The Queen on the Application of Fokou v London Borough of Southwark (2022) EWHC 1452 (Admin) (not on Bailii, judgment on Westlaw) THis was an application for interim relief in judicial review proceedings regarding suitability of accommodation and...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Assorted notes: joint tenancies, RROs – rent arrears and late evidence, and disrepair damages periods
Pile v Pile (2022) EWHC 2036 (Ch) The High Court confirms that Procter v Procter (2022) EWHC 1202 (Ch) is authority for the proposition that it is not a breach of trust for one joint tenant to give notice to quit on the joint tenancy, even where...
Homelessness updates
Abdikadir v London Borough of Ealing (2022) EWCA Civ 979 Where an offer of out of borough accommodation had been made and refused, and a discharge of duty upheld on review, did the council's failure to notify the other council under section 208(2)...
Rabbit holes to fall down
In case you are in need of distraction from the heat/the tory leadership contest/getting your first, second or third bout of covid/the general state of all things, may I present a small collection of judgments at which to rubberneck. None seem...
Everyone in – Lambeth lacking a policy
R(Cort) v London Borough of Lambeth (2022) EWHC 1085 (Admin) While in some ways this is a decision on an historic context (hopefully), there is a lot in this judgment on local authority approaches to housing in a public health emergency to...
We don’t need no tariffs
Khan v Mehmood (2022) EWCA Civ 791 (Housing Law Practitioners Association intervening) This was, it has to be said, in part a rather odd appeal to the Court of Appeal. The background was a rent arrears possession claim by Ms Khan and a defence and...
Management transfers and public functions: R(TRX) v Network Homes
This judicial review of R(TRX) v Network Homes (2022) EWHC 456 (Admin) CO/3538/2021 is a useful restatement of the principles which apply in determining when decisions of Private Registered Providers of social housing (Housing Associations) can be...
Unlawful eviction – but landlord not liable
Brem v Murray & Marchant (2022) EWHC 1479 (QB) An appeal judgment from a first instance judgment on a claim for unlawful eviction, which deals with the landlord's liability for the unlawful eviction that had taken place. Mr Brem ran a...
Freezing Houses
Still lots of cases and other things to write up, now including an appeal decision on liability for unlawful eviction damages by an intermediate landlord where the superior landlord illegally evicted the sub-tenant, and tomorrow (or today,...
A deliberate act needs options to choose between.
Milton Laines Roman (R OAO) v London Borough of Southwark (2022) EWHC 1232 (Admin) This was a judicial review of LB Southwark's refusal to place the claimant in Band 1 of its Allocation Scheme, on the basis that the claimant's current overcrowding...
Unravelling – the effect of a debt moratorium on enforcement steps taken during it.
Lees v Kaye (2022) EWHC 1151 (QB) This is another judgment on the operation of the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England & Wales) Regulations 2020. (The first was part of the Brake v...
Notes and gloats.
It is being reported that reform of the private rented sector, including the abolition of section 21, will be in the next Queen's Speech. It may not be a renters reform bill but part of a larger 'levelling up' bill, which does make one wonder about...