The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 contains various protections for leaseholders and assured tenants against unreasonable service charges (see, e.g. s.19, 1985 Act). By s.26, 1985 Act, tenancies granted by local authorities, National Park authorities or a new...
Equality duty to be in force 6 April
The Government Equalities Office has announced that the Public Sector Equality Duty will be in force from 6 April 2011. The Equalities Office page has links to the following documents: Draft regulations on the specific duties; Draft order amending Schedule...
Localism Part Deux
The Localism Bill had a second reading in the Commons yesterday. One amendment (Labour) was tabled and defeated. Looks like the significant amendments will be made in Committee. Not - I must say - the best quality debate ever as it appears to have been...
I’m not talking to you
Following on from the news that LEASE (the Leasehold Advisory Service - a quango) had not been granted funding to continue to advise the public on commonhold issues (see our note, here), comes the news that it is to stop offering mediation services in...
Take only what you need
Hemphurst Ltd v Durrels House Ltd [2011] UKUT 6 (LC) is, I suspect, going to go on appeal to the Court of Appeal. Certainly, if you practice in the field of leasehold enfranchisement, it's one you'll want to know about as it's pretty important. In general...
What’s yours is mine (in variable proportions)
Clarke v Meadus [2010] EWHC 3117 (Ch) Normally Dave would be covering this kind of case, knowing more about equity and trust right now than I probably ever will. But Dave is off being very clever to a tight deadline for other people, so I get to indulge my...
Tenant’s relief from Mortgagee
GMAC RFC Ltd v Jones Lambeth County Court 15/11/2010 With thanks to the Legal Action Recent Developments in Housing Law - report in the January 2011 edition. This was a case on the operation of the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010,...
Dear Mr Shapps
My word, what a fountain of press releases you have been lately. Quite takes me back to the heady days of John Healey. But it is this press release I want to talk about, the ‘Neighbours from Hell’ one. You announce that you: will introduce a new additional...
Care and attention v keeping a watch over
SL, R (on the application of) v City of Westminster Council [2010] EWHC 3182 (Admin) A rolled up permission and substantive judicial review hearing on the issue of whether the local authority owed a duty under s.21 National Assistance Act 1948 (as amended),...
Priority through dizziness?
Hussain v London Borough of Hounslow [2010] EW Misc 15 (CC) (01 December 2010) Not sure why this one wasn’t written up in November. I thought we’d covered it, but apparently not. It is worth a look not just on the specific issues but as the pre-amble sets...
Catching up with 2010 Part 1 – disrepair
Part 1 of cases - mainly county court - that we have missed or not heard of during 2010. With our grateful thanks to Beatrice Prevatt of Garden Court for bringing these to our notice in her disrepair update at the HLPA conference: Shazad v Khan. Birmingham...
There’s no place like HMO
A brief trip to the Emerald City, or rather Reading, where the Borough Council may have established a record for a fine for breaches of The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 and the Housing Act 2004 Section 11. An HMO at...