A sad county court case that raises questions over the way in which some housing associations approach ground 8 possession claims and evictions. Christian Action (Enfield) Housing Association Ltd v L Walters, Edmonton County Court, 7 December 2015 (Not...
Bedroom tax updates
Assorted bedroom tax related items, while we wait for the Supreme Court to hear MA & Ors... In case number CH_2391_2015, the Upper Tribunal has ruled that an annual re-rating of housing benefit entitlement is a fresh decision each time, capable of being...
Disrepair miscellany: Good, bad and ugly.
Perhaps illustrating the need for the Court of Appeal to deliver the judgment in Moorjani (see preceding post), the December 2015 issue of Legal Action has Beatrice Prevatt's excellent annual 'housing repairs update'. We have covered many of the cases...
Eviction and High Court Enforcement
A couple of recent cases have highlighted the issues involved in transferring County Court possession orders to the High Court for enforcement by High Court Enforcement Officers. This is done by landlords, by and large, to bypass the wait for a county court...
Closure, possession and legal representation
Courtesy of Jim Shepherd of Doughty Street Chambers comes this account of a county court appeal of a Ground 7A possession claim, following a closure order. The appeal of the possession order was partly on the basis that the Defendant could not get legal aid...
Bedroom tax and landlord’s bedroom count – UT again
The Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals) seems to have taken an opportunity to re-state, in clear terms, one of the findings of SSWP v David Nelson and Fife Council [2014] UKUT 0525 (AAC) [Our report here]. The key issue was the extent to which the...
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 whether a...
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 Tyneside. In...
A home without a household
With thanks to Joe Halewood, comes news of this very interesting First Tier Tribunal bedroom tax appeal. In MR v North Tyneside Council and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Housing and council tax benefits : other) [2015] UKUT 34 (AAC) [Our report],...
A blind eye to Nelson
A couple of bedroom tax decisions, one Upper Tribunal, one FTT, both of which involve findings for the tenant in the landscape after the Upper Tribunal decision in Nelson (SSWP v David Nelson and Fife Council, SSWP v James Nelson and Fife Council [2014] UKUT...
Protocol Problems
Now that the new pre-action protocols are sort of available, and have been in force since 6 April 2015 even when they were not available, people are having a look at them. And coming up with some issues. The new Pre-action Protocol for Possession Claims by...
Discretionary Housing Payments – the trouble with DLA.
Hardy, R (on the application of) v Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council [2015] EWHC 890 Oh, we have been waiting for this one. According to DWP survey evidence, some 75% of Councils take Disability Living Allowance into account as income when deciding on an...