Regular readers of this blog (when it is accessible) will know that we are a housing law blog. However, housing law (for the most part) is covered by the overarching umbrella of civil law and we do therefore occasionally cover the odd important non-housing...
Article 8 and night-time care
The ECtHR Chamber has delivered its decision in McDonald v UK. For the reasons given below, the Court has decided that there was no breach of Article 8 ECHR following the reduction in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s care services package for Ms...
Approximate grounds
Masih, R (on the application of) v Yousaf [2014] EWCA Civ 234 When a notice is served under Section 8 Housing Act 1988, how precise does the wording of the ground(s) under which possession will be sought have to be? In this case, reaching the Court of Appeal...
Bedrooms, tribunals and article 14
Today brought a torrent of (well, two) First Tier Tribunal bedroom tax/LHA appeal decisions. Both are decisions on Article 14 grounds, and in one case, there is a detailed set of reasons for distinguishing MA & Ors, at least at High Court level. A...
More Bedroom Tax FTT cases.
A couple more FTT appeal decisions, also added to the FTT decision page. Liverpool - room size decision [Decision notice], 52 sq ft too small to be a bedroom, supported by photos. Also notably decides that HHSRS standards apply to social housing as well as...
Tweets from rented rooms
A series of tweets gathered under the hashtag #LDNlandlord today (Thursday 15 May) offered an insight (if one were needed) into the state of the London private rental market. For the housing lawyer, it was also a opportunity to play claim/offence bingo. So,...
Dining (bed) rooms
Just to note that a couple of First Tier Tribunal decisions from Glasgow have been added to the FTT decisions page (and can be downloaded here). In both the FTT decided that the use of a downstairs room as a dining room was long established, since the...
Bedroom tax news
The Liberty backed Judicial Review of the bedroom tax on grounds of Art 8 discrimination against separated families has been given permission. There have been a few FTT decisions on this ground (see the FTT decisions page), so the JR will be quite decisive....
The Tenant (Super)Strikes Back
As we noted when writing up Superstrike Ltd v Rodrigues [2013] EWCA Civ 669 (see our note, here), the case left open an interesting - and important - question. If a fixed term has expired and a statutory periodic tenancy arisen, do the requirements in s.213,...
Adverse possession through criminal trespass
Way back when s.144 LASPO 2012 was first proposed, I noted that one of the unaddressed questions (indeed a question that nobody even thought to consider) was how what because s.144 would interact with statute and case law on adverse possession. Now we have...
Ignoring the Court of Appeal?
[Update 9 June 2014. The Statement of Reasons in this case is here. Well worth considering.] There has been an odd bedroom tax development, one on which details are tantalisingly still absent. Mr & Mrs Carmichael have won their appeal to the First Tier...
Not a Good Idea
One to be filed under 'Do not do this, ever'. R (Grimshaw) v LB Southwark [2013] EWHC 4504 (Admin) [Not on Bailii, I've seen a transcript] This started out well enough, as a judicial review claim of Southwark's decision to terminate temporary accommodation....