One joint tenant relied upon the 1977 Act to try to protect her against eviction. Held: One joint tenant may not unilaterally end a tenancy without full notice. However Nourse LJ in allowing the tenant’s appeal found ‘it abundantly clear that a joint tenant cannot unilaterally determine the tenancy by giving an inappropriate notice, for … Continue reading Hounslow London Borough Council v Pilling: CA 21 Apr 1993
The judge had ruled that the evidence intended to be offered could not create offences within the 1977 Act. Verdicts of not guilty were entered. The decision was a terminating ruling. The prosecutor failed to give the appropriate section 58 undertaking on appealing. Held: Attending to the purpose of the 2003 Act, the prosecutor’s mistake … Continue reading H, Regina v: CACD 13 Feb 2008
The case concerned whether, under the Act, an incorporeal right of fishing, demised as part of a lease of an hotel, was part of the ‘premises’ for the purpose of the Act. Held: The standard conveyancing meaning of the word ‘premises’ has long been established as meaning the subject matter of the habendum of the … Continue reading Whitley v Stumbles: HL 1930
The employee occupied a dwelling belonging to his employer and for the better performance of his duties. He was summarily dismissed for misconduct. Held: The 1977 Act did not apply, and the owner had not been obliged to give a notice under the 1977 Act. He did not occupy the premises under a periodic tenancy … Continue reading Norris (T/a J Davis and Son) v Checksfield: CA 23 Apr 1991
The claimant had applied for housing as a homeless person and was found temporary accomodation pending the respondent’s decision. When eventually the decision went against the claimant, the claimant argued that the authority was obliged to recover the licensed accomodation through court proceedings. Held: The appeal failed. Moses, Kitchin, Floyd LJJ [2013] EWCA Civ 805, … Continue reading ZH, Regina (on The Application of) v London Borough of Newham: CA 11 Jul 2013
The claimants had applied for housing as homeless. They were given accommodation pending the authority’s final decisions. Those decisions were thet the claimants were homeless intentionally. The authoity’s set out to recover possession. The claimants said that under the 1977 Act, the authority was obliged first to obtain a court order. Held: The request for … Continue reading CN, Regina (on The Application of) v London Borough of Lewisham: CA 11 Jul 2013
The appellant sought to resist his eviction from temporary hostel accomodation provided to him by the local authority, saying that the provisions of the 1977 Act protected him.
Held: The agreement was a licence excluded from protection by the . .
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The claimant applied to the Council for accommodation, claiming to be homeless and in priority need. The council housed him in a hotel owned by Mr Manek in Tooting Bec . He had a room, a separate bathroom and lavatory, and shared use of a kitchen. After three days the council completed their investigations. Though … Continue reading Mohamed v Manek and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: CA 28 Apr 1995
B occupied a room in a hotel. He sought an injunction to prevent his eviction, arguing first that he was a tenant protected by the Housing Act 1988 and second that he was protected under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. His application was refused. Held: His appeal was also dismissed. To claim under the … Continue reading Brillouet v Landless: CA 1996
The defendant occupied property belonging to the claimant. An order for immediate possession had been granted in January. The defendant now said that part of the order was been made without jurisdiction. Held: Though he occupied the property as a licensee only of the claimant, that licence had been granted against the promise of the … Continue reading Polar Park Enterprises v Allason: ChD 18 Apr 2007
The landlord council brought proceedings for possession. The tenant (C) had remained in possession after his mother’s death, but enjoyed no second statutory succession. He had lived there since 1954 when he was six. C sought a declaration of incompatibility in respect of section 3 of the 1977 Act, saying that it disallowed any consideration … Continue reading Coombes, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Another: Admn 8 Mar 2010
Citations: [1982] All ER 497 Statutes: Protection from Eviction Act 1977 5 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Cited by: Distinguished – National Trust for Places of Historic Interest Or Natural Beauty v Knipe and Knipe CA 15-May-1997 The tenancy was of an agricultural holding, with protection under the 1986 Act. It had 350 acres of pasture, … Continue reading Holford Investments Ltd v Lambert: 1982
The tenant appealed against an order granting possession. The tenancy, being held of a mutual housing co-operative did not have security but was in a form restricting the landlord’s right to recover possession, and the tenant resisted saying that it was worded to create a lease for life (applying the LRB case). Held: The tenant’s … Continue reading Berrisford v Mexfield Housing Co-Operative Ltd: SC 9 Nov 2011
The landlord had wanted possession. The tenant said that the landlord had been harassing him. The landlord said that the tenancy was a mixed residential and business tenancy and that the 1977 Act did not apply. Held: The 1977 Act applied. A tenancy for mixed purposes falls under the protection of the Act of 1954, … Continue reading Pirabakaran v Patel and Another: CA 26 May 2006
The Society ran a mortgage rescue scheme, buying properties from borrowers unable to maintain mortgage repayments, and letting them back. As a co-operative, the former owners would become members. Because it was a mutual housing co-operative, the tenancy had no security beyond the 1977 Act. The appellant fell behind with her rent, but denied that … Continue reading Berrisford v Mexfield Housing Co- Operative Ltd: CA 15 Jul 2010
The employee occupied the property under a licence granted by his employer for the better performance of his employment duties. At first he had been taken on as a semi-skilled mechanic, but he was later offered occupation of the employer’s bungalow so that he would be readily available as a coach driver after obtaining a … Continue reading Norris (t/a J Davis and Son) v Checksfield: CA 17 Apr 1991
A tenancy at will can be determined by either party on his expressly or impliedly intimating to the other his wish that the tenancy should be at an end. The issuing of a writ claiming possession is a sufficient demand for possession to bring the tenancy to an end. The statutory minimum period of four … Continue reading Crane v Morris: 1965
