DCLG's consultation paper on High Income Social Tenants: Pay to Stay Consultation Paper has brought out the academic in me, in part because it is about the construction of a "problem" by policy-makers. In sum, the proposal is to encourage landlords to...
Barking and Dagenham LBC v Bakare; too little too late
Just a brief note on this. As yet no transcript. This is another example of a fairly robust antisocial behaviour decision being upheld on appeal and it reinforces the well established principle that an appellant who is essentially attacking the discretion of...
Single room rate and social housing
[Updated 15 March, see below] Joe Halewood, who runs a fine blog on supported housing at SPeye, has unearthed a rather alarming statement from the DWP buried in the impact assessment on under occupation changes to HB for social housing from October 2011. The...
Pigeons in the flat alas*
Siveter v Wandsworth LBC (2012) CA (Civ Div) 16/02/2012 [Not on Bailii yet, just a Lawtel note] S was the secure tenant of Wandsworth in a 4th floor flat. She had complained to Wandsworth about pigeons nesting outside her flat, in a cupboard that had an...
Full of Sound and Fury…
Signifying nothing* (*And yes, I am aware that the preceding line is 'A tale told by an idiot'.) The much trumpeted Wandsworth riot related eviction has stalled even before possession proceedings were issued. According to a press release from Liberty,...
Annual rituals
Happy new year to all who read, comment on or write for Nearly Legal! This is usually a moment to take stock of the past year and look forward to the next, but I'm feeling far too lazy to do it properly. Luckily, the DCLG have made the task easier by...
Policy, possession and proportionality
Denry Okpor v London Borough of Lewisham, Bromley County Court 25 October 2011 [Transcript not publicly available] This was a rolled up permission to appeal and appeal hearing (on which more later) for appeal to a Circuit Judge from a possession order made...
Home, realistically and objectively
London Borough of Islington v Boyle & Anor [2011] EWCA Civ 1450 This rather sad case was Islington's appeal on the issue of whether Ms Boyle was occupying the flat she had under a secure tenancy as her 'sole or principal home'. It is a highly significant...
Water Under the Bridge
Rochdale Borough Council v Dixon [2011] EWCA Civ 1173 Apologies for the late delivery of this case note which has been held up by a blizzard (of work rather than the kind afflicting the Eastern USA). This case is somewhat complicated and involved so you will...
The assignment that wasn’t.
Haringey LBC v Theobald. Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court 7 April 2011 Hat tip to September's Legal Action 'Recent Developments in Housing Law' for this County Court case, and Daniel Fitzpatrick at Hodge Jones & Allen. Not a very significant case...
Ain’t no Cicero
This, the second post on the riot related possession proposals (the first is here), looks at an article published on the ConservativeHome website by Jake Berry MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Grant Shapps, and Tory MP for the gritty urban constituency...
Losing localism
Or, more accurately 'locality'. Sorry if that got anyone excited over nothing. As has been widely announced, the DCLG consultation on introducing a mandatory ground for possession on grounds of conviction for a housing related ASB offence etc, previously...