All there is at the moment is a Lawtel note of Amicus Horizon v Mabott and Brand and no neutral citation. It concerns whether Mr Brand was living with Ms Mabott as her husband for the purposes of succcession to Ms Mabott's tenancy: s 17(4), Housing Act...
Disability and possession
This is a short note of O'Connell v Viridian Housing [2012] EWHC 1389 (QB) - it's short because it goes nowhere really and the facts were not exactly great. Ms O'Connell is partially sighted and suffers from depression. She had occupied supported housing...
Time after time
The Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 makes provision, inter alia, for the LVT to appoint a manager (which may include the functions of a receiver) over residential premises. There are, as you might imagine, qualifying conditions relating both to the applicants...
Leasehold round up
Ok, sorry about this. I've been meaning to do a LVT/UT round up for some time and kept putting it off to allow me to work/sleep/see my wife, etc. So now I've got loads of cases to do. Here goes. Court of Appeal In Westbrook Dolphin Square Ltd v Friends Life...
Not smelling of roses
Dobson & Ors v Thames Water Utilities Ltd (No 2) [2011] EWHC 3253 (TCC) This is very late as a post. My excuse is that the judgment runs to well over 200 pages, it is very complex and, frankly, other stuff happened. This has sat as a part finished draft...
Housing and Human Rights Round-up Part II
Three more housing-related cases have been decided recently by the ECHR: Bjedov v Croatia (29/5/12) Mrs Bjedov was granted a joint tenancy of a 'specially protected' flat in Zadar, Croatia in 1975 and she became the sole tenant after the death of her husband...
The Unbeatable Litigant in Person*
Birmingham City Council v Richard Lloyd (2012) CA Civ 23 May 2012 (On Lawtel but not on BAILLI) A short note on this hearing as it is a situation which is likely to become far more common. Birmingham Claimant had lost a claim for possession against L. They...
Article 14, Disability, HB and Bright-Line Rules
In Burnip v Birmingham CC, Trengove v Walsall MBC, and Gorry v Wiltshire C [2012] EWCA Civ 629, the Court of Appeal considered whether the application of the bedroom rule in the housing benefit regulations as regards private rented accommodation...
Carpets, covenants and ‘the well-being of lawyers’
I suspect that many lawyers heave a heavy sigh at neighbour disputes. They seem to be fought with an intensity in inverse proportion to the scale of the problems. Throw in issues in construing lease covenants and enforceability by third parties and it is not...
Part VII and Procedure
Two very recent Court of Appeal judgements have looked at the extent of a Local Authority's obligations under Reg 6(2) of the Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Review Procedures) Regulations 1999: Maswaku v Westminster CC and El Goure v RB Kensington...
But that isn’t what it says…
[Edited 16/05/2012 to correct the s.47(2) point] Beitov Properties Ltd v Elliston Martin [2012] UKUT 133 (LC) is, I suspect, going to cause some sleepless nights for managing agents of long leasehold properties (and, possibly, some other agents and...
Outside the Boxall
This is an important case on costs on settled Judicial Reviews. Following on Bahta & Ors, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Ors [2011] EWCA Civ 895 [Our report] and Lord Jackson's view on JR costs, the Court of Appeal...