Care fees ruling: the implications for other families – Daily Telegraph
‘Worcestershire County Council has lost a court battle over its attempt to sell a woman’s home to pay for care.’
Daily Telegraph, 12th February 2014
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Category: housing
Deciding without a decision – NearlyLegal
‘R (on the application of PK) v Harrow LBC (2014) QBD Admin 30 January 2014. The Claimants were the children of M. The family was street homeless and destitute following eviction. It appears that Harrow had decided there was no duty to accommodate M, as the family was referred to Social Services.’
NearlyLegal, 9th February 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/
No reason for reasons redux – NearlyLegal
‘A rather odd second appeal from a s.204 appeal decision. At issue was whether the Council’s review officer should take into account “the homeless person’s state of knowledge about the Council’s rejection of the person’s reasons for stating he or she did not wish to live in a particular area”. In short, was an absence of a stated reason for a decision a potential issue on review.’
NearlyLegal, 2nd February 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/
Council acted unlawfully in refusing tenancy – UK Human Rights Blog
‘The High Court has held that a local authority had abused its powers by refusing to offer a solicitor a new lease of the claimant’s office premises.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 29th January 2014
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Impossible Preference: Excluding the homeless from housing lists – NearlyLegal
‘This judicial review permission hearing raises very significant issues for post Localism Act Council allocation policies. The central issue is the Council’s ability under the Act to set an allocation policy that includes ‘qualifying classes’ and excludes other classes.’
NearlyLegal, 28th January 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Upper Tribunal on bedrooms – NearlyLegal
‘There has been some excited talk about an Upper Tribunal decision on a Local Housing Allowance appeal which apparently offered a definition of ‘bedroom’. Obviously, as an Upper Tribunal decision, this would be binding on First Tier Tribunals, even though addressing LHA rather than the bedroom tax.’
NearlyLegal, 26th January 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
HB and Exempt accommodation: unreasonably high rent – NearlyLegal
‘I admit that SS v Birmingham CC [2013] UKUT 418 (AAC) has been on my to do list for a while and that, possibly, the main reason for finding the time to write it up is because I’m on a two hour strike (#fairpayinHE). But, it is a really quite important case about the application of the unreasonably high rent rule for “exempt accommodation” in Reg 13 and Sch 3 of the 2006 Housing Benefit regs. The principal question of law concerns the meaning of “suitable alternative accommodation” in those regs.’
NearlyLegal, 23rd January 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Fracking fears as landowners lay claim to ancient rights – Daily Telegraph
‘Fears that landowners could use ancient rights to allow fracking under people’s homes have been raised following the disclosure on Wednesday that more than 73,000 claims to manorial rights in England and Wales have been received by the Land Registry. The claims have resulted in thousands of home owners being sent letters informing them that landowners or institutions have the rights to mineral extraction under their property. This has raised fears the landowners could try to exercise those rights for mining or fracking.’
Daily Teelgraph, 16th Janaury 2014
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Bedroom tax loophole could exempt 40,000 wrongly identified as liable – The Guardian
‘Thousands of people have been wrongly identified as liable for the bedroom tax, including some who now face eviction or have been forced to move to a smaller property, as a result of an error by Department of Work and Pensions. Housing experts believe as many as 40,000 people could be affected by the mistake. The DWP says it believes only a “small number” of tenants are affected, which it estimates number 5,000.’
Full story
The Guardian, 9th January 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Putting it off – NearlyLegal
‘Before I come to the facts of Scriven and others v Calthorpe Estates [2013] UKUT 469 (LC), I need, I think, to give a fair bit of background. Even by the comprehensive standards of NL, this is pretty obscure.’
NearlyLegal, 8th January 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
High Court judge dismisses office-to-home challenge by London boroughs – OUT-LAW.com
‘The Government’s procedure in deciding which areas to exempt from recently introduced permitted development rights allowing offices to be transformed into homes without planning permission was fair, a High Court judge has decided.’
