R (G) v Southwark [2009] UKHL 26 was the appeal to the House of Lords of this Court of Appeal judgment. At issue was whether Southwark could effectively avoid its s.20 Children Act duty to accommodate a homeless child by referral to the Housing Department by...
House of Lords newsflash
The House of Lords has today given its judgment in the case of R (G) v Southwark [2009] UKHL 26. We reported the Court of Appeal decision here. A fuller report will follow on Nearly Legal in due course, but as we may not finish it today the headlines are:...
Tolerated Trespasser day
It is official, orders signed and everything. As of today, 20 May 2009, Schedule 11 of the Housing & Regeneration Act is in force, save for paragraphs 3(3), 8(3) and 14(3), which we are arguing about below. Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Commencement...
More on tolerated trespassers
Following on from our post yesterday (and from a personal conversation with Robert Latham of Doughty Street Chambers) we can shed a bit more light on the forthcoming commencement of Sch 11, Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. Firstly, the successor landlord...
And now, the end is near
With grateful thanks to James Stark of Garden Court North and North West Housing Law Practitioners Group, we can pass on some news on the introduction of Schedule 11 Housing & Regeneration Act 2008 and the end of the tolerated trespasser. The SI should...
Tenancy Deposit – variations on a theme
Legal Action May 09 housing updates contain a few tenancy deposit cases, which further muddy the waters... Seghier v Rollings, Bow County Court, 6 March 2009. An assured shorthold beginning in May 2007. A deposit was paid by Mr Seghier to the letting agent...
Unlawful Eviction and Harassment quantum
The May edition of Legal Action's housing updates contains a report on Khan v Iqbal, Bury County Court, 13 March 2009. Ms Khan was an assured shorthold tenant on rent of £650 pm. She lived with her children aged 15 and 12 She got into rent arrears. The...
Looking at it from all angles
Whitehouse v Lee [2009] EWCA Civ 375 is a rare beast – a successful appeal against a decision on reasonableness in the context of possession proceedings. However, it merits close attention not only for its rarity, but because it also reminds us of how to...
Adverse possession of the river bed
In Port of London Authority v Ashmore [2009] EWHC 954 (Ch) the Defendant had, since 1983, tethered his sailing barge to Albion Wharf on the Thames close by Battersea Bridge. The Authority wished to register title to the bed of the river Thames but Mr Ashmore...
Belatedly forthcoming
May's Legal Action housing reports, as compiled by Jan Luba QC and HHJ Madge, are positively bursting with interesting stuff. Pretty much all the High Court/Court of Appeal cases and some of the rest have already been reported here. But there are more than a...
Regulating renting proposals
I'm just in the process of marking what feels like thousands of coursework essays on proprietary estoppel and constructive trusts. The thing that gets me - time for a rant - is that my very clever three As students can't actually write a proper sentence,...
Adverse possession of a highway
Can you acquire title to land over which a highway runs? There seems to be no reason in principle why not but R (Smith) v Land Registry (Peterborough) [2009] EWHC 328 (Admin) — wrongly in my view — suggests otherwise. The Claimant had occupied land with his...