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HOUSING LAW NEWS
Policy
Issues in Housing Law
Possession claims
Many
possession claims brought by mortgage lenders, private landlords and
landowners are likely to be ‘stayed’ if occupiers raise arguable
defences that the making of an outright possession order would infringe
the right to respect for their home (Article 8). That may be the result of
the Supreme Court granting the occupier in McDonald
v McDonald permission to appeal on the question of whether Article 8
can be invoked to defend a private claimant’s action for possession. The
authority for the grant of a stay in such circumstances is Kingcastle
v Owen-Owen (Times, 18 March 1999).
Homelessness
More councils in
and around London are placing homeless families out of borough. Waltham
Forest Council is consulting on changes to enable it to place more
households in temporary accommodation outside its district. For the
consultation paper, click
here. Wandsworth council’s latest homelessness review
indicates that a third of its private rented sector offers were out of
borough: click here In
response to a parliamentary question on the issue, the Housing Minister
said “We have made it clear that no council should be sending tenants en
masse to a different part of the country”. For more on that answer, click
here
The organisation Homeless Link has published a manifesto on the action needed to
tackle the housing and homelessness crisis. For a copy, click
here
The latest statistics for homelessness applications made to local
authorities in Scotland have recently been published. For the figures, click
here For a recent Shelter
Scotland report on the use of temporary accommodation for the homeless, click
here
Private renting
A new report from Citizens Advice suggests that tenants should be able to get their
rent back from their landlords when their home is dangerous or
uninhabitable. For a copy, click
here
New research has found that many private rented homes are excessively cold
and causing health problems for families and children. For more details, click
here
Because tenancy deposits held by custodial schemes are no longer required
to be repaid with accumulated interest, regulations have been made
abolishing the prescribed interest rates. For a copy of those regulations,
click
here
The UK Government has established a £1million fund to help meet legal
costs for councils taking planning enforcement action in the courts. That
could include action to tackle “beds-in-sheds” and the unlawful
conversion of houses into HMOs. For details of the fund, click
here
Regulating social landlords
The regulator of
social landlords in England has issued two regulatory notices to social
landlords concerned with breaches of the consumer standards designed to
protect tenants. The first is yet another notice about a social
landlord’s gas inspection failures. For that notice, click
here The second follows a balcony collapse endangering
tenants.
Housing benefit
New regulations
have been issued on the 'treatment of earnings' for benefit purposes. They
are designed to address a controversial Upper Tribunal decision on the
earnings rules. For a copy of the regulations, click
here For the explanatory memorandum, click
here
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has produced a new report
on fraud and error relating to Housing Benefit. It suggests that the
problems are increasing and that underpayments causing hardship have not
been tackled. For a copy of the report, click
here
Gypsy & Traveller sites
The Housing Committee
of the London Assembly has called on the Mayor of London to respond to a
range of recommendations on the provision of sites in the capital. For a
letter setting out the proposals, click
here.
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NEW
HOUSING LAW CASES
Gloucester
City Homes v X and others
16
January 2015
The claimant was a social landlord. Following numerous reported incidents
of anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance associated with one of its
tenanted homes (which included arguing, shouting, foul language, physical
fighting, numerous animals being kept at the property and fly-tipping) the
claimant applied for and obtained interim anti-social behaviour
injunctions against
six members of the tenant’s family. The
injunctions exclude two males from the property and place prohibitions on
the tenant, her partner and adult siblings. For more details of the claim,
click
here
R (Alemi) v Westminster City Council
15
January 2015
The
council added a new provision to its housing allocation scheme that
“Homeless applicants will not be eligible to bid via CBL until 12 months
after the date of acceptance, with the exception of applicants assessed
with mobility category 1 or 2 or who require Community Supportive
Housing” (para 2.1.3). After a contested hearing, the Administrative
Court gave permission for a judicial review of the legality of that
provision. For a copy of the council’s allocation scheme, click
here
Gilks v Hodgson
15
January 2015
The parties were neighbours. They could not agree the boundary
between their properties or the extent of a right of way. Resolving their
dispute took a 10 day trial and then a 3 day appeal in the Court of
Appeal. The costs exceeded half a million pounds. The court described the
litigation as "Dickensian". For the judgment, click
here
Complaint against Southwark Council
14 January 2015 – publication
date
The
complainant was homeless. She went to the council’s offices and was seen
by a ‘filtering officer’. Their role is to determine if an applicant
is likely to be homeless, eligible for assistance and in priority need,
and to signpost to the most suitable next course of action. The officer
told her she needed proof of employment as evidence of eligibility. No
homelessness application was taken. The Ombudsman found that: the council
should have treated the approach as an application for assistance with
homelessness; the failure to do so was fault; and "the
council should ensure that the practice of gate keeping does not
occur". For the report, click
here For commentary on the report, click
here
Oldham Council v Stuart Mather
14
January 2015
The defendant was a private landlord. Two of his houses
did not have any fire detection systems and both the electricity and gas
supplies had been tampered with. Flammable materials were left in the path
of fire escapes, fire doors were open and had handles missing, and plug
sockets and light switches were loose and faulty. Safety certificates for
gas and electrical appliances were also missing. At Oldham Magistrates’
Court, he pleaded guilty to 13 breaches of the Management of Houses in
Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006. He was fined £1,495 –
£115 for each offence – with costs of £2,700. For details of the
prosecution, click
here
Saghinadze v Georgia
13 January 2015
The applicant brought a complaint in the European Court of Human Rights.
