We have previously commented (fairly negatively!) on the plans to introduce compulsory membership of redress schemes for lettings and property management agency work which appeared at the last minute in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. Slightly...
Half a Storey is no Storey at All*
News has reached us from RH Environmental of a case in Bristol Magistrates on HMO licensing and the counting of storeys. Unfortunately it is not binding but it is nonetheless interesting. The case involves the licensing status of a two storey maisonette on...
Licenced to ill(founded)
Readers might be interested to know that the ECHR has held that the complaint by Mr Pinnock (of Manchester CC v Pinnock fame) is inadmissible as manifestly ill-founded under art.35 (see here). You'll recall that the Supreme Court decided the issue of...
Allocations Code: Draft Amendments
Although there appears to be a ministerial vacancy for housing policy (https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state--11 h/t to Martin Partington and Jules Birch), quite a lot is happening. There are some interesting goings on about the...
A rose by any other name…
The First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) is a grand title but suffers the fatal flaw of lacking a suitable three letter abbreviation (recursively, a TLA). Unlike LVT, there is no easy way to refer to the new Chamber, at least not without gabbling and/or...
Mr Pickles’ brighter future for hardworking tenants
I didn't comment here on Eric Pickles announcement of a 'Tenants Charter' at the Tory conference because, on inspection of the DCLG press release, it looked like a burp of a soundbite, with absolutely no significant likely effect. I contented myself with...
POSHFA!
The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act comes into force tomorrow (Tuesday 15 October 2013) in England only. The text of the Act is here. A key point is the introduction of 'Unlawful Profit Orders', which get around the decision of the Court of Appeal in...
The Importance of Being Earnest
Santander (UK) Plc v Carlin & Anor [2013] NICh 14 We have seen Santander having trouble in mortgage possession proceedings in Northern Ireland recently. Here is another example which could perhaps, indeed maybe should, have been avoided, if the lender...
Do you have a Right to Rent?
The Government has today published the Immigration Bill in the Commons. We have previously commented on this planned bill and we had been hoping that it might be quietly shelved or downgraded. However that appears not to be the case. From our point of view...
Article 14 in Hereford
A proper note to follow, but there has been a significant First Tier Tribunal appeal in a bedroom tax related case in Hereford. The decision is here (and also on the FTT decision page in the menu above). This is an LHA decision, not on the bedroom tax. While...
Council major works charge cap?
Council leaseholders, those who exercised the right to buy or those who bought from them, have been facing very hefty major works charges, perhaps particularly in London. When repairs have been carried out alongside Decent Homes programmes, or as large scale...
The (absence of) reasons in Redcar
You may well have seen or heard press stories on a First Tier tribunal bedroom tax appeal decision in Redcar and Cleveland. There has been a lot of excitable comment about it representing a 'landmark appeal' and 'hope for 440,000 disabled'. Even the tenant's...