The planning functions of a local authority are exercised in the public interest. Salmon J said: ‘The scheme of the Town and Country Planning Legislation, in my judgment, is to restrict development for the benefit of the public at large and not to confer new rights on any individual members of the public, whether they … Continue reading Buxton v Minister of Housing and Local Government: 1961
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The premises at issue consisted of a terraced house to which access was obtained from the street through a gate, down some steps and along a two metre path which led to the front door of the house. Held: The steps were part of the exterior of the dwelling-house for the purpose of section 32(1)(a) … Continue reading Brown v Liverpool Corpn: CA 1969
A flat was let by an underlease for seven years. The lease excluded the outside walls of the flat, but the tenant covenanted to pay for repairs to the building through a service charge. The tenant refused to pay the service charge which included the costs of repairing a neighbouring block also (included within the … Continue reading Campden Hill Towers v Gardner: CA 1977
The tenant took a lease for under 7 years, accepting repairing and other obligations. The question was how those obligations fitted the landlord’s implied obligations under section 32, and the effect of the section on decorating covenants. The landlord argued that the decoration was not repair, that the statutory implied obligations were to be subtracted … Continue reading Irvine v Moran: 1991
A student tenant left the property for a few days. Whilst she was away, the pipes froze, cracked, and then burst. The landlord complained that he had neither turned off the water, nor lagged the pipes. Held: The tenant had no such obligation at common law, and nor had the landlord an obligation to lag … Continue reading Wycombe Health Authority v Barnett: CA 1982
The court was concerned with the implied statutory obligations of repair on the landlord: ‘It is common ground that the door and frame of the flat were part of the structure and exterior of the flat within the meaning of the implied statutory covenant. It is also common ground that the effect of this implied … Continue reading Morris v Liverpool City Council: CA 1988
Because of fungus, mould growth and dampness, the tenant’s council house was virtually unfit for human habitation in the winter when the condensation was at its worst. Section 32(1) of the 1961 Act implied in the tenancy a covenant by the council to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house. Section 32(3) … Continue reading Quick v Taff Ely Borough Council: CA 1986
The plaintiffs sought damages after being injured when the ceiling of their bedroom fell on them. They were tenants of the defendants. Held: The 1961 Act implied a duty on L to keep in repair the structure. What was meant by ‘keep in repair.’ A landlord’s obligation to repair only arose when he had notice … Continue reading O’Brien v Robinson: HL 19 Feb 1973
The appellant developers had obtained detailed planning approval for fourteen houses, but after adjustments for a building line, moving several properties distances of several feet toward other properties, further plans were submitted without identifying the changes. The changes were discussed, and an approval noted by the developer’s architect. The development proceeded. A neighbour objected, and … Continue reading Lever (Finance) Ltd v City of Westminster: CA 22 Jul 1970
A Local Authority found guilty of a statutory nuisance is not thereby liable for a civil damages suit. Citations: Times 26-Nov-1996, [1996] EWCA Civ 998, [1997] 1 WLR 956, (1997) 29 HLR 640, [1997] Env LR 157 Links: Bailii Statutes: Public Health Act 1936 Part II (Nuisance etc) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Cited – … Continue reading Issa (Suing By her Next Friend and Father Issa) and Issa (Suing By her Next Friend and Father Issa) v Mayor and Burgesses of London Borough of Hackney: CA 19 Nov 1996
The court considered the landlord’s covenant for repair of residential property. Held: The installation of a damp-course in property which did not previously have one was not a repair: ‘applying the facts of that case to the facts of this case, the tenant in this case took a house without a damp-proof course. What he … Continue reading Wainwright v Leeds City Council: CA 1984
(County Court) The defendant landlord granted the plaintiff a three year assured shorthold tenancy. He now appealed a finding that he was in breach of an implied covenant to maintain the space heating, and otherwise. The tenant had returned the keys. The court was asked whether the landlord by his breach had committed a repudiatory … Continue reading Hussain v Mehlman: CC 5 Mar 1992
The tenant occupied a maisonette under a secure tenancy of the plaintiff. She sought damages for breach of the repairing covenant implied under s11. Questions arose as to whether L should have told her not to dry clothes in a heated cupboard so as to cause damp, if she had whether the resulting damp was … Continue reading Southwark London Borough Council v McIntosh: ChD 2002
This was an appeal from orders of certiorari quashing the decisions of three local authorities refusing to provide accommodation for the respondents, four asylum seekers, whose applications for asylum were presently being considered by the Secretary of State. Held: Appeal dismissed. Asylum seekers are not entitled merely because they lack money and accommodation to claim … Continue reading Regina v Westminster City Council ex parte A, London Borough of Lambeth ex parte X and similar: CA 17 Feb 1997
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares. Held: The duties of an auditor are founded in contract and the extent of the duties … Continue reading Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others: HL 8 Feb 1990
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any assumption of a duty of care to a third party when purely … Continue reading Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd: HL 28 May 1963
The claimants were tenants who sought damages from their local authority landlords, for failing to remedy defects such as mould, mildew, and condensation in the dwellings let to them. The defects were a result of the design of the building. They asked the court to revisit the law settled in the Quick case in the … Continue reading Lee v Leeds City Council; Ratcliffe and Others v Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council: CA 21 Jan 2002
The defendant appealed by case stated against his conviction for driving a Segway scooter on a footpath. He denied that it was ‘a mechanically propelled vehicle intended or adapted for use on roads.’ Held: The appeal failed. The district judge had correctly read and applied the authorities. The manufacturer’s statement that the Segway was not … Continue reading Coates v Crown Prosecution Service: Admn 29 Jul 2011
The tenant had given notice to the landlord’s agent that a sash-cord in the only window of a bedroom had broken. No repair was effected and about two months later the second sash-cord broke injuring the tenant. The House was asked whether there was a breach by the landlords of the implied undertaking in the … Continue reading Summers v Salford Corporation: HL 1943
The scale of the dampness which had to be endured by a tenant led to constant colds and minor ailments being suffered by the plaintiff and her children who had to live in those unhealthy conditions. Held: The legislature had ‘conspicuously refrained’ from updating the statutory rent limit and it was therefore not for the … Continue reading McNerny v London Borough of Lambeth: CA 1988
Tenants of council flats with ineffective sound insulation argued that the landlord council was in breach of the covenant for quiet enjoyment in their tenancy agreements. Held: A landlord’s duty to allow quiet enjoyment does not extend to a positive duty to require an improvement in the sound-proofing of a building, well beyond standards which … Continue reading Southwark London Borough Council v Mills/Tanner; Baxter v Camden London Borough Council: HL 21 Oct 1999
The applicants had been imprisoned and held without trial, being suspected of international terrorism. No criminal charges were intended to be brought. They were foreigners and free to return home if they wished, but feared for their lives if they did. A British subject, who was suspected in the exact same way, and there were … Continue reading A v Secretary of State for the Home Department, and X v Secretary of State for the Home Department: HL 16 Dec 2004