OUT-LAW.com, 6th January 2014
Source: www.out-law.com
Unsuccessful challenge to 52 weeks rule in Housing Benefit Regs – NearlyLegal
‘Obrey v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2013] EWCA Civ 1584 concerns an appeal against an Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) decision which set aside the findings of the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) that Reg. 7(17), Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, breached Art. 14 ECHR (although not expressly set out in the Judgment, presumably in conjunction with A1P1).’
NearlyLegal, 6th January 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
There’s no place like HMO – Nearly Legal
‘Shah v Croydon LBC [2013] EWHC 3657 (Admin). An appeal by way of case stated from a Magistrates Court decision that a property owned by Mr Shah was an HMO and that Mr S was therefore liable for some 14 months Council Tax. And an illustration of the confusion of the multiple definitions of House in Multiple Occupation floating around.’
Nearly Legal, 19th December 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/
Inspector acted in error in applying revoked RSS figures says Court of Appeal – OUT-LAW.com
‘An inspector who used housing supply figures from the now revoked East of
England Plan as a reason for refusing an appeal for development in the green
belt in St Albans acted in error, the Court of Appeal has ruled.’
OUT-LAW.com, 16th December 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (To Manage) – NearlyLegal
‘The right to manage provisions in Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 have been an incredibly fertile source of litigation. Thanks Parliament. No, really, thanks a lot. One reason might be the drafting of the legislation itself (as J has said, you could never accuse it of being user friendly) The challenges have focused on the two key elements – the qualifying criteria (or what I am loosely calling “qualifying criteria”) and the procedural requirements. The judicial trend in respect of both has been in favour of allowing the right to manage to be acquired, so far as possible (Exhibit 1 for qualifying criteria: Gala Unity v Ariadne Road; Exhibit 2 for procedure: Avon Freeholds v Regent Court RTM).’
NearlyLegal, 16th December 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Court of Appeal issues key NPPF ruling in cases where no local plan yet – Local Government Lawyer
‘The Court of Appeal has clarified the operation of a key part of the National Planning Policy Framework in situations where a local authority has yet to produce a local plan.’
Local Government Lawyer, 13th December 2013
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Shortfalls, guidance and intentionality – NearlyLegal
‘A s.202 review decision on affordability was at the centre of this second appeal, brought by Birmingham after a s.204 appeal decision went against them. The issue was to what extent the review decision should manifest attention to the statutory guidance (the July 2006 Guidance) on affordability.
NearlyLegal, 15th December 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
What role does mediation play in social housing? – Hardwicke Chambers
‘At a case management hearing in the LVT (as it then was) back in March 2013, the chair said that, whilst normally he would direct that the parties to that dispute should attempt mediation, he was aware that it was “usually pointless” doing so where public funds are at stake as public bodies generally cannot justify the arbitrary reductions that can be necessary for a mediation to succeed, and fear creating some form of precedent. Misguided as I thought the chair was, it did seem likely that he might have been speaking from many years of experience.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 3rd December 2013
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
What use is a Zambrano right of residence? – NearlyLegal
‘A couple of years ago a lot of lawyers practising in housing, immigration and welfare benefits got very excited by the case of Ruiz Zambrano (European citizenship) [2011] EUECJ C-34/09. The reason for this excitement was that the ECJ said that art.20, of the Treaty, required member states to grant a right of residence to a third country national, who was the primary carer of an EU national, if a refusal to would result in the EU national being forced to leave the EU..More excitingly, this applied to EU nationals who had not left their member state, i.e. it would apply to the parents of British nationals.’
NearlyLegal, 9th December 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Allocations and legitimate expectation – NearlyLegal
‘In R(Alansi) v Newham LBC, Stuart-Smith J held that, although Ms Alansi had a legitimate expectation that she would remain a priority homeseeker on Newham’s housing register, Newham had not acted unreasonably and in abuse of its power by withdrawing its representation. It is a case which demonstrates (again) just how hard it is to shoehorn a genuine grievance into a successful JR challenge, doubly so in the context of a local authority allocation scheme.’
NearlyLegal, 1st December 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
