“Eleanor Fletcher and Juliet Chapman, barristers, of Lamb Building explore how far the Court of Appeal’s latest guidance for granting exclusionary occupation orders is consistent with its previous dicta.”
Family Law Week, 5th March 2012
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
“The Court of Appeal has allowed a 584 home development in Blackpool to go ahead, dismissing an appeal against permission for the development. ”
OUT-LAW.com, 28th February 2012
Source: www.out-law.com
Basey and others v Oxford City Council [2012] EWCA Civ 115; [2012] WLR (D) 34
“Since the social security and housing legislation had not defined what ‘sheltered accommodation’ was, it was not legitimate for a housing authority to claim that a sheltered accommodation should have a warden or resident caretaking manager and emergency alarm to qualify as such to impose an obligation on the housing authority to pay the costs of fuel and cleaning of the rooms and windows of the housing benefit tenants living in the accommodation. Therefore, a special needs adult living in a four-bedroom property with three other special needs tenants each occupying a bedroom and sharing a kitchen, bath room, two toilets and two sitting rooms, provided with 24-hour care and support supervision staff to meet the tenants’ needs, was a sheltered accommodation such as to oblige the housing authority to pay the costs of fuel and cleaning expenses as part of the rent out of the housing benefit.”
WLR Daily, 15th February 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“The ‘great earthquake’ that ‘rent the whole neighbourhood’ was recorded by Charles Dickens in Dombey and Son when a railway first cut through Camden in the early 19th century. Nearly 200 years on, Camden’s residents are stepping up their fight against what they fear will be a smaller, but similar, seismic shock from High Speed 2, the rail scheme given the go-ahead last month.”
The Guardian, 16th February 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A landlord had a right of appeal under paragraph 6(3) of Schedule 7 to the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 as a ‘person affected’ by a housing benefit decision in respect of its tenant only in the distinct cases provided for in subordinate legislation.”
WLR Daily, 9th February 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“It is well known that on exchange of contracts for the purchase of land, title to the property vests in the buyer in equity, so that the buyer is immediately at risk if there is damage to the property. This can be a trap. If, for example, the property is damaged by fire between exchange and completion, the buyer is bound to complete without reduction in price: Poole v Adams (1864) 10 LT 287.”
Full story (PDF) see p. 2
New Square Chambers, January 2012
Source: www.newsquarechambers.co.uk
“A Big Issue seller is claiming victory in a landmark case to have her work classed as a proper job and thus be eligible for extra benefits.”
The Guardian, 17th January 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Council tenants who sub-let their homes will face up to two years in prison under proposals by the government.”
BBC News, 11th January 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“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 by a District Judge at Bromley. At issue was whether the District Judge was wrong to reject a) a proportionality defence and b) a gateway B public law defence arising from Lewisham’s failure to follow its own policy. It is interesting as an example of proportionality/gateway B defences in action in the County Court, but also somewhat frustrating, for reasons which will become clear.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 1st January 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Council tenants are to be banned from subletting their properties as the government prepares to introduce criminal offences to crack down on the ‘scandal’ of housing tenancy fraud and abuse.”
The Guardian, 1st January 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“It was not unlawful for the Government to introduce new laws that gave greater development rights for houses in multiple occupation (HMO) without consulting councils for a second time, the Court of Appeal has ruled.”
OUT-LAW.com, 19th December 2011
Source: www.out-law.com
Islington London Borough Council v Boyle and another: [2011] EWCA Civ 1450; [2011] WLR (D) 355
“Guidance on the principles to be applied when determining whether a tenant occupied a dwelling-house as his only or principal home within section 81 of the Housing Act 1985.”
WLR Daily, 6th December 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Bubb v Wandsworth London Borough Council: [2011] EWCA Civ 1285; [2011] WLR (D) 323
“A county court judge hearing an appeal on a point of law under section 204 of the Housing Act 1996, against a review of whether a local housing authority owed a duty to a homeless person under the 1996 Act, had no jurisdiction to find the relevant primary facts for himself. The judge’s function was to consider whether the reviewing officer’s decision should be quashed on judicial review grounds.”
WLR Daily, 9th November 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Mitu v Camden London Borough Council [2011] EWCA Civ 1249; [2011] WLR (D) 310
“Where a local authority, having decided that an applicant was intentionally homeless and not in priority need, decided on review of the application that the applicant’s homelessness was not intentional, it had a duty by section 192(2) of the Housing Act 1996 to provide or arrange for the provision of advice and assistance, and a discretion by section 192(3) of the 1996 Act to provide accommodation. Failure to consider the exercise of that discretionary power, if it affected the fairness of the decision, was a procedural deficiency requiring the local authority to give the applicant notice of its intended decision and allow him to make further representations either orally or in writing.”
WLR Daily, 1st November 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“On 13 October 2011 Mr Justice Supperstone in the High Court held that changes to rules for calculating housing benefit were lawful and in particular did not breach equality legislation.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 14th October 2011
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“A council with one of the biggest housing shortages in the country is threatening to use compulsory purchase orders against the owners of homes that have been left empty for six months or more.”
The Guardian, 8th October 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Residents of Dale Farm will have to wait until next week to learn whether they have won or lost their high court battle against eviction.”
The Guardian, 6th October 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Landlords who rent out properties privately in a borough in east London could be the first in the country to face mandatory licensing under new proposals. Newham Council has started a 10-week consultation on proposals to introduce a licensing scheme for all private landlords that would see them and their properties subjected to legal checks. If the scheme is approved by councillors, it will be the first borough in England to license all private landlords.”
The Guardian, 29th September 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“If the High Court allowed residents of the UK’s largest illegal travellers’ site to escape eviction it would ‘send out the wrong signal’ to the nation, a judge was told today. A victory for the travellers of Dale Farm, near Basildon, Essex, ‘would strike to the very principles of the rule of law’, said a barrister representing Basildon Council.”
The Independent, 29th September 2011
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“Travellers fighting to stay on the UK’s biggest illegal site should today discover whether they have won the latest round of a legal battle.”
The Independent, 26th September 2011
Source: www.independent.co.uk
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