HA, R (On the Application Of) v London Borough of Ealing [2015] EWHC 2375 (Admin) This is, I think, a very significant case for all Councils who have or are considering setting residence requirements in their allocation policies. Like quite a few...
All the blog posts, most recent first
IT wasn’t
In Wandsworth LBC v Tompkins [2015] EWCA Civ 846, Wandsworth had purported to grant Mr and Mrs Tompkins an introductory tenancy of a property; only, as the Court of Appeal found, it wasn't an IT because it couldn't be. Mr and Mrs Tompkins had made...
New home
Apologies for any disruption you may have encountered in getting to the site over the last day. We have moved to a new server (again, courtesy of the lovely Tessa Shepperson of Landlordlaw, who very generously provides our hosting for free). The...
Human Rights Update
Zammit & Attard Cassar v Malta [2015] ECHR 751 This is the latest in the sequence of cases dealing with rent controls and breaches of A1P1 (previous note here). The property in this instance was let under a commercial lease and in 2002, the...
The Something Must Be Done Bill, Calais edition
The Rent Act 1957 introduced the requirement for a court order for eviction from a tenancy. That is 58 years of eviction without due process of law being unlawful. But no matter, for Something Must Be Done to deter people who have spent months on...
Not Bare Licencees
Spielplatz Ltd v Pearson & Anor [2015] EWCA Civ 804 It would be easy to make smutty jokes during this post…and be in no doubt that I will do so! However, that should not detract from what is a pretty key decision in the crucial question of...
Subjective suitability
Poshteh v Royal Borough of Kensington And Chelsea [2015] EWCA Civ 711 At issue in this second appeal from a s.204 appeal was whether it was reasonable for Ms Poshteh to have refused an offer of accommodation. Both parties agreed that the property...
Service charges, costs and the FTT(PC)
Service charge disputes in the FTT(PC)/LVT are generally regarded as a "no" or "low" costs proceedings. The Tribunals have very limited powers to award costs. In general terms, the FTT(PC) can award unlimited sums in respect of either wasted costs...
What a relief!
Although it is a commercial property case, Freifeld v West Kensington Court Ltd [2015] EWCA Civ 806, is of interest and relevance to residential landlord and tenant law as well, as the Court of Appeal grapple with the approach to be taken to...
S.21 and return of deposit.
Via Jonathan Starr of Switalskis Solicitors comes this account of a PRS possession/deposit case. The account is by Mr Starr, slightly edited. Although only a county court case, so non-binding, there are some interesting points about the return of...
Bedroom Tax and separated families – UT again
The Upper Tribunal has another go at the separated families issue in CH 0062 2015-00 and this time, unsurprisingly, shuts down completely the FTT dissenting position in a Middlesborough FTT decision, while upholding and amplifying MR v North...
Legal Aid Merits Test
With thanks to James Stark at Garden Court North for alerting me to this. From Monday (27.7.15) there is an important amendment to the Legal Aid merits test in S.I. 2015/1571. In short, "borderline" and "poor" cases are back in scope if it is...