A few notes... As of 1 August 2021, the notice period for notices seeking possession on grounds of rent arrears for arrears of less than 4 months rent was reduced from 4 months notice to 2 months notice. Where arrears are of 4 months or more, the notice...
Damages for breach of lease? Possibly not…
Almacantar Centre Point Nominee No.1 Ltd & Anor v CID Investments Ltd & Ors (2021) EW Misc 10 (CC) This is a county court case, so not a binding precedent, but it is a) fascinating (if hardly uncommon in London as a situation), and b) a judgment by...
Pick the first landlord up
Rakusen v Jepson & Ors, Safer Renting Intervenor (2021) EWCA Civ 1150 This is the Court of Appeal judgment on an appeal from the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) appeal (our report here). It is of huge significance for Rent Repayment Order applications...
Not so full and frank disclosure
A case dealing with the duty to make full and frank disclosure when applying for an anti-social behaviour injunction without notice.
How to Rent and Easy Read – updates and issues.
Ah, the How to Rent Guide. Is there anything that would so predictably cause problems and yet has been so frequently messed up by MHCLG? The latest instalment of the saga goes like this. On 21 July 2021, MHLCG updated the 'How to Rent Guide' page. But...
Surrender to the churn – deposits and shared houses.
Sturgiss & Anor v Boddy & Ors (2021) EW Misc 10 (CC) It is, as HHJ Luba QC notes in this appeal judgment, far from an uncommon scenario. A group of people, say four of them for neatness, take a joint tenancy of a house or flat. (Neatness because the...
RROs – late payments, rent arrears and deposits considered by the Upper Tribunal
Kowalek v Hassanein Ltd (HOUSING - RENT REPAYMENT ORDER) (2021) UKUT 143 (LC) An Upper Tribunal appeal decision on a Rent Repayment Order decision that raised three issue. t"he treatment of payments made by a tenant after the landlord has stopped committing...
Intentional homelessness, affordability and allowances
Patel v London Borough of Hackney (2021) EWCA Civ 897 A second appeal to the Court of Appeal, following a s.202 review decision and s.204 appeal on the issue of whether Mr Patel's private sector accommodation from which he was evicted for rent arrears was...
Committed to committal
Gunn & Launders v Khan (2020) EWCA Civ 1905 (Not on Bailii. Judgment on Westlaw. Only just come across it, via Legal Action) This was an appeal by the landlord, Saakib Khan, of an order sentencing him to six months imprisonment for contempt of court for...
Doors, fixtures and demises
Marlborough Knightsbridge Management Ltd v Fivaz (2021) EWCA Civ 989 In which the Court of Appeal grapple with whether a front entrance door to a leasehold flat is a 'landlord's fixture' or something else. This was the landlord's second appeal from the Upper...
The Building Safety Bill
The Building Safety Bill is here. There is a lot in it and I can't claim to have mastered it in the few hours since it was published, but I wanted to get something down on paper as soon as possible. This is, so we have been repeatedly told, the vehicle...
Domestic Abuse and Priority Need
After assorted rumours, it was officially announced that section 78 Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force today, (Monday 5 July 2021), although the regulations bringing it into force weren't actually published until about 4.30 pm (I was hunting for them)....