A judicial review of the bedroom tax has been given permission, where the claimant is a victim of domestic violence who has received support to remain in her home through a 'sanctuary scheme'. The woman, a victim of rape, assault, harassment and stalking by...
Condensation damp and saturated plaster
Just a quick note on a County Court disrepair trial with an interesting finding on damp plaster DR v Southwark LBC, Lambeth County Court 11 June 2014 DR had brought a claim for disrepair including for damp, saturated plaster to the external wall in the...
Bedrooms: Living, moving and relaxing
A couple of new bedroom tax FTT decisions (also on the FTT decisions page) The first, from Liverpool [reasons here], is a fairly standard room size decision on a room measuring 44 square feet. However the room had a bunk bed in it, used by the tenant's...
The state of that bedroom
This is a rather unusual bedroom tax First Tier Tribunal decision from Islington. (Decision notice. Also on the FTT decisions page.) There was one additional room, classed as a bedroom by the landlord, Islington Council. The tenant appealed on the basis that...
Formerly known as.
Here is an interesting FTT bedroom tax decision from Runcorn, received via RAISE who are clearly doing good work in supporting such appeals. The detailed statement of reasons is here (and on the FTT decisions page). The appellant is the tenant of what was...
Götterdämmerung
Well, featuring fire and flood at least. As we've noted before, the '1996 exemption' to the bedroom tax only applied if one was in the same property or if: the dwelling so occupied was not the same by reason only that the change was caused by a fire, flood,...
An obligatory discretion?
Rutherford & Ors v Secretary of State for Work And Pensions [2014] EWHC 1613 (Admin) This was the judicial review, supported by CPAG, of the failure of the bedroom tax regulations to address the position of tenants where a bedroom was needed for...
How much is a secure tenancy worth?
London Borough of Lambeth v Loveridge [2013] EWCA Civ 494 We are appallingly late with this one, and have no excuse. But this case has just been given permission by the Supreme Court, so this is a good moment to make amends. Mr L was the secure tenant of...
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...
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....