For a while, behind the scenes, we here at Nearly Legal have been involved in the Free Legal Web project, managed by the redoubtable Nick Holmes of binary law. The aim of Free Legal Web is to: •Provide guidance on the law via a user-generated...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Reviews of Suitability and Discharge of Duty
Ravichandran & Anor v London Borough of Lewisham [2010] EWCA Civ 755 Or Omar v Birmingham City Council [2007] EWCA Civ 610 revisted. This was the Court of Appeal hearing of a second appeal from a s.204 Housing Act 1996 appeal at the County Court on...
Undue influence alive and well
Annulment Funding Company Ltd v Cowey and Cowlam [2010] EWCA Civ 711. We here at NL often joke that, if any of us were appointed to judicial office then we doubt that anyone would ever get possession orders from us; not only are we able to...
You know it when you see it
What is a house? Rather like the well-known elephant test, this point consistently comes before the higher courts - and many other great thinkers - and, in Day v Hosebay Ltd; Howard De Walden Estates Ltd v Lexgorge Ltd [2010] EWCA Civ 748, the...
You can never find an Austrian when you need one
National Westminster Bank Plc v Rushmer [2010] EWHC 554 (Ch) is a rather complex case involving enforcement of charging orders. I'm not going to deal with the full background, which is set out in the judgment and in this earlier case, I just wanted...
Ground 14A and Domestic Violence
The Court of Appeal has considered in detail the interpretation of ground 14A
Lets All Move to….Wales*
A small victory for the Welsh Assembly this week. They had been trying to get a Legislative Competence Order past Westminster to transfer a series of powers relating to social housing. This was lost in the sweeping up week prior to the dissolution...
An offer you can refuse*
*but it remains open. Not a housing post per se, but this case concerns Part 36 offers which are a vital tool in any disrepair or nuisance claim or counterclaim, so worth a brief note for practitioners. Gibbon v Manchester City Council [2010] EWCA...
The Monk habit
Lana Wilson v London Borough of Harrow [2010] EWHC 1574 (QB) This was the combined permission/appeal hearing in the High Court from a first instance hearing by a CJ of a defence to a possession claim based on an NTQ served by a joint tenant. The...
Housing Benefit limits
You've probably already seen this, but new upper limits on housing benefit rates are to be introduced from next April (2011). For a three bed house, the upper limit will be £340 per week For a four bed house, the upper limit will be £400 per week...
All mimsy were the borogoves
The Jabberwock of the tenancy deposit scheme came whiffling again, in the tulgey wood of Northampton County Court. This time it was the clause that catch to beware of. And there's a disrepair claim in there too. Paula O'Brien v Jacqueline Jones...
The quietus of the tolerated trespasser
Austin v London Borough of Southwark [2010] UKSC 28 It has been a long story for Mr Austin and a long, long, long story for the tolerated trespasser. But this Supreme Court judgment should be the last time the Supreme Court is troubled by the...