R (on the Application of Omar) v Wandsworth LBC, (2015) QBD (Admin) (Ouseley J) 11/11/2015 (not on Bailii yet, note of extempore judgment on Lawtel). A tantalising lawtel note on what appears to be the first higher court decision on vulnerability...
All the blog posts, most recent first
Who got the dogs out?
Moosun, & Ors v HSBC Bank Plc (t/a First Direct) [2015] EWHC 3308 (Ch) This was a part - surely now the end part - of a long running saga of a mortgage possession and sale. The novel (if unsurprising) point of law concerned the 'Ors' in this...
Eviction and High Court Enforcement
A couple of recent cases have highlighted the issues involved in transferring County Court possession orders to the High Court for enforcement by High Court Enforcement Officers. This is done by landlords, by and large, to bypass the wait for a...
Cities behaving badly and other bits
A remarkable note on the Community Law Partnership site sets out what may possibly amount to a mass unlawful eviction of secure tenants by Birmingham City Council. Birmingham CC have been using High Court Sheriffs for evicting secure tenants after...
Over egging it.
NJ Rickard Ltd -v- Holloway (CA 03/11/2015) (Lawtel note of extempore judgment only so far) Sometimes winning isn't enough... A cautionary tale, in all sorts of ways. This was a Court of Appeal hearing on an appeal on costs. The original case was...
Human Rights and Homelessness Update
It is hard to believe that nearly 6 years have elapsed since the Supreme Court heard the appeals in Ali and others v Birmingham CC (our note here), where the Court decided that a decision on a homelessness application involving a dispute of fact...
Affordability and intentionality – adding it up
Samuels v Birmingham City Council [ 2015 ] EWCA Civ 1051 A second appeal from a s.204 County Court appeal that addressed the council's decision-making on whether the property from which Ms Samuels had become homeless was affordable (and thus,...
You Didn’t Tell Me or How Ignorance of the Law is no Defence
Thanet DC v Grant LTL 2/11/2015 EXTEMPORE (only on Lawtel) This case deals with a small point relating to HMO licensing and prosecutions. It is only on Lawtel as an extempore judgement but is a pretty clear statement of the law. When making an HMO...
Wales – it’s just more appealing
Clarise Properties Ltd v Rees [2015] EWCA Civ 1118 (Lawtel/Westlaw only from what I can see) is an interesting* permission to appeal decision. It appears that devolution has caused an odd little difference in the test for permission to appeal from...
Look inside Westminster
In which the Nearly Legal team gain exclusive access to a (highly) fictionalised account of one man’s inside view of legislation currently going through Parliament, insofar as it relates to housing *** Morley Peckwitch, Member of Parliament for...
Closure, possession and legal representation
Courtesy of Jim Shepherd of Doughty Street Chambers comes this account of a county court appeal of a Ground 7A possession claim, following a closure order. The appeal of the possession order was partly on the basis that the Defendant could not get...
When is a deposit repaid?
Our thanks to Bahareh Amani-Kholsari of SSP Law for this interesting County Court possession/deposit case. As per s.215(2A), if a deposit was not protected in the required time, no s.21 notice can be served until the deposit has been returned to...