Chishimba v RBKC, Court of Appeal, March 25, 2013, [from a lawtel note - not on bailii yet] concerned an appeal brought by a homeless applicant. The issue was whether Ms Chishimba had become intentionally homeless. Ms Chishimba approached the authority for...
Back in time*
I thought the landlord would lose Daejan v Benson, and, as you all know, the landlord won (see our note here). When NL flagged the next case up to me, I predicted the landlord would lose. And it won. Quite remarkably in my view, but, as is becoming clear,...
Unclear judgment on unclear occupancy
London Borough of Brent v Tudor [2013] EWCA Civ 157 This was an appeal of a Circuit Judge's finding that LB Brent's possession claim under Ground 16, Schedule 2 Housing Act 1985 failed because the property was reasonably needed to accommodate those living...
Phoenix from the flames
There was an interesting case-note on Lawtel this week which I suspect most of you saw. The case was LB Enfield v Phoenix and others, High Ct, March 19, 2013, and seemed to concern the circumstances in which a possession claim can properly be issued in the...
Tell me a storey
London Borough of Islington v The Unite Group Plc [2013] EWHC 508 (Admin) This is an interesting appeal in relation to the counting of storeys for HMO licensing purposes. It actually repeats an argument dealt with in an appeal in a criminal prosecution of a...
In the teeth of it …
In El-Dinnaoui v Westminster CC [2013] EWCA Civ 231, the Court of Appeal found that the offer of a flat on the 16th floor of a block to a household which contained a person with fear of heights was perverse. The offer of accommodation was "in the teeth" of...
Article 8, Undue Influence and much, much more…
The recent case of Birmingham CC v Beech contains a wealth of legal issues but sadly for the Defendant, none of them was decided in her favour. Mrs Beech's parents had been joint tenants of a 3 bedroom property at 31 Tilshead Close, Birmingham since 1967....
A brief interlude: The gov.uk disaster
While my NL colleagues are reporting hard law and dealing with lots of important stuff, with so much more to come, I have but a mere puff to offer for a Friday afternoon. It's about the new government website to which departments, including DCLG, have (or...
Bedroom Tax: Shifts, U-turns and rumours
Now that was a busy day on the Bedroom Tax front, complete with a parliamentary statement, new DWP Guidance to Local Authorities, rumours and conjecture. Let us start with the definite bits. The new Guidance on disabled children unable to share a bedroom....
Would you like ketchup with that hat?
Ok. Confession time. For the last year or so, I have been confidently predicting (often vocally and to unsuspecting passers-by) that the landlord would lose its appeal in Daejan Properties Ltd v Benson [2013] UKSC 14. Well, the landlord won.* And so I have a...
The Tolerated Trespasser Rides Again!
OK, so the title of this post may be an exaggeration of what is only a passing reference to an old friend in Fareham BC v Miller [2013] EWCA Civ 159. But it is interesting to see it used as part of the 'nuts and bolts' of an Article 8/proportionality...
Catching up with the LVT
Sorry (both to readers* and the rest of the NL team) for the delay in getting these done. We've had a few Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) cases over the last few weeks and I've been rather less efficient than I had hoped. So, here goes. LB Southwark v Bevan...