I am delighted, and delighted for Karen Buck MP, to be able to say that her Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill now has government support as well as that of the Labour opposition. (Previous posts on the then draft...
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council v RH and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2017) UKUT 471 (AAC) A very interesting (and perhaps surprising) Upper Tribunal 3 judge decision on the issue of 'what is a bedroom' for the purposes of Housing Benefit...
As I may have reminded you once or twice already (and no doubt will again), the second reading of Karen Buck MP's Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill is on 19 January 2018. This is a private members bill. It is very...
(Updated 26/10/2017 - at the bottom) Access to justice is one thing. Actually being able to find it another. This is the sorry, sad, truly pathetic tale of the fall out of the closure of Lambeth County Court. I'm sorry for length, but hell, it has been a...
If you haven't already heard, Karen Buck MP got fourth place in the 2017 ballot for private members bills. And she has taken this opportunity to bring forward a new version of the 'Fitness for Habitation' Bill that was filibustered in 2015 (and then was...
Poplar Housing & Regeneration Community Association Ltd v Begum & Ors [2017] EWHC 2040 (QB) We are no fans of illegal subletting of social housing here at NL. So here is an appeal by the landlord of a county court decision to grant a suspended...
Following the judgment in Cardiff City Council v Lee (2016) EWCA Civ 1034 (our report) and the subsequent appearance of new forms, at least for rent arrears suspended possession order cases, the Civil Procedure Rules Committee is having a consultation on...
DA & Ors, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2017) EWHC 1446 (Admin) This was the judicial review of the 'reduced' benefit cap - £20,000 pa outside London, £23,000 in London, brought by claimants who were all single...
A few things... In case you didn't see it through email or social media, I wrote a long piece about social housing in the aftermath of Grenfell Tower, which is on a separate page at that link. In Scotland, the Inner House of the Court of Session heard an...
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Carmichael and Sefton BC (HB) [2017] UKUT 0174 (AAC) Oh my. This was the DWP's appeal to the Upper Tribunal of the First Tier Tribunal's decision on the Carmichael's bedroom tax appeal (our report here). It was...
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Ltd v Izevbigie (2017) EWHC 790 (CH) (not on Bailii yet, Judgment is here) Rochdale BH is a social housing provider (of what was the council's housing stock). The issue in this case - heard as a preliminary issue - was whether...
The ramifications of Jones v London Borough of Southwark (2016) EWHC 457 (Ch) (our report) rumble on. Following the finding that Southwark were a water reseller for the purposes of The Water Resale Order 2006 in adding water rates to the tenants' rent, it is...