As Dave has explained, the Supreme Court decision in Yemshaw v LB Hounslow brought the definition of violence in Housing Act 1996 into line with other statute and Government guidance, in particular with the accepted family law definition of...
All the blog posts, most recent first
The Supreme Court on iplayer
For those who can't get enough of "the brilliant Baroness", there is (on the BBC iplayer) a quite excellent programme about the operation of the Supreme Court. Baroness Hale is interviewed at length and, once again, demonstrates her enormous (but...
Fire, Fire!
A brief note to point out the Fire Safety (Protection of Tenants) Bill 2010-11, which is currently working through the House of Commons. This is Private Members Bill which had its first reading on 30 June 2010 (we were a bit slow picking it up,...
The brilliant Baroness
Yemshaw v Hounslow LBC [2011] UKSC 3 While my NL colleagues are off partying at a secret location for lunch, I've managed to steal a few precious minutes from an appallingly tight deadline (Sinead: if you're reading this, it'll be there, honest) to...
Apres moi le deluge
This may not be the first such announcement, but it is certainly the biggest to date. Birmingham Citizens Advice has had £600,00 per year of Local Authority funding cut. Unless alternative funding of £50,000 per month is found, it will close its...
Champerty Returns
Sibthorpe & Morris v LB Southwark [2011] EWCA Civ 25 Champerty and maintenance are two common law doctrines relating to the funding of civil claims. They were, at one time criminal offences, but now survive only as a matter of public policy....
A comedy of errors
Following on from David's sort of disrepair related post below, here is another one - not directly a disrepair matter but bearing on terms of settlement. It is either quite significant or something of a farce of bad drafting, bad decisions and...
Fake ID and ‘Just for Men’: High Ct Judges play ‘guess my age’
I suspect that - at some stage - many readers of this blog will have pretended to be older than they actually are, usually to obtain alcohol or to get into night-clubs for the purposes of obtaining more alcohol/meeting the opposite (or same) sex...
Get Set (Off)
Fearns (t/a "Autopaint International") v Anglo-Dutch Paint & Chemical Company Ltd & Ors [2010] EWHC 2366 (Ch) This case was mentioned in the most recent edition of Legal Action's Housing law update but it is not a housing case. Bear with...
Forcelux bound (a little bit)
London Borough of Hackney v Findlay [2011] EWCA Civ 8 This was the Court of Appeal hearing of an appeal on the issues raised in Forcelux v Binnie [2009] EWCA Civ 854 [Our report here], specifically the Court's ability to set aside a possession...
Request for information
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 contains various protections for leaseholders and assured tenants against unreasonable service charges (see, e.g. s.19, 1985 Act). By s.26, 1985 Act, tenancies granted by local authorities, National Park authorities...
Equality duty to be in force 6 April
The Government Equalities Office has announced that the Public Sector Equality Duty will be in force from 6 April 2011. The Equalities Office page has links to the following documents: Draft regulations on the specific duties; Draft order amending...