A few quick notes on various leasehold related cases. Howe Properties (NE) Ltd v Accent Housing Ltd (2024) EWCA Civ 297 Accent Housing levied a management fee on leaseholders which was at flat rate and a) differed by tenure (freehold and assured tenancies...
Shared Ownership, assured shorthold and long leases. The mess continues.
Sovereign Network Homes v Ms Vanessa East, Claim Number H01W1247 (13 May 2024, Central London County Court). Thanks to Landmark Chambers for their note on this case. This was a county court appeal of a first instance decision to allow an application to...
Don’t dilly-dally on appeals, and mortgage lender paying service charges.
Santander PLC v Harris (2024) EWHC 351 (KB) A quick note on a sad case. This was an application by Mr Harris for an extension of time to appeal a mortgage possession order of his flat made in favour of Santander, his lender, with a money judgment for...
Service of prescribed documents – deemed or actual?
This is a note of a county court appeal on the issue of whether Section 7 Interpretation Act 1978 applied to the prescribed documents required to be given to the tenant before service of a section 21 notice - EPC, GSC, How to Rent Guide. This judgment is of...
News bits – Renters (Reform) Bill ‘reformed’, HHJ Luba KC retirement.
The disappearance of the Renters (Reform) Bill from the parliamentary timetable has been the subject of much speculation, with reports of it being held hostage by Tory backbenchers demanding landlord friendly changes, and the prospect of the Bill being lost....
Landlords behaving badly corner – racial discrimination and harassment
Our thanks to Doughty Street Chambers for their note on this judgment. Hickmet and Cheerz Express Limited v Dragos (Luton County Court, 19 January 2024) Ms Dragos was the assured shorthold tenant of Cheerz Express, with the tenancy beginning 1 June 2017. A...
Wrong in principle
Morgan v Business Mortgage Finance 5 Plc (2024) EWHC 309 (KB) Another one for the 'don't do this' pile. This was a High Court hearing of an ex parte application for an 'emergency injunction' to stay an eviction (amongst other things). Mr Morgan was defending...
Failed succession, residential care and human rights incompatibility
Dudley Metropolitan Council v Mailley (2023) EWCA Civ 1246 We first saw this very sad case on first instance in the High Court - our note here. Ms Mailley was defending possession of a Dudley property of which her late mother had been the secure tenant since...
Varying a possession order from discretionary to mandatory ground
Poplar HARCA v Kerr. Central London County Court 26 July 2023. (Unreported. Judgment here.) This was a county court appeal to a circuit judge on the issue of whether a pre-existing suspended possession order, made on a discretionary ground, could be varied...
Section 21 and Gas Safety – post start of tenancy installations
Our grateful thanks to Noah Gifford of Pallant Chambers for the following note of a County Court judgment on the endlessly vexed issue of gas safety records and section 21 notices. (We've seen the judgment). This time, the issue is the requirements when a...
Tales from the County Courts – housing conditions quantum, proof of notice of defects, and section 21 and gas safety certificates again
Three county court cases - all first instance judgments and non-binding, but each of interest, including the first two fitness for human habitation decisions that have come our way and a complicating decision on gas safety certificates and section 21...
What Katrina did (or didn’t do) next.
Regular readers will no doubt recall this remarkable case, in which Notting Hill Genesis sought and obtained a freezing injunction against a disbarred barrister, Katrina McCarthy for tortiously inducing a breach of contract by getting NHG's tenant to pay the...