Camelot Guardian Management Ltd v Khoo (2018) EWHC 2296 (QB) I missed this at the time (July). I might well have been on holiday, but also it didn’t make the usual sources. This is quite a significant judgment on the issue of property guardians and the licence/tenancy distinction. This was Mr Khoo’s appeal of a […]
Category Archives: Licences and occupiers
How… How did THAT happen? corner
Another in our occasional series of cases that cause you to splutter into your coffee. Kirby v Salvation Army Hostel Association (2018) QBD 12/10/2018 (Unreported. Lawtel note of extempore judgment) As far as we can tell, Mr K had been occupying a room in a Salvation Army hostel. However, he had not paid any room […]
Who lives in a shared home like this?
Nottingham City Council v Parr & Anor [2018] UKSC 51 It is not every day you see the Supreme Court setting HMO licence conditions, but today is that day. This was Nottingham’s appeal from the Court of Appeal (and before that, the Upper Tribunal, and the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber)) on the issue of […]
Who can complain of statutory nuisance?
The question in the rather wonderfully titled Watkins v Aged Merchant Seamen’s Homes & Anor (2018) EWHC 2410 (Admin) was whether a former licensee who remained in occupation after a possession order could bring a complaint of statutory nuisance under Environmental Protection Act 1990 and ‘prove’ the condition of the property at the time of the […]
Property guardians and ‘non-domestic rates’
This is an interesting decision of the Valuation Tribunal on the effect of the occupation by property guardians of a commercial building. Some (though not all) property guardian companies have made a sales feature of the alleged freedom from non-domestic (commercial) rates for a building occupied by guardians, on the basis that it is occupied […]
On the Naughty Step – ‘Accommodation Clubs’
To misquote Groucho Marx, you really don’t want to belong to any such club that would have you as a member. I’ve been hearing about these set ups for a while. They seem to be the latest thing in bloody stupid ‘get rich quick from residential property that someone else owns’ ideas. Now one of them […]
Beach huts: chattels, leases, estoppel
Gilpin and ors v Legg [2017] EWHC 3220 (Ch) is a gift (at least to land law examiners) that is going to keep on giving. This is not just because of the claims discussed – whether beach huts were fixtures or chattels, whether a lease had been granted to the owners of the huts, whether […]
Dwelling in temporary accommodation
Dacorum Borough Council v Bucknall (aka Acheampong) [2017] EWHC 2094 (QB) When is temporary accommodation provided under the Housing Act 1996 Section 193(2) duty occupied ‘as a dwelling’ fo the purposes of Section 3 Protection from Eviction Act 1977? We know from R (N) v Lewisham London Borough Council [2015] AC 1259 (our report) that section […]
Bedrooms, river beds and more
A few things… In case you didn’t see it through email or social media, I wrote a long piece about social housing in the aftermath of Grenfell Tower, which is on a separate page at that link. In Scotland, the Inner House of the Court of Session heard an appeal from the Upper Tribunal on […]
Aesthetics, unlawful kitchens and warehousing bus drivers
A triplet of brief notes. Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring won a judicial review of the Magistrates and Crown Court decisions upholding RB Kensington & Chelsea’s Notice under s.215 Town and County Planning Act 1990, ordering her to paint her Kensington property white, to cover the stripes that may or may not have been painted on the exterior […]
