It started as such a simple idea, the tenancy deposit regulations. But bad drafting and some 'interesting' interpretations by the Courts put paid to that. We now have a confusing mess, for both landlords and tenants. So, in a spirit of helpfulness...
Via Jonathan Starr of Switalskis Solicitors comes this account of a PRS possession/deposit case. The account is by Mr Starr, slightly edited. Although only a county court case, so non-binding, there are some interesting points about the return of...
Khuja v Chowdhury [2015] EW Misc B18 (CC) A County Court deposit protection case, and an illustration of some of the ways in which landlords still haven't figured out how the deposit rules work. Ms C was the assured shorthold tenant of Mr K,...
Okadigbo & Anor v Chan & Anor [2014] EWHC 4729 (QB) When awarding a penalty for breach of the Section 213 Housing Act 204 requirements for tenancy deposits, the court has a discretion over the amount of penalty under section 214 "(4) ...
With the relevant parts of the Deregulation Act 2015 having come into force on 26 March 2015, time for a quick outline of what the changes mean for deposit protection and section 21 notices. Deposit taken pre 6 April 2007 which became statutory...
I recently found myself reading and writing about the Court of Appeal judgement in Edwards v Kurasamy (our report here). Doing so made me think about the recent spate of judgements given by Lewison LJ that have touched on the private rental sector....
With grateful thanks to Jan Luba QC and HHJ Madge's housing update in the December 2014/January 2015 Legal Action, here are a few recent County Court cases on unlawful eviction and harassment. Alabbas v Uppelle. Leicester County Court, 8 October...
A very brief note to point up the slightly less than earth shattering Housing (Tenancy Deposits) (Specified Interest Rate) (Revocation) (England) Order 2015. This comes into force on 4 February 2015 in England only and revokes the equally...
Charalambous & Anor v Maureen Rosairie Ng & Anor [2014] EWCA Civ 1604 The Court of Appeal has again thrown the cat among the tenancy deposit protection pigeons. In Charalambous it had to grapple with the, admittedly fairly rare scenario, of...
A few bits. There are four new FTT bedroom tax decisions on the FTT page, including one from Manchester where subsidence was classed as a 'natural catastrophe' for the purposes of continuity of property for the 1996 exemption. There are two room...
A series of tweets gathered under the hashtag #LDNlandlord today (Thursday 15 May) offered an insight (if one were needed) into the state of the London private rental market. For the housing lawyer, it was also a opportunity to play claim/offence...
As we noted when writing up Superstrike Ltd v Rodrigues [2013] EWCA Civ 669 (see our note, here), the case left open an interesting - and important - question. If a fixed term has expired and a statutory periodic tenancy arisen, do the requirements...