Knowsley Housing Trust v White on suspended possession orders and assured tenants is being heard on 14 March 2007 in the Court of Appeal. I don't know when the judgement will be given.
Postponed assured trespassers verdict soon(ish).
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Housing law – All
Degrees of Homelessness?
Local Authority allocation policy, as it applies to those to whom the Authority has accepted a duty to secure accommodation, is still being thrashed out in the Courts. Birmingham City Council is the latest to have their allocation policy found unlawful in R....
But I hardly know you
Why do people do it? Why do they sign up for joint tenancies with private landlords together with people they have only just met? I'm sure it all seems terribly exciting, but what are you letting yourself in for with your shiny new shorthold assured tenancy?...
Human Rights and possession claims after Kay v Lambeth
The House of Lords decision in Kay v Lambeth [2006] UKHL 10 addressed Human Rights defences to possession claims, attempting to unify Harrow v Qazi [2004] 1 AC and the subsequent European Court judgement in Connors v United Kingdom [2004] 40 EHRR 189. Qazi...
Social landlords seek to avoid disrepair claims. No repairs involved.
Searching for something else entirely, I stumbled across a press release from the Social Housing Law Association detailing their representations to the DCA on funding for disrepair claims, made late last year. Headed "Move to repel tenants' bogus disrepair...
What do we do with a problem like Ground 8?
To those not acquainted with housing law, Ground 8 is one of the mandatory grounds for possession of an assured tenancy listed in Housing Act 1988 Schedule 2. It forms one of the major differences between an assured tenancy (typically Housing...
Equitable interests and right to buy discounts
A fairly abstruse discussion after the recent fun and games, but, to someone like me who was intrigued and amused while studying equity, an enjoyable one. A recent case involved the client's equitable interest in an ex-council house, formally purchased by...
And close the door behind you.
In what would, were all the world a stage, be a rather overdone bit of dramatic irony, the final publication of the LSC's future legal aid funding arrangements took place yesterday, as did the showing of 'Evicted' on BBC1, part of the Beeb's 'No Home'...
Assured tenant or trespasser? The waiting begins.
On the vexed question of whether a breach of an old style Suspended Possession Order ended an assured tenancy and left a tolerated trespasser, we now have two first level decisions: Stan v Stadium HA at Willesden CC and Knowsley HT v White at Liverpool CC....
Spitting feathers
Background. Another disrepair case against a private landlord. Another successful application for default judgement, granted about 6 months ago. Solid evidence. All the directions for quantum hearing complied with by us, to nil response from the landlord....
Divorce for the unmarried.
Interesting to see the Government publicising proposals for setting up property distribution mechanisms for ex-cohabiting couples somewhat ahead of the Law Commission's final report. The Guardian's paper account, if not its online report, compared the...
Don't get too oppositional
Tessa Shepperson, in an introduction to a Q&A makes a sound point that I think those of us who spend much of their time opposing local authorities tend to forget, which is that the Local Council's tenancy relation services, environmental or housing advice...