Readers might remember the case of LB Harrow v Ibrahim and another [2008] EWCA Civ 386 (noted by us here) where the Court of Appeal referred three questions to the ECJ concerning the rights of residents of family members of former Community workers. The...
Lost by translation
Ali v Birmingham City Council [2009] EWCA Civ 1279 (Original note from an Arden Chambers eflash pdf). Mr Ali, who is Somalian, applied as homeless to Birmingham. At interview he was noted as speaking and understanding English. he was given a leaflet in a...
Gordon Brown – the new Gladstone?
As we all know, William Gladstone walked the streets of London, even while Prime Minister (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94), seeking out fallen women to rescue, whether they wanted to be rescued or not. What Gladstone did when he accosted a prostitute was...
Accommodation pending review: Mohammed in action
R (Gebremarium) v City of Westminster [2009] EWHC 2254 (Admin) Thanks to the Garden Court housing bulletin for pointing to this one. We had to look around as the judgment is not yet available anywhere except casetrack. This was the permission hearing of an...
Changing Horses Midstream
Konodyba v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea [2009] EWCA Civ 890 was an appeal against a decision that Dr Konodyba was not entitled to housing assistance as she was subject to immigration control. It turned out to be a cautionary tale about getting rid...
HLPA Conference
The Housing Law Practitioners Association ("HLPA") host their annual conference on December 15, 2009 at the Royal College of Surgeons, London. Details have just been released (with more to follow later in September) and can be found at...
Contracting out homelessness reviews like the town hall catering contract
The Court of Appeal's judgment in Heald and others v LB Brent [2009] EWCA Civ 930 is just out concerning the outsourcing of s 202 Housing Act 1996 reviews by Brent to Minos Perdios' company Housing Reviews Ltd. There have been a number of County Court...
Addendum to Homelessness CoG…
DCLoG have put out supplementary guidance to local authorities on intentional homelessness in the context of applicants who face homelessness following difficulties with mortgage commitments. I suspect if you look hard enough, you'll find it, but it's not...
Not just suitable but properly so
Araya, R (on the application of) v Leeds City Council [2009] EWHC 1962 (Admin) S.188 Housing Act 1996 accommodation, provided pending s.184 decision or s.202 review of a negative s.184 decision, must be 'suitable'. This means that any accommodation to which...
Support and suitability
Abdullah v City of Westminster [2007] EWCA Civ 1566 is not a new case. In fact it is two years old, but the transcript of the Court of Appeal judgement has only just come out (and it isn't on Bailii). So we'll do a brief note. The case was a second appeal...
Not reasonable but suitable
Not for the first time, I (and I suspect others) have been completely wrong-footed by Baroness Hale. It would be fair to say that the House of Lords judgment in the joined appeals in Birmingham v Ali and Moran v Manchester [2009] UKHL 36 has come as...
House of Lords Newsflash
A full report on Birmingham v Ali and Moran v Manchester [2009] UKL 36 will follow in due course, but for those of you who simply can't wait for your fix of House of Lords homelessness judgments, the headline is that both appeals are allowed to limited...