A few notes... As of 1 August 2021, the notice period for notices seeking possession on grounds of rent arrears for arrears of less than 4 months rent was reduced from 4 months notice to 2 months notice. Where arrears are of 4 months or more, the notice...
Pick the first landlord up
Rakusen v Jepson & Ors, Safer Renting Intervenor (2021) EWCA Civ 1150 This is the Court of Appeal judgment on an appeal from the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) appeal (our report here). It is of huge significance for Rent Repayment Order applications...
How to Rent and Easy Read – updates and issues.
Ah, the How to Rent Guide. Is there anything that would so predictably cause problems and yet has been so frequently messed up by MHCLG? The latest instalment of the saga goes like this. On 21 July 2021, MHLCG updated the 'How to Rent Guide' page. But...
Surrender to the churn – deposits and shared houses.
Sturgiss & Anor v Boddy & Ors (2021) EW Misc 10 (CC) It is, as HHJ Luba QC notes in this appeal judgment, far from an uncommon scenario. A group of people, say four of them for neatness, take a joint tenancy of a house or flat. (Neatness because the...
RROs – late payments, rent arrears and deposits considered by the Upper Tribunal
Kowalek v Hassanein Ltd (HOUSING - RENT REPAYMENT ORDER) (2021) UKUT 143 (LC) An Upper Tribunal appeal decision on a Rent Repayment Order decision that raised three issue. t"he treatment of payments made by a tenant after the landlord has stopped committing...
Committed to committal
Gunn & Launders v Khan (2020) EWCA Civ 1905 (Not on Bailii. Judgment on Westlaw. Only just come across it, via Legal Action) This was an appeal by the landlord, Saakib Khan, of an order sentencing him to six months imprisonment for contempt of court for...
Breathing Space for Wales? Extension of possession notices, restarting of eviction warrants and a new Hardship Grant
We are grateful to Mike Norman of Harrow Law Centre for this update on the position on possession notices and proceedings in Wales. In many ways the latest updating Welsh regulations dealing with possession notices, applying from 30th June 2021, are...
‘If you’re not too hot, we’re evicting you”
Last night, as housing law twitter (yes there is such a thing) did what it does, this tweet from @marieajparis definitely caught my attention https://twitter.com/marieajparis/status/1410593210628395011?s=21 (If you can't see the tweet, it says "My client...
A reasonable excuse defence to an RRO – ‘they told me they’d tell me’
D'Costa v D'Andrea & Ors (HOUSING - RENT REPAYMENT ORDERS - the defence of reasonable excuse) (2021) UKUT 144 (LC) An Upper Tribunal appeal of a rent repayment order. Ms D'Costa was the owner of a property in Tower Hamlets. In 2015, she let the property...
EPCs and pre 1 October 2015 tenancies
Minister v Hathaway & Anor (2021) EWCA Civ 936 A Court of Appeal judgment on the applicability of the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 to tenancies that pre-date 1 October 2015. The Hathaways had...
Smorgasbord: Updated s.21 flowchart, EPA prosecution costs and an unsuccessful RRO
Having realised a day late that the Section 21 validity flow chart needed updating to take into account the new 4 month notice period (and 8 month 'use it or lose it' period) for section 21 notices served on or after 1 June 2021 brought in by The Coronavirus...
Banning Order? Simples.
LB Camden v 1) Simple Properties Management Ltd 2) Mr MIguel Cabeo Cespedes LON/00BA/HBA/2020/0011 (not on Bailii yet. Copy of decision here.) A banning order! One of - if we are being honest - far too few to date (even taking into account the time lag for...