MA & Ors, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2016] UKSC 58 R (on the application of Carmichael and Rourke) (formerly known as MA and others) (Appellants) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Respondent) R (on...
Questions and Answers
O, R (on the application of) v London Borough of Lambeth [2016] EWHC 937 (Admin) A judicial review of a decision on a s.17 Children Act 1989 assessment of a homeless, non-eligible family. The issues were the extent of investigations required, and legitimate...
Misc on taxes – council and bedroom
Some notes on council tax liability and bedroom tax Upper Tribunal cases. Council tax - how do you go about setting aside and/or appealing a council tax liability order? It turns out to be far from straightforward (you might already have known this. I...
Foxtons declare war on the homeless
The London Evening Standard has a story which is simultaneously unsurprising yet startling in its blatancy. A landlord had entered an agreement to let the property through CityWest Homes - Westminster Council's housing entity. This was the private letting...
Corrections, omissions, blusters
Several notes/rantlets* There will be a new prescribed Section 8 Notice Seeking Possession in force from 6 April 2016. The regulations and new form 3 can be found here. This is a prescribed form, so must be used. A 'where we are now' story on homelessness...
Preferring Burnip: Discrimination without justification
Rutherford & Ors, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions [2016] EWCA Civ 29 The Court of Appeal tackles the bedroom tax and discrimination again, and, a year on from MA & Ors, there is quite a difference. The two...
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...
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...
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...
CA to hear bedroom tax appeals this year
The CA is to hear bedroom tax appeals in A (the DV sanctuary appeal - our note here) and SR (where a minor requires overnight care - our note here) next term. A had been stayed pending the UKSC appeal in MA. However, Underhill LJ and Sir Stanley Burnton...
An inconvenient problem
This is not a usual blog post. I was asked to do an analysis of the proposed £23,000 pa benefit cap, its impact on housing, homelessness and the legal position, with a focus on London, for use elsewhere and for a purpose which shall remain nameless. But I...
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],...