council apparently made a bid to bring the first riot related possession proceedings. There are some things about Wandsworth's behaviour that should be pointed...
Unaccompanied Service Charge demands
Tingdene Holiday Parks Ltd v Cox and others [2011] UKUT 310 (LC) By s.21B, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a demand for the payment of service charges must be "accompanied" by a summary of rights and obligations of tenants in relation to the same....
‘Not otherwise available’
SL v Westminster City Council & Ors [2011] EWCA Civ 954 This is a significant judgment by the Court of Appeal on the ambit of s.21(1)(a) National Assistance Act 1948. It addresses the interrelation of 'care and attention' and the provision of...
That’s not the way to do it
Zolotareva v Russia (App. No. 15003/04) With a hat-tip to the Garden Court bulletin, here is a decision of the European Court of Human Rights on the enforcement of an eviction. Ms Zolotareva lived in a municipally owned flat with her son,...