DCLoG which, by all accounts, was cockahoop over Ahmad has issued a new draft Code of Guidance on allocations for consultation: Fair and Flexible. This amends parts of the 2002 Code and the 2008 Code on CBL. The new draft Code is obviously aimed at...
Allocations policies: Publication
In R (Boolen) v Barking and Dagenham LBC reported on Lawtel, the Claimant applied for judicial review of the the council's allocation scheme on the basis that (1) the council had implemented a "local connection" criterion into its prioritisation decisions...
Pinnock and Proportionality
The CA have just handed down judgment in Manchester CC v Pinnock[2009] EWCA Civ 852, concerning the evidence that can be taken into account to justify a breach of a demoted tenancy at a review panel, the proper role of the County Court in such a...
The good, the bad and the aesthetically challenged
'Building Britain's Future', a broad Government policy direction document, has been put out and must be regarded as an early draft of the Labour election manifesto. As people may well have heard, social housing and the allocation thereof features in the...
Austin to the Lords
Word reaches us that LB Southwark v Austin (our report on the Court of Appeal here) has been given permission by the House of Lords (or Supreme Court as it will be). It seems that the time of the tolerated trespasser troubling the Lords is not yet over, as...
Take it as is or not at all
Ryan v London Borough of Islington [2009] EWCA Civ 578 concerned Ms Ryan's Right to Buy under Part V Housing Act 1985 and whether or not it had been deemed to be withdrawn. Ms Ryan was the secure tenant of a an Islington property. In January 2003, she served...
Tales from the pink campervan
The Tenants Services Authority (the new regulatory body for RSLs and, from April 2010, local authorities) has been holding a "national conversation" with tenants, touring round in a pink campervan amongst other engagement techniques. The outcome from that,...
Residing, or merely living, with…
Freeman v London Borough of Islington [2009] EWCA Civ 536 was an appeal to the Court of Appeal from a Circuit Judge's finding that Ms Freeman was not entitled to succeed to her father's secure tenancy under s.87 Housing Act 1985. At issue was the definition...
Equality Bill – request for help
As we noted here, the Government's new Equality Bill brings together various bits of anti-discrimination legislation and extends some of them. One area that is extended is protection against age discrimination, which is now covered by Part 3, in respect of...
Tolerated Trespasser day
It is official, orders signed and everything. As of today, 20 May 2009, Schedule 11 of the Housing & Regeneration Act is in force, save for paragraphs 3(3), 8(3) and 14(3), which we are arguing about below. Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Commencement...
More on tolerated trespassers
Following on from our post yesterday (and from a personal conversation with Robert Latham of Doughty Street Chambers) we can shed a bit more light on the forthcoming commencement of Sch 11, Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. Firstly, the successor landlord...
And now, the end is near
With grateful thanks to James Stark of Garden Court North and North West Housing Law Practitioners Group, we can pass on some news on the introduction of Schedule 11 Housing & Regeneration Act 2008 and the end of the tolerated trespasser. The SI should...