In Smith v Smith the Court of Appeal considered the conflict between TOLATA and its family law jurisdiction. The background is a sad one. The Smiths married in 2004. They bought what I assume to be a lovely house of 3,800 square feet in 5 floors and with...
New Local Authority Allocation Guidance
DCLG has released the new Code of Guidance for Local Authority allocation of housing. There is a slightly unfinished page about it here and a press release here. The Code of Guidance itself is here [link to pdf]. We will come back to the Guidance in a proper...
How to claim Housing Benefit without mentioning it
Novitskaya v London Borough of Brent & Anor [2009] EWCA Civ 1260 Just a brief note on this appeal from the Social Security Commissioners. At issue was what could constitute a claim for housing benefit, albeit a 'defective' claim. Ms N was granted refugee...
Lord Neuberger on housing law
The UKSC - an excellent blog (albeit technically and practically horrible to use) which is dedicated to the doings and ins and outs of the Supreme Court - has a interesting post on Lord Neuberger's keynote to the SHLA conference. I wonder how the SHLA...
On possession, recovery and quia timet injunctions
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Meier and another and others and another and another [2009] UKSC 11 A Supreme Court Judgment handed down today, 1 December 2009. This was an appeal from the Court of Appeal, [2008] EWCA Civ 903,...
Shop an unlawful sub-tenant, win £500
The Government has decided to have a campaign against unlawful sub-tenancies of social housing, or rather against the unlawful landlords and tenants both. The estimated figures are that between 50,000 and 200,000 social properties are occupied by...
Each had a wooden horse
R (A) v Croydon & R (M) v Lambeth UKSC [2009] 8 This was an appeal heard by the House of Lords over the course of four days in July, but with judgment delivered by the new Supreme Court. We reported the Court of Appeal's judgment here. At issue was to...
An Englishman's room is his castle
Thomas v Director of Public Prosecutions QBD October 23, 2009 (apparently only reported in the Times, although I swear I saw it somewhere else too). This was an appeal by way of case stated against conviction for obstructing a police officer. Mr Thomas lost...
Child in Need, Indeed
The Supreme Court has handed down judgment in the case of R (A) v Croydon and R (M) v Lambeth [2009] UKSC 8. This is an important decision about the duty of LAs under s.20(1) of the Children Act 1989 to "provide accommodation for any child in need within...
Mortgage possession defeated by constructive trust
An opportunity to indulge in schadenfreude at the expense of a mortgage lender is offered by HSBC v Dyche [2009] EWHC 2954 (Ch) where a claim for possession by a mortgagee was dismissed because the actual occupant of the property was beneficiary under a...
Homeless reviews and fact finding in the Supreme Court
We've been told that Ali & Ibrahim v Birmingham City Council (now Ali, Ibrahim and Tomlinson v BCC) was heard in the Supreme Court today, 23 November, and continues tomorrow. Our report on the Court of Appeal judgment ([2008] EWCA 1228) is here. The issue is...
Succession – the afterlife of the tolerated trespasser
R (Neville) v London Borough of Wandsworth [2009] EWHC 2405 (Admin) [not on Bailii yet] This was a renewed application for permission for a Judicial Review of Wandsworth's refusal of a discretionary succession. Mr Neville had been living with his mother. Mrs...