The
Ministry of the Interior had taken possession of a cottage, which had been
the applicant’s home for more than ten years, and turned it into a
police station. On 27 May 2010, the Court decided that, in addition to
giving rise to a breach of Article 8, there was also a violation of
Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (see Saghinadze
v. Georgia,
no. 18768/05 §108, 117-118 and 122). The parties could not agree a
remedy. The government offered to transfer to the applicant the ownership
of two apartments and pay 3000 euros compensation. The court accepted that
the offer satisfied the complaint. For the judgment, click
here
Cornwall Council
v Adam Michael Penpraze
9 January2015
The defendant was a private landlord.
The roof of his property was storm damaged in
early 2014 allowing water into the flat below. By December 2014, works had
still not been satisfactorily completed with water again entering the flat
and a section of the ceiling collapsed. The defendant pleaded guilty to
failing to comply with an improvement notice served under the Housing Act
2004. At Bodmin Magistrates’ Court, he was fined £700 with costs of £1,558.24
and a £70 victim surcharge.
Waltham Forest Council v Shiraz Akbar Khan
8 January 2015
The defendant was a private landlord. He made an unauthorised conversion
of a single dwelling into two self-contained flats and failed to comply
with an enforcement notice. He was found guilty at Stratford
Magistrates’ Court and fined £5,000 with costs of £1,558 and a Victim
Surcharge of £120.For details of the prosecution, click
here
Cornwall Council
v Jin Ming Cao
6 January 2015
The defendant was the private landlord of seven rooms above his Chinese
restaurant which were occupied by 10 workers. At Truro
Magistrates’ Court, he pleaded guilty
to six offences under the Housing Act 2004. Three related to
non-compliance with improvement notices (concerning a dangerous staircase
and the installation of a fire detection system) and three related to the
Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation Regulations (concerning an
obstructed fire escape route, absence of a gas safety certificate and an
unmaintained/faulty fire alarm). He was
ordered to pay fines and costs totalling over £24,000.
Hillingdon Council v Partap Singh and
Manjit Thagie
5
January 2015
The defendant couple let an outbuilding for residential use, without
having planning permission. At Uxbridge Magistrates' Court they pleaded
guilty to failure to comply with an enforcement notice which had required
them to stop the use as a residential property and to remove the fitted
kitchen, shower room, toilet and internal stud walls. They were fined £3,000
each and ordered to pay £814.30 each in costs. For details of the
prosecution, click
here
Enfield Council v Evangelos Evangelou
22
December 2014
The defendant was a private landlord. In October 2010, he had converted a
three bedroom house into six self-contained units and let them. The
council served an enforcement notice requiring him to restore the property
but he failed to comply. At Wood Green Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to
an offence under section 171B(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act
1990. He was fined £7,500
with costs of £6,794.15 and a £120 victim surcharge. A confiscation
order was made for £125,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act, representing
the profit from renting out the unauthorised conversion. A 27 month prison
sentence was fixed in default of payment. For more details of the
prosecution, click
here.
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NEW
HOUSING LAW
ARTICLES & PUBLICATIONS
Hundreds of households in
temporary accommodation for more than a decade Lia Sanders
[2015] Inside Housing 16
January. To read the article, click
here
Recent developments in housing law
Jan Luba QC and Nic Madge [2014] Legal
Action December 2014/January 2015 Issue. To read the article, click
here (subscription only)
Stop talking about renting a home as though people have a choice Hannah Fearn [2015] Guardian
Housing Network 16 January. To read the article, click
here
Housing repairs update 2014
Beatrice Prevatt [2014] Legal Action
December 2014/January 2015 Issue. To read the article, click
here (subscription only)
Nations apart (comment on recent research on single
homelessness) Andrew Arden QC and Clare Cullen
[2015] LAG Housing law blog
15 January. To read the
article, click
here
Rent caps and protests
the housing issues to watch out
for in 2015 Hannah
Fearn [2015] Guardian Housing
Network 9 January. To read the article, click
here
The offer is unrepeatable: suitability revisited
Miriam Mackreth [2015] 167 The
Adviser Jan/Feb issue. p18
Retaliatory eviction and Article 8
Dirghayu Patel [2015] 167 The
Adviser Jan/Feb issue. P26
Selective licensing,
consultation and the whole borough
(comment
on Regas v Enfield) Jonathan
Manning and Justin Bates [2014] Local
Government Lawyer 18 December. To read the article, click
here
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