‘The Queen’s Speech 2022 committed to a Bill in the 2022-23 session to abolish ‘no-fault’ section 21 evictions in the private rented sector. This paper covers developments to date.’
House of Commons Library, 7th March 2023
Source: commonslibrary.parliament.uk
‘A legal bid to protect tenants from so called “ghost landlords” has failed, in a move that could have significant implications for people looking to claim their rent back if they live in bad conditions.’
BBC News, 2nd March 2023
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The Housing Ombudsman has found severe maladministration at major social landlord Clarion after repeated drain blockages left a disabled resident unable to use a functioning toilet in their new build home.’
Local Government Lawyer, 21st February 2023
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘In the second in a series of articles, Jack Harding focuses on lesser-known case law which may assist in defending claims brought against highways authorities for failing to maintain the highway under section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 and its predecessors.’
Local Government Lawyer, 17th February 2023
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Housing Ombudsman has found severe maladministration for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s continued repairs failings over 18 months, which left a family in “unsafe conditions”.’
Local Government Lawyer, 16th February 2023
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The father of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who was killed by mould in a social housing flat, has welcomed a new law to prevent a repeat tragedy, saying: “We are finally starting to feel like we are being treated fairly.”’
The Guardian, 9th February 2023
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Plunkett v Clarion HA. County Court at Central London. Ms Plunkett was an assured tenant of Clarion, on the Eastfields Estate. She began a claim for disrepair and unfitness for human habitation while in temporary accommodation in a hotel. The defects complained of were primarily leaks to the interior of the flat and outside the front door causing interior damp, significant mould growth, leaks from above, non-functioning ventilation to kitchen and bathroom, and infestation of mice, for periods of two to four years. The existing issues and unfitness for human habitation were confirmed in an independent expert report. Clarion had refused to agree a single joint expert.’
Nearly Legal, 13th December 2022
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022) creates a whole new world of building safety regulation and litigation. A key legislative objective was to regulate and direct responsibility for the cost of works to remedy building safety issues, so that the risk of such costs could no longer be the subject of agreement between landlord and tenant, but would (in defined circumstances) be apportioned in advance, by law, to the landlord.’
Practical Law: Construction Blog, 16th November 2022
‘Stoke on Trent City Council has warned owners of historic buildings in the city that they will face legal action if they do not maintain their buildings following two successful prosecutions that lead to the courts handing out more than £60,000 in fines.’
Local Government Lawyer, 14th November 2022
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A landlord has been ordered to pay £23,000 for failing to maintain two Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) after Tendring District Council took action.’
Local Government Lawyer, 25th August 2022
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Housing Ombudsman has found severe maladministration at housing association Metropolitan Thames Valley (MTVH) over its failings in responding to a silverfish infestation at a resident’s flat.’
Local Government Lawyer, 4th August 2022
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Poor and vulnerable tenants who are evicted from their homes or living in dangerous conditions will lose the chance to take their landlords to court when new government rules on legal costs come into force next year, experts are warning.’
The Guardian, 26th June 2022
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Khan v Mehmood (2022) EWCA Civ 791 (Housing Law Practitioners Association intervening). This was, it has to be said, in part a rather odd appeal to the Court of Appeal. The background was a rent arrears possession claim by Ms Khan and a defence and disrepair counterclaim by the tenant, Mr Mehmood. At trial, Ms Khan did not appear and was not represented. The possession claim was dismissed and a judgment on the counterclaim made for damages equating 50% of rent for the period 2007 to 2014 (date of trial) (plus return of deposit and penalty for failure to protect). The District Judge added the Simmons v Castle 10% uplift to the disrepair general damages.’
Nearly Legal, 21st June 2022
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The government’s road agency will be forced to remove hundreds of tonnes of concrete it used to bury a Victorian bridge arch despite offering a £450,000 sweetener to allow the controversial scheme to stay. Eden district council’s planning committee resisted the offer by unanimously deciding to refuse National Highways (NH) retrospective planning permission for a crude infilling project at Great Musgrave, Cumbria, that was widely condemned as “cultural vandalism”.’
The Guardian, 16th June 2022
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The First Tier Tribunal had been wrong to grant dispensation from section 20 consultation requirements on the basis that the freeholder “had started the consultation process and had kept the leaseholders of flats in the block informed until the works became sufficiently urgent that the respondent had had to carry them out without waiting for the consultation to be completed.”’
Nearly Legal, 3rd April 2022
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘A Housing Ombudsman investigation has found complaint handling failures at the London Borough of Ealing that amounted to severe maladministration, in a case in which a resident had to wait six years for a leaking roof to be replaced.’
Local Government Lawyer, 11th January 2022
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘New legislation will protect leaseholders from the costs of all post-Grenfell building safety defects, not just combustible cladding, the government has said.’
The Guardian, 10th January 2022
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘England’s courts are so run-down they are losing days of work to collapsing ceilings, broken lift and Arctic conditions, the Lord Chief Justice has said.’
The Independent, 16th November 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
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