Archive for February 2009
Your name’s not down, you’re not getting in
R (Ariemuguvbe) v LB Islington (2009) QBD (Admin) 24/02/09 [just on Lawtel, not on Bailii yet - what's up with Bailii?] concerned the meaning of ‘household’ for the purposes of Part VI Housing Act 1996.
A. had applied to Islington as homeless and Islington had accepted the full housing duty. A. and her family were temporarily [...]
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Do not pass Go
Cambridge City Council v Joyce
No link for this one, but it was noted on Lawtel this morning and has been reported as [2009] All ER (D) 234 (Feb). Mr Joyce was a secure tenant of one of Cambridge’s properties. His tenancy contained conditions not to harass anyone or to do anything on or around the [...]
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With friends like these…
Cheval Bridging Finance Ltd v Bhasin and others [2009] EWCA Civ 1613.
Mrs Bhasin had lived at 9 Long Acre Drive since May 1975. Initially, she was a tenant of the local authority but, in c.1988, she purchased the property under the “Right To Buy” scheme and it was registered in her sole name.
Some years later, [...]
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It’s not a deposit, honest
With thanks to Christopher Stockdale at John Barkers of Grimsby, we have had news of another Shorthold Assured Tenancy deposit case, Piggott v Slaven, Great Grimsby County Court 23 February 2009.
This one is of particular interest as the issue at stake was whether there was deposit at all, or just an advance payment of rent. [...]
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Unreasonable refusal to assign
A case appearing on my radar, though one that may not excite many readers is Landlord Protect Limited v St Anselm Development Company Limited [2009] EWCA Civ 99. A case concerning whether a landlord has imposed an unreasonable condition for a consent to assign.
The relevant covenant in the lease was as follows:
…not to assign part [...]
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Closure orders
There have been two recent cases on closure orders of passing interest. The first, less important case was reported in The Guardian’s Society pages. The hearing appears to have been an amusing event, attended by “a large group of sex workers and their maids”, at which the police officer giving evidence could give [...]
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Who wants to know?
A very odd case was noted on Lawtel this morning – AB v Leicester City Council, Court of Appeal, 19.2.09.
AB had applied under Part 7, Housing Act 1996, to Leicester City Council (”Leicester”) for assistance as a homeless person. It appears that, at both the s.184 and s.202 stages, the City Council had rejected the [...]
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North of the border
Glasgow City Council v Mitchell [2009] UKHL 11
This is a Scottish appeal to the House of Lords on the scope of the duties owed – if any – by landlords in respect of the behavior of their tenants. It is a difficult case to read (at least for any English lawyers) because of the different [...]
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Dead and gone
The mopping up of the tail end of tolerated trespasser cases continues.
Barry Austin v LB Southwark [2008] EWCA Civ 66 was the Court of Appeal hearing of the appeal from the High Court hearing we noted earlier.
The issue at stake was whether Mr Austin would have a right to apply under s.85 HA 1985 to [...]
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Nelsonian ignorance
Iyekekpolor Ugiagbe is a dream appellant – or, rather, an appellant whose homelessness story is a dream for a neo-liberal Court of Appeal who allowed her appeal against Southwark’s finding that she was intentionally homeless (Ugiagbe v Southwark LBC, [2009] EWCA Civ 31).
Ms Ugiagbe and her two small children rented privately. Her landlord sought [...]
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