Archive for December 2008
Man or boy?
“That is the question, easy to ask but not so easy to answer” – as it takes the Court of Appeal 40 pages (right before Christmas, thank you very much, hence this rather late note) to answer that question in R (A) v LB Croydon; R (M) v LB Lambeth [2008] EWCA Civ 1445 I’d have to agree.
M [...]
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Refusing Temporary Accommodation
Once someone is in temporary accommodation, following an acceptance of the full housing duty to a homeless person by the local authority, what happens when that temporary accommodation becomes unreasonable for the household to continue to occupy, but alternative temporary accommodation is refused by the tenant?
Muse v London Borough of Brent [2008] EWCA Civ 1447 [...]
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EU Workers and housing eligibility
Barry v London Borough of Southwark [2008] EWCA Civ 1440 concerned an EEA national’s eligibility for social housing, via a Part VII application.
EEA ‘workers’ are eligible for housing assistance as they are not persons subject to immigration control for the purposes of s.185(1) Housing Act 1996 and Reg 6 of the Allocation of Housing and [...]
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Expanding the Public Law defence, a bit
What Doherty v Birmingham City Council (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government intervening) [2008] UKHL 57 actually means for a public law defence to possession claims, particularly summary possession, was the subject of London Borough of Hillingdon v Collins & Another [2008] EWHC 3016 (Admin). This is what was to have been a [...]
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Discretionary Housing Payments
R (Gargett) v LB Lambeth [2008] EWCA Civ 1450; on appeal from [2008] EWHC 663 (Admin).
A Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) is a discretionary payment made by a local housing authority to a person who is (a) in receipt of housing benefit or council tax benefit; (b) considered by the authority to be in need of [...]
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Vulnerability and incapacity benefit
Mangion v Lewisham LBC only appears on lawtel as an ex tempore judgment on 11.12.08 so if somebody out there has a transcript/better note of the Court of Appeal’s judgment, that would be helpful to understand this decision. What appears to have happened is that Ms Mongian had alcohol and back problems. Lewisham [...]
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Adverse possession and estoppel
In St Pancras & Humanist HA v Leonard [2008] EWCA Civ 1442, the Court of Appeal held that, although Mr Leonard had possession of the relevant property (a garage), he nevertheless was estopped from claiming a right by adverse possession against the Claimant. The case is interesting largely because of the way the CA deployed [...]
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Effluxion of time and enfranchisement
Ackerman and another v Lay and others [2008] EWCA Civ 1428 (not on Bailli, but available via Lawtel)
The appellants/tenants were the leasehold owners of a building and the respondents were the freehold owners of the same. The building had been subdivided into five flats, one of which was occupied by the appellants.
In 2000, the appellant [...]
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Homeless review, Reg 8(2) and changed facts
Reg 8(2) of the Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Review Procedures) Regulations 1999 provides that if a reviewing officer on s.202 review considers:
that there is deficiency or irregularity in the original [s.184] decision, or the manner in which it was made, but is minded nonetheless to make a decision which is against the interests of [...]
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Risky business
In CDS Housing v Bellis [2008] EWCA Civ 1315, the Court of Appeal in a short judgment upheld a possession order made in favour of the Claimant housing association against Mr Bellis, a secure tenant, who suffered from serious delusions. Mr Bellis appears to have believed that “there was electro-magnetic radiation or something similar [...]
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