A couple of quick notes from the HLPA meeting this evening. Aweys v Birmingham is listed for the Lords next week (homeless at home and allocation policy differences in priority between homeless at home and those with no accommodation available, as if you...
No no she's not dead, she's, she's restin'!
Newport City Council v Charles [2008] EWCA Civ 1541, The Times, 11 Aug 2008 [now on bailii] The transcript for this (factually remarkable but legally straightforward) case has only just been produced, hence the delay in covering it. The appellant, Mr...
Views on the Mortgage possession protocol
The Law Gazette this week has a couple of articles on the new mortgage repossession/money claim protocol. First is a clear and possibly optimistic outline of the requirements of the protocol from Christopher Atkinson. Well worth a read on the details and...
Families, eh
The one key message of property law is never trust your family. Mirza v Mirza [2009] EWHC 3 (Ch) is a further example of this truism and I can only marvel at the way Stephen Smith QC, sitting as a Deputy Chancery Judge, dealt with the case. The Claimants,...
Scotland's homelessness advance warning system
News of a change from over the border. From 1st April landlords will have to notify the local authority in a standard form when they raise proceedings for possession. This will give effect to s. 11 of the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003. Notice can...
Expanding the Public Law defence, a bit
What Doherty v Birmingham City Council (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government intervening) [2008] UKHL 57 actually means for a public law defence to possession claims, particularly summary possession, was the subject of London Borough of...
A Post-Doherty Appeal?
Doherty v Birmingham CC [2008] 3 WLR 636 left us all wondering about the form and limits of a challenge to summary possession proceedings. My attempt at smuggling proportionality into a public law defence settled, for instance -good for the client, rather...
Risky business
In CDS Housing v Bellis [2008] EWCA Civ 1315, the Court of Appeal in a short judgment upheld a possession order made in favour of the Claimant housing association against Mr Bellis, a secure tenant, who suffered from serious delusions. Mr Bellis appears to...
Tolerated trespassers in the House of Lords
For once we were well and truly beaten to the line in publicly announcing a judgment, and in this instance most deservedly so. At about 11 am at the Housing Law Conference Jan Luba QC announced the result of Knowsley HT v White, Honeyghan-Green v LB...
Equality bill to tackle Malcolm judgment
From Usefully Employed (hat-tip) comes the news that the consultation on the Equality Bill proposes the introduction of indirect discrimination as a category, which would help with the horlicks that the Lords made of the 1995 Act in Malcolm v Lewisham: [the...
The powers of the appellate court
Admiral Taverns (Cygnet) Ltd v Daniel and another [2008] EWHC 1688 (QB), and [2008] EWCA Civ 1501. We seem to have missed this important case when it was at High Court level. Sorry about that. An appeal against the High Court judgment has just been dismissed...
Request for info – Ground 8
Ah, Ground 8. How we love it. We have been asked by some researchers, who are investigating housing association rent arrears management as well as their use of Ground 8, if readers would get in touch with them if they have experience of RSLs using Ground 8...