With the beginning of the bedroom tax looming up for April and upwards of 700,000 households affected, I've been thinking about the position when the inevitable rent arrears possessions start to appear - probably by about October - and also whether the...
Monkey on my back*
Even since McCann v. UK (2008) 47 EHRR 40, a lot of people (around these parts) have been waiting for a case on Article 8 and the rule in Hammersmith v Monk (Hammersmith and Fulham LBC v. Monk [1992] AC 478) to reach the higher Courts. Is the rule that...
Request for information
[Updated 20/12/12. See below] There is a rather odd case note on Lawtel on a High Court appeal of a dismissed defence to possession following an apparently failed succession... Evans v Brent London Borough Council QB (Ramsey J) 18/12/2012 [note of extempore...
‘Homeless Legislation – a thing of the past?’
[Update at the end of the post 15/11/2012] Now that the Guardian has the story, I feel able to quote a briefing paper by Andy Gale of the DCLG that had found its way to me. This is the briefing that Andy Gale has been giving to Council officers (not...
Tempest Tossed?
Does the landlord's repairing duty under Section 11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 extend to damage by fire, flood or tempest? LB Hammersmith and Fulham v Carty is a County Court judgment reported on Hardwicke Chamber's site which raises some interesting...
Not round these parts
R(Carney) v Bolton-at-Home Limited [2012] EWHC 2553 (Admin) Did historic ASB by the daughter of a former evicted tenant allow the local authority to refuse to allow her accommodation in the same area? This was the issue in this judicial review of...
Survivorship and succession
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council v Hickin [2012] UKSC 39 We reported this case in the Court of Appeal here. Briefly Ms Hickin was the daughter of joint tenants of Solihull and had lived in the house since she was born. The father moved out some 9 years...
Mind the Step 2 – The bannister that wasn’t
This is the second of two recent cases on Defective Premises Act 1972 and stairs (for the first see here). There is now a third case on Occupiers Liability Act 1957 with our note to come shortly. Patrick Joseph Hannon v Hillingdon Homes Limited [2012] EWHC...
NL on flexible tenancies – free CPD too!
We don't usually do promotional stuff on the blog, but I thought we might make an exception in this case, because it involves free CPD and, well, me (and another from the NL team). I did a podcast for CPDCast on the introduction and operation of Flexible...
Barnet’s brave new dawn
And, like a sudden, startling and slightly embarrassing squeak from a vinyl sofa, flexible tenancies are here! London Borough of Barnet have announced, in a manner which suggests absolutely no political motivation behind the decision at all, the 'end of the...
Double plus ungood
The lovely, smiling Grant Shapps, Housing Minister, who clearly in no way whatsoever wants to distract attention from the recent kerfuffle over his alleged misleading of Parliament through dodgy use of statistics (hereafter Shapptistics), has announced the...
Strengthening Powers of Possession for Anti-Social Behaviour
You may recall that, on August 3, 2011, the Government launched a consultation paper on its proposals to introduce a “mandatory power of possession” against tenants who are responsible for acts of anti-social behaviour. On August 15, 2011, following the...