‘A council’s imposition of a £5,000 fine on a property management business for failing to be a member of a redress scheme for three weeks was “unreasonable in the circumstances and completely disproportionate”, a tribunal judge has said.’
Local Government Lawyer, 5th October 2017
Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Trading Standards departments in London have issued fines amounting to around £370,000 to lettings agents in the last three months alone, it has emerged.’
Local Government Lawyer, 27th September 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Camden Council has successfully appealed to the Upper Tribunal against a leading estate agency, Foxtons, using the term “administration fees” in their lettings agency work.’
Local Government Lawyer, 18th September 2017
Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Prince Charles’s £1bn Duchy of Cornwall estate is facing a rebellion by residents who claim they are subject to an unfair ban on buying the freeholds to their homes.’
The Guardian, 11th September 2017
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Upper Tribunal upheld the First Tier Tribunal’s decision that units of accommodation designed for students were ‘dwellings’, but overturned the decision that such units were ‘separate dwellings’. As such, the FTT did not have jurisdiction to determine the amount of service charges payable by the units’ leaseholders under sections 18 to 30 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.’
Tanfield Chambers, 31st July 2017
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘The FTT had correctly ruled that a management agreement was for a term of more than twelve months, and therefore a long-term qualifying agreement for the purposes of s.20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.’
Tanfield Chambers, 31st July 2017
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘A lettings agency has been ordered to pay more than £20,000 in fines, compensation and costs after issuing ‘sham licences’ to renters and using a letting agency association logo when it was not a member, in what is thought to be the first prosecution of its kind in England.’
Local Government Lawyer, 21st August 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Those who have been readers of this blog for a while may recall our campaign about evictions by High Court Sheriffs where the writs were (wrongly) obtained as an administrative act by using form N293A. This culminated in a practice note by Senior Master Fontaine, stressing that – for tenants, if not for trespassers or mortgage possessions – any application for a writ had to comply with CPR 83.13.’
Nearly Legal, 20th August 2017
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Ms Afsana Begum and Mr Mohammed Rohim were the joint assured tenants of Poplar Housing from October 2014. The property was a two bed flat. The rent was paid in full by housing benefit. In August 2015, Poplar received a tip off that the property was being sub let. On investigation, Ms B had financial links to another flat nearby, her mother’s.’
Nearly Legal, 13th August 2017
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘There is a queue of significant and serious cases waiting to be written up. For time and personal reasons, this may not happen for a while. Instead, here is an insignificant case of no wider importance, but possibly some entertainment value.’
Nearly Legal, 3rd August 2017
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘It is rare, if we are entirely honest, for a First Tier Tribunal decision on service charges to be exciting. It is even rarer for there to be mystery and police raids, and “Immunity from Treason” notices, and debts of “Trillions of pounds”, and something called an ‘equity lawyer’. Yet here they all are, and more, in what on the face of it was a dispute over annual service charges of about £1200.’
Nearly Legal, 23rd July 2017
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘A landlord has failed in an appeal against a claim by the London Borough of Newham that she ignored enforcement notices related to her property, having argued that she had delegated all responsibility for the property concerned to her husband.’
Local Government Lawyer, 12th July 2017
Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The defendant, Islington Borough Council, maintained an allocation scheme which provided that certain categories of people were excluded from joining the housing register, including those who had lived in the borough for less than three out of the previous five years. However, the scheme allowed for exceptions to be made. In particular, in respect of homeless applicants to whom a long-term housing duty under Part 7 Housing Act 1996 had been accepted.’
Garden Court Chambers, 5th July 2017
Source: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk
‘Earlier this year in the US, a legal case revolved around the use of an Oxford comma. Not to be outdone, last month the Court of Appeal in England & Wales had to determine the meaning of the word ‘or’; in doing so, they embarked upon a semantic analysis of one of the most common words in the English language, flavoured by the Supreme Court’s most recent case on construction of contracts.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 15th June 2017
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
‘On 29 June 2017 the Court of Appeal gave judgment on an interesting question of statutory construction concerning the valuation provisions in section 9 of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 (“LRA67”) and the Interpretation Act 1978 (“the Interpretation Act”).’
Tanfield Chambers, 29th June 2017
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘Leases generally require leaseholders to contribute to insurance of their block – whether by including the cost in the general service charges or by way of a separate charge known as an “insurance rent”.’
Tanfield Chambers, 22nd June 2017
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has held that, in determining whether a person is eligible to apply for a new tenancy on retirement of a tenant under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, the livelihood condition need only be satisfied in the 7 year period running up to the date when the retirement notice was given, and not in the 7 year period preceding the determination of the application by the Tribunal.’
Tanfield Chambers, 4th July 2017
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘The Government has issued guidance to prosecutors not to bring charges for unlawful subletting at Grenfell Tower so that victims can be identified.’
Local Government Lawyer, 3rd July 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Cuts to legal aid may have stopped tenants in Grenfell Tower from pursuing safety concerns that could have prevented the fire, the president of the Law Society, Robert Bourns, has suggested.’
The Guardian, 29th June 2017
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Grenfell Action Group and residents raised repeated concerns about the apparent neglect of health and safety legislation. Whilst there are several potential causes of action, the reality for tenants is that they would have struggled to bring a claim for a number of reasons.’
Legal Voice, 23rd June 2017
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
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