Hopefully, you're either reading this (a) whilst enjoying the long bank-holiday weekend or (b) back in the office after having enjoyed the long weekend. Either way, a case about holiday chalets seemed appropriate at this time. By s.27A, Landlord and Tenant...
Improvements and rent redux
Hughes v Borodex Ltd. [2010] EWCA Civ 425 This was the Court of Appeal hearing of the appeal from the High Court decision on first appeal that we reported in March 2009. I won't rehearse the facts, which are in the earlier post, but the issue was whether...
Shake your windows
Craighead v Homes for Islington & LB Islington [2010] UKUT 47 (LC) is a decision of Andrew Trott in the Upper Tribunal on an appeal from the LVT. 21 leaseholders faced bills of £30-40,000 for service charges between 2006 and 2008 relating to "external...
Leasehold update
We here at NL pride ourselves on providing comprehensive coverage of housing law (or, at least as comprehensive as six people who do this in their spare time can be) and that includes updates on leasehold property related matters. So, without further...
Collective enfranchisement and anti-avoidance
Earl Cadogan and another v Panagopoulos and another [2010] EWHC 422 (Ch) concerns the anti-avoidance provisions in s.19, Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. It's quite a detailed case and, if enfranchisement is something you're...
Richardson v Midland Heart appeal is no more
We have had confirmation that the appeal of the decision in Richardson v Midland Heart (our detailed note here), on shared ownership, assured tenancies and leasehold interests, has been discontinued. Rumour has it that there is another appeal in a similar...
Self Insurance and Right to Buy leases
Mihovilovic v Leicester CC [2010] UKUT 22 (LC) Another Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) case. This was an appeal by the leaseholders of an LVT decision in respect of service and major works charges levied by Leicester City Council, the freeholder. There were...
Variation of service charges
Shersby v Grenehurst Park Residents Co Ltd LRX/142/2007 Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) The appellant held a lease of a flat in a former mansion house. The wider estate comprised 17 such flats and a number of freehold houses and mews cottages. In total there...
Rack rent, enfranchisement and intermediate leasehold interests
McHale v Earl Cadogan [2010] EWCA Civ 14 is, it's safe to say, probably not going to be one of the most discussed cases on NL this year, but we are nothing if not comprehensive and couldn't fail to write it up. Collective enfranchisement is the process...
Sale and leaseback – a transaction at an undervalue?
Could the sale and leaseback of a house be a transaction at an undervalue and thus be caught by section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986? This was the main question considered by the High Court in Delaney v Chen although some other points of interest were...
It's a confused world out there…
And for the new year, it seems an opportune moment to delve into the Nearly Legal search logs in a vaguely quixotic attempt to provide answers to some of the questions that brought people here. Alternatively, where this is not possible, we can stare in mute...
Service charges up, enfranchisement down: some LVT statistics
As food for reader's thought as 2009 draws to an end, a quick comment on a recent written answer given to the Shadow Housing minister Grant Shapps. Since many readers' will be full of seasonal fare I thought some pictures rather than words would be more apt....