The London Borough of Newham is, without doubt, a hard-pressed council with extremely high levels of housing need, insufficient accommodation of any sort of decent quality to meet that need, and an engaged staff, as anybody who read Ahmad would tell you. In...
Access to Justice
An anecdotal rant, for which forgive me. Sometimes one needs to vent, but this is hardly an unusual situation. It is 'just' an example of the viciousness of the public funding boundaries. I've combined a few instances in what follows, and changed details for...
Suitability: Norris v MK
In Norris v Milton Keynes Council [2010] EWCA Civ 77 (not on Baili, Lawtel or Westlaw yet, but, thanks to the Chief's special powers, we have a copy), Rimer LJ considered that a second appeal was merited on two points - LAG, which brought this case to our...
Shake your windows
Craighead v Homes for Islington & LB Islington [2010] UKUT 47 (LC) is a decision of Andrew Trott in the Upper Tribunal on an appeal from the LVT. 21 leaseholders faced bills of £30-40,000 for service charges between 2006 and 2008 relating to "external...
Tenants of defaulting mortgagees
The CLG website is reporting that the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants) Bill is now an Act, having received Royal Assent on April 8, 2010. The press release explains that, where a mortgagor (other than one under a buy-to-let mortgage) has...
Homeless children – new guidance
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families have issued new guidance to local housing authorities and local social services authorities on housing obligations owed to 16 and 17...
Five go to Mornington Crescent
[aka Three out of the Five go ever so slightly bonkers on the way to Mornington Crescent, and one of those three gets lost on the way] On the Radio 4 show, I'm sorry I haven't a clue, there is a game called Mornington Crescent, in which there are no rules...
Coombes – an update
Thanks to the virtual telegraph, I've had the transcript in R (Coombes) v Secretary of State for CLG and Waltham Forest LBC [2010] EWHC 666 (Admin) for a few days (but it still does not appear on Baili, although, I gather, is available on Westlaw and the...
Leasehold update
We here at NL pride ourselves on providing comprehensive coverage of housing law (or, at least as comprehensive as six people who do this in their spare time can be) and that includes updates on leasehold property related matters. So, without further...
Events, dear boy, events…
A couple of bits of news. First, John Healey, the shy and self-effacing Housing Minister, announced his intention to make unlawful sub-letting a criminal offence. That said, the DCLG press release rather jumps the gun by describing the sub-lettings as...
‘There were three people in this mortgage’
Hewett v First Plus Financial Group Plc [2010] EWCA Civ 312 We are a little late on this one, which the family law bloggers have already noted, but it is a bit irresistible. Mrs Hewlett was appealing a possession order obtained by First Plus against her...
‘Minded to’ letters and oral representations
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council v Gibbons [2010] EWCA Civ 327 This was the Court of Appeal judgment on a second appeal from a s.204 Housing Act 1996 appeal in the County Court. At issue were the Circuit Judge's findings that Bury had: a) failed to give...