Roberts v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2025) EWHC 51 (Admin) A quick note on this judicial review of DWP policies on implementing 'diversionary' payments (direct payments of rent element of Universal Credit to landlords) and 'recoupment'...
Service of documents – post and deemed service
D’Aubigny v Khan & Anor (2025) EWCA Civ 11 (Not on Bailii yet, a copy of the judgment is here.) We saw this case in the County Court. This is the Court of Appeal judgment. The central issue was whether service by post of a gas safety certificate, EPC and...
New year clear out
A pile of case notes that I've managed to do in the Betwixtmas/Merrineum, hopefully clearing the decks for the new year. It includes right to buy and the intention to return, FTT jurisdiction on rent increases, a council's unlawful interpretation of an...
Ealing comedy. Getting statutory nuisance very wrong
Ferko v Ealing Magistrates Court & Ors (2024) EWHC 2592 (Admin) This was an appeal by case stated to the High Court from a decision of Ealing Magistrates Court on a statutory nuisance/section 82 Environmental Protection Act 1990 prosecution. It is also a...
Orders for forced entry after injunction
Sovereign Housing Association Limited v Hall. Bristol County Court. 10 July 2024 (Unreported. A copy of the judgment is here.) This was a County Court appeal from a first instance decision by a District Judge that the Court did not have jurisdiction under...
Fees before the Tenant Fees Act, after the Tenant Fees Act.
Martyna Switaj v Adrian McClenaghan (2024) EWCA Civ 1457 The Court of Appeal on the status of a fee related to a tenancy taken before the Tenant Fees Act 2019 came into force on 1 June 2019 and the impact on the validity of a section 21 notice. Ms Switaj had...
Assorted notes on bits of interest
Various bits of interest... On 21 November, the Housing Minister Matt Pennycook released a written statement on the Government's plans on Leasehold and Commonhold reform, with an outline timetable. Points to note are that regulations implementing key parts...
Yes, you are the landlord – Rent Repayment Orders and undisclosed principals
Cabo v Dezotti (2024) EWCA Civ 1358 We've seen this rent repayment order case in both the FTT (here) and the Upper Tribunal (here). It appears that Ms Cabo was not prepared to accept that she had to pay a rent repayment order and this is her appeal to the...
Rent determinations – Appeals
A note on a couple of Upper Tribunal appeals of FTT determinations of rent - because there may be more of these applications and determinations when the Renters' Rights Bill comes into force... Kensington Avenue Ltd v Curlin (LANDLORD AND TENANT - RENT...
What’s another day?
Moh & Ors v Rimal Properties Ltd (2024) UKUT 324 (LC) An appeal from two rent repayment order applications, in both of which the FTT had decided it had no jurisdiction to make a rent repayment order because the applications were made outside the...
Section 21 and Gas Safety Certificates – what’s in a name?
Barakzai and Barakzai v Fenech and Fenech (19th September 2024, District Judge Jenkins, Brentford County Court). (Unreported) Our thanks to Tom Morris of Landmark Chambers, Richard Mahal and Jacqueline Hovell of Duncan Lewis for the note of this judgment....
The meaning of unfitness
Our grateful thanks to George Murray of Liverpool Civil Law and Laura Walsh at Satchell Moran for a copy of this judgment. Jillians v Red Kite Community Housing. County Court at Oxford. 24 September 2024 (unreported - the Judgment is here) This is a Circuit...