Just a note. Comments to follow, asap. Court of Appeal: Wandsworth v Randall [2007] EWCA Civ 1126 Succession and possession for under-occupation. London Borough of Southwark v Dennett [2007] EWCA Civ 1091 Right to Buy, Delay and Misfeasance in Public Office...
Overcrowding and homelessness
Right then, Harouki v Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea [2007] EWCA Civ 1000. The scene in a nutshell. A statutorily overcrowded household, in terms of Part 10 of the Housing Act 1985, s.326, which gives rise to a criminal offence under s.327 A homeless...
Busy, Busy, Busy
I'm flat out at the moment. Even my usual posting windows of a Saturday or Sunday have seen me either too tired or working to manage a post. So all I can manage is to point to two cases for Housing people's attention, to which I will return when I have time....
Homelessness and Ex Parte Injunctions – a warning
Mr Justice Munby has issued a stern statement on the use and abuse of ex-parte injunction applications to the Administrative Court in R (Lawer) v Restormel Borough Council [2007] EWHC 2299 (Admin). Covering failure to use the Pre-Action Protocol,...
Homeless with shared residence order
[Edit Feb 2008 - Richmond have been given permission to appeal this judgment to the House of Lords. No date yet.] An interesting situation, if perhaps an increasingly common one, has just been set out in the Court of Appeal case of Holmes-Moorhouse v London...
The horse's mouth
I was delighted to see some comments from members of the Community Law Partnership on this blog today, adding to my notes on some of their Court of Appeal cases. The comments are detailed and very helpful, adding a lot to my scanty commentary, so, for the...
Be good to your mother
So, Denton v London Borough of Southwark [2007] EWCA Civ 623. This won't take long, as the case rests almost entirely on its own facts. Applicant, a 21 year old male, applied as homeless after being thrown out by his mother. First decision, upheld on review,...
Shala v Birmingham City Council
How did I miss this one in the Court of Appeal lists? I swear it didn't appear in the Bailii list of recent judgments for 27 June 2007. Shala v Birmingham City Council [2007] EWCA Civ 624 This is a very significant decision on Local Authorities' use of...
Gilby v City of Westminster
A Court of Appeal homeless case, Gilby v City of Westminster [2007] EWCA Civ 604 was handed down on 27 June, but I've been a bit slow to note it, partly because I've been busy and partly because, frankly, it is a bit of a meh of a case. Still, it is a Court...
Housing Duty – stating the obvious
For once, Birmingham was on the winning side of an entirely predictable Court of Appeal judgment on homelessness law. Omar -v- Birmingham City Council 2007. (7 June 2007. Times Report. Not yet freely available elsewhere) Birmingham had discharged duty to the...
Degrees of Homelessness?
Local Authority allocation policy, as it applies to those to whom the Authority has accepted a duty to secure accommodation, is still being thrashed out in the Courts. Birmingham City Council is the latest to have their allocation policy found unlawful in R....
And close the door behind you.
In what would, were all the world a stage, be a rather overdone bit of dramatic irony, the final publication of the LSC's future legal aid funding arrangements took place yesterday, as did the showing of 'Evicted' on BBC1, part of the Beeb's 'No Home'...