Temur v London Borough of Hackney [2014] EWCA Civ 877 This second appeal to the Court of Appeal from a s.204 Housing Act 1996 appeal raises three important questions. Unfortunately, the answers to them are rather brief and rather negative. The issues are i)...
In the garden of Eden
Lawtel had an interesting note on a permission to appeal case earlier this week - Mount Eden Land Ltd v Bolsover Investments Ltd (Ch.D, 20.6.14). Mount Eden Land Ltd (also known as the Langham Estate) had the freehold of an office block. Bolsover Investments...
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...
The oxygen of publicity: Paratus and Moore Blatch LLP
Not strictly speaking a housing case, though it is a mortgage repossession matter. But when a High Court Judge orders that a 'clear and repeated contempt of court should attract proper sanction in the form of publicity', who are we to refuse to assist?...
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...
Pregnancy and Worker Status
Saint Prix v SSWP Case C-507/12 must be one of the more obvious decisions of the CJEU in the sense that the outcome should have been apparent (although the rationale less so), but no less important because of that. The question on reference from the UKSC...
Former landlords and s.20B LTA 1985
In Ground Rents (Regisport) Ltd v Dowlen [2014] UKUT 144 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) had to – once again – grapple with s.20B, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The facts are quite straightforward. Imagine, if you will, that there is a modern...
On the naughty step: The unacceptable face of London landlords
Some of you, those in London at least, might have noticed Boris Johnson announce a new, and completely voluntary, no compulsion here, landlord accreditation scheme. The idea being that tenants, desperate to find somewhere in the middle of the worst...
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,...
Don’t ask the surveyor
Windermere Marina Village v Wild [2014] UKUT 163 (LC) is an important decision about the vexed question of apportionment that arises in many residential service charge disputes. Many residential leases for flats divide up the total service charge bill...
Succession and Sharia
A quick note on a recent Court of Appeal decision: Northumberland & Durham Property Trust Ltd v Ouaha. From 1/8/1980 until his death on 19/11/2010, Mr Al-Faisal held a protected Rent Act tenancy of Flat 15, 1 Royal Avenue House, London, SW3. In 1987, Ms...