The Homes (Fitness for Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill passed second reading on 19 January, with a unanimous vote. The debate (interrupted by a Ministerial statement) is here and here. Because I can’t resist, here are Karen Buck’s closing remarks and the vote. (Out of shot – me being ecstatic in the gallery) […]
Category Archives: Disrepair
All disrepair related posts
Fitness for Habitation – now with Govt support.
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 Bill are here and here). The published Bill for Second […]
Time to contact your MP – Homes Fit For Habitation
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 rare for private bills to become law, mostly because of […]
Closing the Gaps – the failure of the law on health & safety at home
Three months ago we wrote about a research project and report on housing and health and safety law being carried out for Shelter by legal academics from the Universities of Kent and Bristol. Now the report has been completed. The report is here and summary here. It is a fine piece of work, highlighting with […]
Fitness for Habitation 2.0 – Q&A and call to arms
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 voted down as an amendment to the Housing and Planning […]
Legal Aid: Rights, wrongs and the Lord Chancellor
I wrote at some length about legal aid, tenants rights and Grenfell Tower here (the third of the ‘myths’). Sara Stephens (my esteemed colleague – full disclosure) also explained the situation in a Legal Voice article here. But still it rumbles on, including from two people who really should know better, as quoted in this […]
Perception of doors*
Southwark Council v Various Lessees of the St Saviours Estate [2017] UKUT 10 (LC) (Full disclosure – my firm acted for the Lessees). The issue in this Upper Tribunal case was whether LB Southwark was entitled charge the leaseholders for works to replace communal doors and front entrance doors carried out during fire safety improvement […]
Tales of the private sector
A collation of cases and stories from the private sector, and a series of reminders that a database of rogue landlords, and indeed banning orders, can’t come soon enough. In Sheffield, John Cashin was convicted of 56 offences involving HMO management, failure to provide information, failure to licence and property conditions: Five properties, on Abbeydale […]
Works and quiet enjoyment
Timothy Taylor Ltd v Mayfair House Corporation & Anor [2016] EWHC 1075 (Ch) I’m very late with this one – been in the ‘to do’ pile for ages. In mitigation, it is a commercial property case, but has interesting elements on the way in which building works may be reasonably carried out. Timothy Taylor ran […]
Please sir, can I have some more?
This is really a costs issue, though it was on a leasehold disrepair claim. A county court decision, so not binding, but as we’ll see, consonant with a High Court decision and on an issue on which there appears to be some debate. This was an application hearing at Oxford County Court on 7 September […]
