Assorted things of note. The closing date for applications for the Tower Hamlets Law Centre Housing Solicitor post has been extended to 11 March 2015. Southend have been refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in Southend v Amour (our...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Qualification criteria and allocations: An outlier?
In R(Hillsden) v Epping Forest DC [2015] EWHC 98 (Admin), McCloskey J held the council's allocation scheme valid in circumstances which, I must say, did not seem propitious to the council. The council's new allocation scheme, which came in to...
Is there a maximum award for general damages arising under contract?
The case of Rendlesham Estates Plc v Barr Ltd [2014] EWHC 3968 (TCC) is a bit off the housing law beaten track and as a result I have only recently got round to reading it properly. It concerned s.1, Defective Premises Act 1974, which is the...
Asking for relief
This is a housing case, but the procedural issue in this decision is only tangentially related to that. Nonetheless, it is a matter worth noting. Cutler v Barnet LBC [2014] EWHC 4445 (QB) [Not on Bailii yet, we've seen a transcript]. Ms C had been...
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10
This was a judicial review of LB Enfield's plans for borough wide additional HMO licensing and selective licensing of all PRS properties. It did not go well for Enfield, who appear to have not quite grasped the consultation requirements. Regas, R...
Conscious Re-coupling and Succession
In R (Turley) v LB Wandsworth , the Claimant was the partner of the late Mr Doyle, who was the secure tenant of a property at Battersea Park Rd, London, SW8 from 1995 until his death on 17/3/2012. Mr D and Ms T had 4 children together and they...
Suspending belief
We have dealt with the basic facts in Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd [2014] UKSC 52 when considering its previous incarnations (Cooke v Mortgage Business [2012] EWCA Civ 17 and Re North East Property Buyers Ltd [2010] EWHC 2991 (Ch)). In...
How much?! Damages for unlawfully evicted secure tenants
Loveridge v London Borough of Lambeth [2014] UKSC 65 So, if a local authority unlawfully evicts a secure tenant (and yes, it happens) what should the measure of damages be? Under s.27 and s.28 Housing Act 1988, damages fall to be assessed under a...
Southwark: Not appealing
It is not unknown for losing parties in a case to not be happy, indeed very upset. There are two basic options. To shut up and put up with it, or appeal. Rather unusually, faced with one of the most coruscating High Court judgments I can recall, in...
Former relevant children who aren’t former relevant children
This is a quick note on a quite important case concerning duties owed to young people who are over 18 and who should have been, but in fact were not, provided with accommodation under s.20, Children Act 1989 prior to their 18th birthday. You may...
The Long and Winding Road
The facts in Nzolameso v Westminster CC are pretty unremarkable, but the effects of the Court of Appeal's judgement are likely to reverberate through every new homelessness application, especially in the London area. Ms N is a parent of five...
Separated families and bedroom tax
Cotton & Ors, R (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Ors [2014] EWHC 3437 (Admin) This was the Liberty backed judicial review of the bedroom tax regulations on the basis that the regulations amounted to an...