A post on a County Court case, one well worth looking at for the application of public law principles, the Equality Act and reasonableness. I'm working from a note of judgment, so any quotes should be taken as being from a note, rather than a transcript....
Spencer v Taylor – section 21 news
The Appellant tenant in Spencer v Taylor [2013] EWCA Civ 1600 (our note here) has had permission to appeal to the Supreme Court refused, on the grounds that it did not raise an arguable point of law. This means that the Court of Appeal decision stands. Where...
Ghopee. Hopeless.
Dunfermline Building Society v Ghana Commercial Finance Ltd & Ors (2014) QBD (Merc) 16 July 2014 [Not on Bailii. Lawtel note of extempore judgment.] Regular readers will know of our interest in Mr Dharam Ghopee (or Gopee), our very favourite unlawful...
Make do and mend: Undoing Superstrike on deposits
The Govt has published the text of the Government amendment to the Deregulation Bill that is proposed to deal with tenancy deposits and specifically the Superstrike position of a new tenancy (and requirement to re-protect the deposit and re-serve the...
They think it’s all over….
We covered the case of Beech v Birmingham CC in the High Court here. The appeal to the Court of Appeal was heard on 11/6/2014 and judgement was given on 17/6/2014. I will not repeat the facts here except to say that the appeal was narrowed down to only two...
Succession and Sharia
A quick note on a recent Court of Appeal decision: Northumberland & Durham Property Trust Ltd v Ouaha. From 1/8/1980 until his death on 19/11/2010, Mr Al-Faisal held a protected Rent Act tenancy of Flat 15, 1 Royal Avenue House, London, SW3. In 1987, 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...
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,...
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...
Oh Mr Ghopee.
God, we are told, loves a trier. Perhaps fortunately, the Court of Appeal takes a less emollient approach with an unlawful money lender who has been repeatedly featured on this site. Ghana Commercial Finance Ltd v Sawyer & Anr [2014] EWCA Civ 489 [Not on...
Spoiling the Broth
Blake and others v LB Waltham Forest [2014] EWHC 1027 (Admin) is a judicial review challenge to the local authority's decision to terminate a licence held by Christian Kitchen (the 3rd Claimant) to operate its soup kitchen out of the Mission Grove Car Park,...
Disrepair – counterclaims after possession order.
Here is an interesting prospect* (and a big tug of forelock to Beatrice Prevatt at Garden Court for the initial suggestion). Can a counterclaim for disrepair be brought after a possession order is made? Conventionally, we've thought that a counterclaim...