Cotton & Ors, R (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Ors [2014] EWHC 3437 (Admin) This was the Liberty backed judicial review of the bedroom tax regulations on the basis that the regulations amounted to an article 8...
A very unlawful eviction
(Finally) AA v London Borough of Southwark [2014] EWHC 500 (QB) This High Court judgment is remarkable in many ways, most of them worrying. It was the result of a six day hearing, with Southwark putting Kelvin Rutledge QC up against Mr AA in person and ended...
Christopher Chope MP makes a generous offer
The Justice Select Committee heard oral evidence on housing legal aid after LASPO today, 21 October 2014. Representatives from HLPA, Shelter and Garden Court Chambers gave evidence. The recording is here, if the video below doesn't work. In the course of...
Etcetera.
A few bits. There are four new FTT bedroom tax decisions on the FTT page, including one from Manchester where subsidence was classed as a 'natural catastrophe' for the purposes of continuity of property for the 1996 exemption. There are two room size and use...
Bedroom Tax: Upper Tribunal on Article 14
Following my plaintive cry here, I now have copies of the two Upper Tribunal judgments from Scotland referred to by the DWP. And, while the judgments do do something rather more and rather different to the outcomes suggested in the DWP Circular, sadly, what...
Downloadable archives
Having previously suggested the possibility of Ebook versions of our archives, I have been technologically frustrated in bringing this about (in the sense that it is probably do-able but would take up a large amount of my time and an investment in software...
Not enough information: Bedroom tax and disability discrimination
[Update 6/10/14 - got the judgments now. Detailed comment here] This is frustrating! A DWP circular HB U4/2014 contains an annex with notes on four Scottish Upper Tribunal bedroom tax decisions. Two of them I have already addressed here, but the first and...
The way we live now.
This is not exactly a housing law post, though the operation of housing law runs through it at an angle. It is more of a snapshot of the present reality of social and private housing, at least in London, traced through the history of a remarkable group of...
Bedroom tax bits
Here are couple of new First Tier Tribunal decisions (also on the FTT decisions page). A room use decision from St Helens - a room which had been used since the start of the tenancy as a dressing room/home office, and where a sewing machine was kept and...
Tribunals and Reviews and Appeals. Oh My!
I did a talk at a conference on the topic of legal issues about the bedroom tax, it was basically a critical overview of the higher courts and tribunal (FTT and UT) cases. In case they are useful or vaguely interesting, my notes are here. (No jokes though....
Retaliatory Eviction and Law Reform
The government (through its Minister for Communities and Local Government, Stephen Williams) today announced its backing to Sarah Teather's private members bill, whose aim is to prevent landlords from evicting tenants who have complained about disrepair in...
A Thursday stuffed with housing stuff
A busy Thursday for housing law, not yet law, housing benefits and housing misc. Item one. A Scottish Upper Tribunal is to hear a room size appeal on 18 September. This is one of the first Fife decisions. It is not the lead case in the English Upper...