Our very grateful thanks for the following (and hopefully Part 2) to Mike Norman of Harrow Law Centre, who has been appointed, whether he likes it or not, as our Wales correspondent - NL. (Part 2 is now here.) Followers of the updates under Renting Homes...
What happens after a banning order? The further adventures of Mr Rasool
Mohammed Rasool has featured here quite often, for getting an ASBi against him for illegal eviction, for his role in quite the bizarrest set of cases, in which he sought re-entry after alleged illegal eviction to properties he had no interest in and didn't...
Getting it all wrong… LB Redbridge ‘dismal’ homelessness decisions
UO v London Borough of Redbridge (2023) EWHC 1355 (Admin) Ms UO and her 3 children, aged 11, 5 and 3, were homeless and had applied to LB Redbridge. The family had NASS accommodation in the Tottenham area since 2021, after NASS accommodation in Croydon and...
On the naughty step – a ‘rising star’ of Barking
Sadly, it appears that it is necessary to revive the long lapsed tradition of the Nearly Legal Naughty Step post. We have encountered a number of councils putting, or trying to put, damn silly clauses in their tenancy agreements for secure tenants, and then...
Think of other ways to meet the duty.
Our grateful thanks to Eleri Griffiths and Martin Hodgson of One Pump Court for the following note of a judicial review of LB Harrow's failure to provide suitable accommodation under section 193 Housing Act 1996, following on from Elkundi (our note) and...
Shared Ownership and Right to Manage
Avon Ground Rents Limited v Canary Gateway (Block A) RTM Company Ltd (2023) EWCA Civ 616 This was the Court of Appeal judgment on a an appeal related to (but not from) the Upper Tribunal decision in Avon Ground Rents Ltd v Canary Gateway (Block A) RTM...
Mental Health Crisis Moratoriums – issues for debt advisors to consider?
Kaye v Lees (2023) EWHC 758 (KB) We saw an injunction being made to prevent Ms Lees from seeking a further mental health crisis moratorium here. In this judgment, Mr Kaye had sought an extension of that injunction. The Court refused to extend the injunction:...
Odds and ends
A few snippets of cases of interest: Healey v Fraine & Ors (2023) EWCA Civ 549 Confirmation by the Court of Appeal, if confirmation was needed, that one can't be simultaneously in occupation as a licensee, and in adverse possession of the property under...
Renters (Reform) Bill – overview Part 2
Following on from yesterday (17 May) publication of the Renters (Reform) Bill and Part 1 of my overview of what the Bill does, onwards to the rest of it... Pets! There has been a lot of fuss about this, but as Tessa Shepperson has sagely observed, it doesn't...
Renters (Reform) Bill – the good, the potentially good and the ugly. Part 1
It is finally here, a mere five years from first being promised. The Renters (Reform) Bill has started its parliamentary journey today (17 May). As it stands, it is the largest reform to tenancies in England since 1988 (Wales having done its own, even more...
Suitability duties and reasonable preferences that weren’t unreasonable
Jaberi, R (On the Application Of) v City of Westminster (Re Housing Act 1996) (2023) EWHC 1045 (Admin) A judicial review on three grounds: i) Breach of section 193(2) Housing Act 1996 duty to secure suitable accommodation; ii) The Westminster's allocation...
Suitability review – excluding information, and ending existing accommodation.
Querino v Cambridge City Council. County Court at Cambridge, 29 March 2023 Continuing the trend (of which I wholeheartedly approve) of people sending me notes of judgments, the following is a note of a s.204 appeal of a suitability review decision from Toby...