Our grateful thanks to Alasdair McClenahan of Justice for Tenants for a copy of this decision and his notes. Mrs Elanga Longane et al v Frank Mukahanana and Wealth Harbour Consulting Ltd LON/00AH/HMG/2018/0002 (Copy of decision) This FTT decision on a rent...
Sectoral Regulation Without Section 21
One of the interesting potential side effects of removing section 21 from the Private Rented Sector is the damage it might do to landlord regulation. Over time s21 has become a backdoor regulatory tool to help ensure landlord compliance. If the notice is...
I Hate Those MEESes to Pieces*
Introduction 1st April 2019 saw the introduction of the significantly amended Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) for private sector landlords. These provisions have been delayed several times and fudged around a fair bit along the way. These...
Property Guardians and HMOs – guilty
For some reason that, quite frankly, escapes me, assorted 'powers that be' have been non-committal on whether the Housing Act 2004 provisions on HMOs, licensing etc., and also the Part 1 enforcement of conditions and HHSRS, apply to properties occupied by...
Getting a policy wrong – Housing Act 2004 enforcement in Hull
Humber Landlords Association v Hull City Council (2019) EWHC 332 (Admin) (not on Baiili yet, copy of the judgment here). There are many unfortunate ways for claimants to lose a judicial review. But being told that your challenge is based on you getting the...
Of HHSRS and Hiatuses
A couple of things... MHCLG have issued an "Addendum for the profile for the hazard of fire and in relation to cladding systems on high rise residential buildings" to the operating guidance to the HHSRS in relation to ACM cladding. The aim is: to provide...
Who lives in a shared home like this?
Nottingham City Council v Parr & Anor [2018] UKSC 51 It is not every day you see the Supreme Court setting HMO licence conditions, but today is that day. This was Nottingham's appeal from the Court of Appeal (and before that, the Upper Tribunal, and the...
Assorted bits
The post on Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz (gas safety cert and s.21) now has the approved transcript of judgment attached, which may be useful for anyone arguing such cases. The section 21 validity flowchart wasn't updated to include Caridon v...
Property guardians and ‘non-domestic rates’
This is an interesting decision of the Valuation Tribunal on the effect of the occupation by property guardians of a commercial building. Some (though not all) property guardian companies have made a sales feature of the alleged freedom from non-domestic...
Mobile home security
In John Romans Park Homes Ltd v Hancock [2018] UKUT 249 (LC), Martin Rodger QC, Deputy President of the Upper Tribunal, made an interesting, tricky, but important distinction concerning the criteria for when a park provides security for a mobile home. ...
Still more on 1 October – HMOs, storeys and rooms.
I thought we'd already covered this, but it turns out we haven't fully. So, from 1 October 2018, the definition of a HMO subject to mandatory licensing changes, and separately there are new room size requirements. The Licensing of Houses in Multiple...
Service not included.
The Queen on the application of Mr Peter Gaskin v LB Richmond Upon Thames (2018) EWHC 1996 (Admin) We didn't report round 1 of this, probably because it was so completely inconclusive, but here is round 2 and a decision that will very significant for every...