*Not really. The current housing minister, who holds the current record for the number of times a housing minister's name can be mentioned in a press release, has announced forthcoming legislation, in response to the Rugg report. More details here [link to...
Tenancy Deposit – renewal of tenancy again
Bihari v House Trader (UK ) Limited. 14 January 2010, Central London County Court While we wait for the forthcoming High Court and Court of Appeal decisions in tenancy deposit cases, here is a tenancy deposit appeal, but, alas, only to a Circuit Judge, so...
Variation of service charges
Shersby v Grenehurst Park Residents Co Ltd LRX/142/2007 Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) The appellant held a lease of a flat in a former mansion house. The wider estate comprised 17 such flats and a number of freehold houses and mews cottages. In total there...
Farming today
Kakas v Farmer, Court of Appeal, 29.1.10 (extempore judgment, only available as a lawtel note) Section 27, 1988 Act creates a statutory tort of attempting or actually depriving a residential occupier of his occupation of some or all of the premises....
Housing benefit: Two decisions
Two HB decisions from the Upper Tribunal, Administrative Appeals Chamber have appeared, which are interesting because they demonstrate the approach of the Tribunal to the construction of the HB Regs (Torbay Borough Council v RF [2010] UKUT 7 (AAC) (14...
Condensed Condensation
Herelle v South London Family Housing Association Limited, Lambeth County Court, 26 November 2009 Ms Herelle was the assured tenant of SLFHA (now part of Horizon Housing). Her tenancy of the one bed flat began in September 2001. There had been problems with...
Gatekeeping and an absence of records
Local Government Ombudsman's decision: London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (09 001 262) 'Ms Kenza' (not her real name) approached LB Hammersmith and Fulham as homeless when she had to leave her private rented home following an incident of domestic...
Tenancy Deposit Protection on Sale and Leaseback
A recent case promises to be the first to the Court of Appeal on the issue of tenancy deposit protection.
HMO Planning Changes and a Consultation
The Department of Communities and Local Government has published new proposals on dealing with HMOs.
Transfers and rent arrears
The question of the interaction between housing debt and prioritisation for an allocation under Part VI, Housing Act 1996, appears to have been in issue in R(Osei) v Newham LBC Lettings Agency, decided on 27.01.10. I say "appears to" because, as of yet, no...
Heffernan v The Rent Service (Again)
The High Court has considered the issue of the calculation of reference rents for the purposes of housing benefit.
Legal Action – Guest Post by Jan Luba and Nic Madge
We have had a request from Jan Luba QC and HHJ Madge who, as I'm sure you all know, edit the 'recent developments in housing law' updates in Legal Action each month. They are looking for feedback on the updates, so we are happy to help with a guest post......