Helen Tucker

A Specialist Housing Court was first proposed a year ago, and the MHCLG has now issued a “Call for Evidence”.

The Private Members Bill Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill 2017-19 now has Government support and was debated at second reading on Friday 19 January 2018.

In the case of R (Esposito v Camden LBC), decided in the High Court on 31 July 2017, the tenant had been evacuated from one of Camden’s tower blocks after the Grenfell Tower fire, on the advice of the London Fire Brigade, who had declared that the block of flats was unsafe.

The County Court at Bristol held in Camelot v Greg Roynon [2017] that a tenancy had been granted. The judgment looked carefully at whether ‘exclusive possession’ was given in the agreement and the reality of the situation on the ground.

In response to the coming into force of these “asset freedoms”, the HCA has issued a consultation on an amendment to the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard (TIE Standard).  The consultation can be viewed here.

Section 21 (7) of the Act states that: “In deciding whether to grant an injunction under section 1, a court may take account of conduct occurring up to six months before the commencement day.

Please note that the Cardiff CC –v- Lee (Flowers) case reported in our recent e-briefing (click here) does also apply to suspended possession orders made in rent arrears cases.

The Court of Appeal confirmed in Cardiff CC v Lee (Flowers) that an application for permission to issue a warrant must be made before a warrant request is made. The Judgment can be found by clicking here.

Warrant applications – beware! There have been some recent challenges to warrants of possession, on the basis that the “Balance due at date of request” section was not filled in or stated to be £0.