The April edition of Legal Action brings news that Hurst v UK has settled. As will be seen from the ECtHR’s Statement of Facts and Questions to the Parties Hurst involved a secure tenant who murdered a neighbour, the applicant’s son, during the course of...
Proportionality, Section 21 and starter tenancies
Another RSL 'starter tenancy' and s.21 case, albeit one that marginally pre-dated West Kent HA v Haycraft, is The Riverside Group Limited - v – Sharon Thomas [2012] EWHC 169 (QB) 2 March 2012 (Manchester District Registry) [Not on Bailii. We've seen a...
Stick or Twist
R (MD)(Afghanistan) v Secretary of State [2012] EWCA Civ 194 is an immigration case but merits wider attention because of what it has to say about the interplay between renewing a judicial review claim and appeals. MD was an asylum seeker. The Secretary of...
Doomed, Doomed I tell you.
As an illustration of how complex housing law has become, and how difficult for a litigant in person, comes Sheppard v London Borough of Richmond-Upon-Thames [2012] EWCA Civ 302. This was a failed permission for second appeal to the Court of Appeal,...
“About to be in need” and prospective care assessment
This is a quick note on the effect of NM, R (on the application of) v London Borough of Islington & Ors [2012] EWHC 414 (Admin) on when a Council is required to carry out an assessment under section 47 of the National Health Service and...
Auto-bids and Lettings Choice
The Administrative Court has recently given judgement in the conjoined applications of Rouse Tout a Tout and Heff v LB Haringey, which concern the lawfulness of the auto-bid system operated by LB Haringey in the allocation of their permanent accommodation....
Costs on settled appeals
A quick note on a useful case on costs where an appeal has been settled. Harripaul v London Borough of Lewisham [2012] EWCA Civ 266 was an appeal to the Court of Appeal from a failed S.204 appeal to the County Court on a homeless matter. The appeal was given...
Don’t Panic!
The Residential Landlords Association appears to have got its collective knickers in a bit of a twist over proportionality. According to its press release and a report on 24dash, the RLA has suddenly decided that Powell v Houslow presents a dramatic threat...
Small, but not unimportant
Marshall Dixon and others v Wellington Close Management Ltd [2012] UKUT 95 (LC) is, so far as I can tell, the first Lands Tribunal/Upper Tribunal case on s.37, Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. As you'll know, the 1987 Act gives the LVT power to vary residential...
More than a minor problem
We have news of a recent, and rather important, county court case concerning the termination of a tenancy which had been purported to have been granted to a minor, but who had since turned 18. The case in question is Croydon LBC v Tando. You may recall that...
It never rains but it pours
The ECHR has recently delivered its judgement in Kolyadenko v Russia , which (apart from demonstrating the reach of the ECHR jurisdiction to the remote corners of Asia) is a useful case applying principles we would recognise under the rule in Rylands v...
Nothing ever really changes, does it?
Corby BC v Scott & West Kent Housing Association v Haycraft [2012] EWCA Civ 276 are the first cases that have required the Court of Appeal to consider and apply the guidance given in Powell v Hounslow LBC [2011] UKSC 8 & Pinnock v Manchester CC...