Home Group Ltd v Henry. County Court at Newcastle. 21 May 2018 For post October 2015 assured shorthold tenancies section 21A means that no s.21 notice may be served when the landlord is in breach of a prescribed requirement. One of those prescribed...
Song from under the floorboards*
Fouladi v Darout Ltd & Ors (2018) EWHC 3501 (Ch) Although the judgment is dated December 2018, this has just appeared - a case on the perennially vexed topic of noise from a flat above. In fact it is an appeal and cross appeal on a county court judgment...
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...
When an ‘or’ is an ‘and’ in Wales
Evans v Fleri (2019) EW Misc 12 (CC) A lesson in drafting from Wales. The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 provides at Section 7(1) The landlord of a dwelling subject to a domestic tenancy must not do any of the things described in subsection (2) in respect of the...
Prohibition Orders and ending tenancies
T v W. County Court at Central London. 16 April 2019 (Unreported) T was the owner of a property. The property was subject to a prohibition order served by LB Croydon. Nonetheless, T let a dwelling in the property to W. (T denied knowledge of the prohibition...
But, it’s a long, long while…
Ward & Ors, R (on the application of) v The London Borough of Hillingdon & Ors (2019) EWCA Civ 692 Regular readers will remember the judicial reviews of Hillingdon's allocation policy requirement for a 10 year residence period (those without 10 years...
When is a licence a secure tenancy?
Mohamed v London Borough of Barnet (2019) EWHC 1012 (QB) Ms M was placed in temporary accommodation by LB Barnet following a homeless application. Barnet found her to be intentionally homeless but continued to provide accommodation under Children Act 1989....
The End of Section 21
I'd suggest sitting down before you read this. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, has announced/is to announce depending on when you read this, that the Government is to abolish section 21. Honest....
The wrong doctors
R(Al-Ali) v Brent LBC (2018) EWHC 3634 (Admin) (not on Bailii. We have seen a judgment and it is also reported in March 2019 Legal Action Housing: recent developments). There is, I think little of legal significance in this judicial review permission...
Homelessness – capacity to apply
R(Uddin) v Southwark LBC (2019) EQHC 180 (Admin) (Not on Bailii. We've seen a copy of the judgment. Also reported in the March 2019 Legal Action Housing: recent developments). Mr U is a single man. In May 2018, he was assaulted and suffered a serious brain...
Ending duties after the HRA
R (OAO Harris) v London Borough of Islington. High Court (Admin) CO/1282/2019 (unreported, settled March 2019.). This is a settled judicial review, I've seen the grounds, interim order and final consent order. It raises a number of issues about the...
Landlord’s access and actually turning up
New Crane Wharf Freehold Ltd v Dovener (LANDLORD AND TENANT – clause in lease required tenant to permit the landlord to enter) (2019) UKUT 98 (LC) What counts as 'refusing access', where a landlord has a contractual right to access on notice? This rather odd...