Publications

Richard Blakeway responds to some questions on the Housing Ombudsman’s latest Spotlight report and gives an insight into other key areas currently being examined.

My career in law started at the County Court in Birmingham so many years ago that my first day coincided with the Civil Procedure Rules first being implemented – May 1999! I guess that gives away my age a little …

I have recently joined the team at Devonshires, based in our fast-growing Leeds office.

The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 (“the Act”) introduced an ability to obtain an Unlawful Profit Order (“UPO”), which is an order requiring a tenant to pay their landlord any profit they have made from subletting their home.

In the last 6 months we have seen a lot of activity both from the Government, Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) on the subject of social and affordable rent increases, and the National Housing Federation (NHF) on shared ownership rent increases.

Anna Bennett was recently instructed on the case of Issac Smith v Network Homes Limited which was one of the three conjoined appeals heard by the Court of Appeal in November 2022 with judgment being handed down on 16 December 2022.

There has been a spike in recent months of statutory nuisance notices being served on landlords pursuant to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (“the EPA 1990”).

The High Court has handed down judgment in the case of Driver v Crown Prosecution Service [2022] EWHC 2500 (KB). In summary, Mr Driver was awarded £250 for his data breach claim. This is a very welcome case for data controllers dealing with low level data breach claims.

With historic cuts to legal aid and the current cost of living crisis, it is not uncommon for a party to find itself litigating against somebody who has not instructed legal representatives or otherwise known as a Litigant in Person (“LiP”).

From 1 April 2023, all registered providers, that own 1,000 or more units of social housing stock, must calculate and publish all TSMs on an annual basis.

The Court of Appeal recently held in the case of Birmingham CC v Bravington [2023] EWCA Civ 308 that a notice seeking possession handed to a tenant’s girlfriend at the tenant’s address amounted to good service.

This case has been a long running dispute which essentially raised the question of how far s27A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (‘LTA 1985’) can be interpreted.