With thanks to Christopher Stockdale at John Barkers of Grimsby, we have had news of another Shorthold Assured Tenancy deposit case, Piggott v Slaven, Great Grimsby County Court 23 February 2009. This one is of particular interest as the issue at stake was...
Not another review …
Yes, it's true, another review has been published, this time of the regulation and redress in the UK housing market. And yes, if you're wondering, this was what the Law Commission did in their Issues paper on proportionate dispute resolution and further...
Deposits – the mandatory award again
As noted by Tessa at Landlord Law, the current (January 09) Legal Action housing updates includes a tenancy deposit case which further muddies the waters. Ferguson v Jones, Birmingham County Court 5 Nov 2008 concerned an assured shorthold tenancy. Ms Jones...
HMO licensing actually working?
Thanks to Tessa at landlordlaw for pointing me to this news snippet from Liverpool, in which the HMO licensing scheme is not only enforced, but the Local Authority aids the tenants, Following conviction of the landlords, Raymond Whalley, and Ray Whalley Ltd,...
Retaliatory Eviction Campaign
As many readers will know, Debbie Crew has been conducting a campaign about retaliatory evictions - typically in private tenancies where a tenant has complained about conditions in the property and got Environmental Health in, and the landlord promptly...
Deposits – another County Court decision
Tessa Shepperson at Landlord Law has a report from a landlord's solicitor on another tenancy deposit case in the County Court, this time Bedford County Court. In short, the Court found that payment of the deposit and provision of the required information by...
Trying to avoid Council Tax liability by not being a tenant
In what might be described as an audacious, or perhaps foolhardy, appeal from the Valuation Tribunal, Mr Jackson sought to challenge his liability to pay Council Tax in Jackson v Cambridge City Council [2008] EWHC 2529 (Admin). Normally, this wouldn't...
New PRS Report
Ok, I'm angry again. It's really out of character as I'm usually very mild mannered. Here's a question: what do you do if you've paid a group of people over around 10 years to come up with a series of proposals to regulate renting relationships (ie the Law...
Second time around
Truro Diocesan Board of Finance Ltd v Foley [2008] EWCA Civ 1162 In March 1987 Mr Foley became the tenant of a property owned by the predecessor in title of the Board. In 2000, the Board sought possession of the property. They contended that Mr Foley was a...
On the Naughty Step
Very firmly esconsed on the step are Sutton Estates, managing agents on Merseyside. These charmers came up with the idea of putting notice boards outside the homes of tenants in rent arrears, proclaiming it to be the home of a 'rent dodger'. Sutton Estates...
Stadium Housing to Appeal
Regular readers of this blog will have read our comments on (in our view) a fairly poor example of service charge management by an RSL, entitled On the Naughty Step. To my surprise the RSL in question — Stadium Housing — have decided to appeal the decision....
On the Naughty Step
Or an RSL behaving badly, again. And this time it's personal... 21 Press House, Press Road LON/00AE/LSC/2007/0292 [pdf], an LVT decision. The landlord, Stadium Housing Association, were facing an application over hefty service charges made on an shorthold...