‘This is not a usual blog post. I was asked to do an analysis of the proposed £23,000 pa benefit cap, its impact on housing, homelessness and the legal position, with a focus on London, for use elsewhere and for a purpose which shall remain nameless. But I feel this needs wider sharing.’
Nearly Legal, 10th June 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘For reasons that will become clear in this post, rentcharges are a bit of a legal oddity. It has been a new realm for me, but I was intrigued by this case, and wiser members of the NL collective have held my hand as I headed down this particular rabbit hole.’
Nearly Legal, 8th June 0215
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘In cases where the hirer of a car on credit terms is not impecunious, we thought we knew where we stood after Dimond v Lovell [2001] 1AC 384. The Claimant was entitled to recover the ‘spot rate’ or, as the Court of Appeal in Pattni v First Leicester Buses Ltd [2012] RTR 17 insisted, ‘basic hire rate’ or BHR. In Burdis v Livsey [2003] QB 36, three possible ways of calculating the basic hire rate were considered and indeed that consideration was repeated by Aikens LJ in Pattni. Both the Court of Appeal in Burdis and the Court of Appeal in Pattni rejected the mode of calculation of applying a reasonable discount to the credit hire rate charged. That left two methods of calculation. The first, which was not favoured by the Court of Appeal in Burdis, was to break down the charge made by the credit hire company and remove the additional elements from the claim in respect of credit, claim handling and delivery &c. The Court of Appeal in Burdis thought that the cost of working all that out might well be disproportionate. The court in Pattni, however, considered that where the actual credit hire company which had hired the replacement car to the Claimant, disclosed the BHR for that type of car in that area at that time, that might well be the best mode of calculation.’
Zenith PI Blog, 20th May 2015
Source: www.zenithpi.wordpress.com
‘The UK is in breach of its own United Nations human rights commitment to provide people with adequate homes because the housing crisis is so serious, a consortium of leading housing charities has warned. They cite soaring housing rental costs, unhealthy conditions in homes, and rising levels of homelessness and warn of “profound issues of lack of supply, increasing housing costs, lack of security of tenure and homes of such poor quality that they are unfit for habitation”.’
The Guardian, 28th April 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘It appears that Barnet Council (via the Mayor’s casting vote) are determined to carry on with their plan to raise rents for council tenants, new and existing, to 80% of market rent or top of LHA rates, whichever is lowest.’
Nearly Legal, 15th April 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘A recent decision from the Court of Appeal has caused a sea-change in the ways in which courts will assess the likely cost of basic hire rates (BHRs) when assessing the recoverable damages to be paid under a credit-hire agreement. From now on, the courts will be entitled to calculate BHRs with reference to the lowest reasonable rate charged by a local (to the claimant) main hire company.’
Park Square Barristers, 6th March 2015
Source: www.parksquarebarristers.co.uk
‘In Terrace Hill (Berkeley) Ltd v HMRC[1], the First-tier Tribunal (“the FTT”) rejected HMRC’s arguments and concluded that a property developer’s activity in relation to the development of an office property was an investment rather than a trading activity and allowed its appeal.’
RPC Tax Take, 11th March 2015
Source: www.rpc.co.uk
‘In the most important credit hire decision since Bent, the Court of Appeal rules that judges evaluating credit hire claims involving pecunious claimants should adopt the “lowest reasonable rate”.’
Full story (PDF)
Henderson Chambers, March 2015
Source: www.hendersonchambers.co.uk
‘Traditionally, when assessing recoverable rates, credit hire companies have argued that where a range of comparable basic hire rates (BHR) can be shown from other companies, some of which are higher than the credit hire rate claimed, the Claimant’s credit hire rate should be awarded in full.’
Zenith PI Blog, 16th March 2015
Source: www.zenithpi.wordpress.com
‘His Honour Judge Jarman QC gave a speech “Administrative Court in Wales: Challenges and Opportunities” at Swansea University on 19 November 2014.’
Judiciary of England and Wales, 6th March 2015
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
‘As well as the clauses introducing the retaliatory eviction proposals, the Government’s proposed amendments to the Deregulation Bill would make some other changes to s.21. The effects would be:
No s.21 notice can be served within the first 4 months of the shorthold tenancy, thus ending the all too widespread practice of serving a s.21 at the time the tenancy agreement is signed (though I’d still say that was probably caught by the deposit rules). The proposals also make clear that possession proceedings cannot be begun before 6 months from the start of the tenancy (that disposes of an idea some bright spark landlords had, that it was OK to start proceedings before 6 months so long as the possession order was made after the 6 month date).’
NearlyLegal, 8th February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘It is not unknown for losing parties in a case to not be happy, indeed very upset. There are two basic options. To shut up and put up with it, or appeal. Rather unusually, faced with one of the most coruscating High Court judgments I can recall, in AA V LB Southwark [our report here], the senior officers of Southwark Council have chosen to do neither. Instead, Southwark’s Housing and Communities Strategic Director has chosen to publicly announce that the judgment was ‘unjust’ and ‘clearly wrong’, but that Southwark aren’t going to appeal it.’
NearlyLegal, 25th November 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The North East Property Buyers litigation test cases finally reached the Supreme Court and judgment was handed down on 22nd October 2014. Any practitioner in property and housing litigation in the North East, and indeed further afield, will have had some knowledge of, or dealings with, schemes such as were in these cases examined. They concerned sale and lease back agreements, a simple enough notion, involving the purchase of a vendor’s home by a nominee, often at an undervalue, in return granting the vendor a lease of the property, thereby releasing equity to the vendor and allowing them to remain in the property at a reduced rent.’
Full story (PDF)
Zenith Chambers, 24th October 2014
Source: www.zenithchambers.co.uk
‘The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) have provided a wide range of case law since they came into force. Decisions have often been focused on issues such as what constitutes a relevant transfer or the effect ofinsolvency on a transfer. However, there has been surprisingly little case law which deals with the Regulation 13 TUPE duty to inform and consult and the Regulation 15 TUPE claim to a tribunal for a failure to inform and consult.’
Full story (PDF)
Tanfield Chambers, 16th October 2014
Source: www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk
‘Housing experts have called for minimum standards to be better enforced in the private rental market to stop landlords exploiting vulnerable tenants.’
BBC News, 30th August 2014
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Regina v Ali (Salah) [2014] EWCA Crim 1658; [2014] WLR (D) 366
‘It was permissible for the statutory assumptions in section 10 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to be applied in a case where a defendant was either voluntarily or involuntarily absent through illness.’
WLR Daily, 31st August 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
The Upper Tribunal has again found itself considering the issue of Rent Repayment Orders and has provided some further enlightenment on its position after the case of Parker v Waller.
NearlyLegal, 6th July 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Some of you, those in London at least, might have noticed Boris Johnson announce a new, and completely voluntary, no compulsion here, landlord accreditation scheme. The idea being that tenants, desperate to find somewhere in the middle of the worst accommodation shortage in London for many, many years, will choose to avoid a ‘non-Boris’ landlord. This is of dubious worth, but no matter, what concerns us here is what followed that announcement. Bear with me, because it is worth it in the end.’
NearlyLegal, 12th June 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘When a notice is served under Section 8 Housing Act 1988, how precise does the wording of the ground(s) under which possession will be sought have to be?’
NearlyLegal, 18th May 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
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