A point was raised for the first time on appeal. Held: Though an appellate court could exclude a pure question of law which had not been raised at first instance from being raised on appeal, the usual practice was to allow it to be taken where the other party had had an opportunity of meeting … Continue reading Pittalis v Grant: CA 1989
The occupier had been granted a temporary licence by the authority under the homelessness provisions whilst it made its assessment. The assessment concluded that she had become homeless intentionally, and therefore terminated the licence and set out to evict her. She claimed that the authority had to get a court authority before so evicting her. … Continue reading Desnousse v London Borough of Newham and others: CA 17 May 2006
The tenancy was of an agricultural holding, with protection under the 1986 Act. It had 350 acres of pasture, and two farmhouses. The tenants covenanted not to use the holding for any purpose other than agriculture, to farm it in accordance with the rules of good husbandry and personally to reside in the farmhouses. They … Continue reading National Trust for Places of Historic Interest Or Natural Beauty v Knipe and Knipe: CA 15 May 1997
Where police had been called to an incident where a member of the public had been threatened with violence if he did not leave premises, did not have a duty to take action under the Act toward the applicant. It is only if a particular responsibility towards an individual arises, establishing a sufficiently close relationship, … Continue reading Cowan and Another v The Chief Constable for Avon and Somerset Constabulary: CA 14 Nov 2001
An occupant of a hostel for homeless and vulnerable single men had only a licence to occupy the room, and was not a tenant. There was a resident warden and a team of support workers. The intention was that residents should use the hostel as a temporary base as part of their rehabilitation. Held: An … Continue reading Westminster City Council v Clarke: HL 29 Apr 1992
The council appealed against the acquittal of the defendants of offences under the 1977 Act. The occupiers were there under an informal temporary tenancy. The owners wished to move back in. The tenants had not left on the day appointed and on the day after the owners returned to find the house damaged and in … Continue reading West Wiltshire District Council v Snelgrove and Snelgrove: Admn 17 Mar 1997
The defendants appealed against their conviction under the 1977 Act. Held: To amount to harrassment, the actions complained of need not be such as would give rise of themselves to civil or criminal action. Citations: [1991] 1 AC 135, Independent 24-May-1990 Statutes: Protection from Eviction Act 1977 1(3) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Upheld – … Continue reading Regina v Burke: HL 24 May 1990
A short notice to quit might be given by a landlord if accepted by a tenant. Citations: (2001) 3 L and TR 60 Statutes: Protection from Eviction Act 1977 5(1) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Cited by: Cited – Ealing Family Housing Association Ltd v McKenzie CA 10-Oct-2003 The defendant and his wife separated when she … Continue reading Hackney London Borough Council v Snowden: CA 2001
The word ‘premises’ in s 46(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 means the subject matter of the letting and the section applied to an agricultural holding which included a dwelling house. S 48 of the Act was governed by s 46(1) which applied it ‘to premises which consist of or include a dwelling’. … Continue reading Dellhold Estates (UK) Pty Ltd v Lindsey Trading Properties Inc: 1994
The defendant was charged with doing acts calculated to interfere with the peace and comfort of residential occupiers so as to cause them to give up their occupation contrary to section 1(3)(a) of the 1977 Act. The defendant contended that he did not know that the person harassed was a residential occupier, and that accordingly … Continue reading Regina v Phekoo: CACD 1981
The claimant sought damages under the 1977 Act. The defendant said it had behaved lawfully. He had been housed in a hostel pending a decision on the application for permanent housing as a homeless person, which the defendant said excluded him from protection under the 1977 Act. Held: The claimant’s appeal failed.Auld LJ said: ‘the … Continue reading Rogerson v Wigan Metropolican Borough Council: QBD 14 Jul 2004
The defendant appealed against his convictions under the 1977 Act. Held: Under section 1(2) the deprivation of occupation for one day was insufficient. To constitute an offence, the deprivation had to take the character of an eviction. However, the appeal against the offence under section 1(3) failed. It was sufficient to establish that the acts, … Continue reading Regina v Yuthiwattana: CACD 1984
In each case the local authority sought to recover possession of its own land. In the Lambeth case, they asserted this right as against an overstaying former tenant, and in the Leeds case as against gypsies. In each case the occupiers said that the recovery of possession interfered with their right respect for their family … Continue reading Kay and Another v London Borough of Lambeth and others; Leeds City Council v Price and others and others: HL 8 Mar 2006
Same Sex Paartner to Inherit as Family Member The claimant had lived with the original tenant in a stable and long standing homosexual relationship at the deceased’s flat. After the tenant’s death he sought a statutory tenancy as a spouse of the deceased. The Act had been extended to include as a spouse someone living … Continue reading Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association Ltd: HL 28 Oct 1999
When a licence is really a tenancy The document signed by the occupier stated that she understood that she had been given a licence, and that she understood that she had not been granted a tenancy protected under the Rent Acts. Exclusive occupation was in fact granted. Held: This was a tenancy not a licence. … Continue reading Street v Mountford: HL 6 Mar 1985
The court was asked whether the 1977 Act required a local authorty to obtain a court order before taking possession of interim accommodation it provided to an apparently homeless person while it investigated whether it owed him or her a duty under Part VII of the 1996 Act, and (ii) whether a public authority, which … Continue reading ZH and CN, Regina (on The Applications of) v London Boroughs of Newham and Lewisham: SC 12 Nov 2014
Surrender at Common Law Survives Human Rights Law The tenants held a secure weekly tenancy of the respondent under a joint tenancy. After a relationship breakdown, Mrs Sims had given notice to quit. Mr Sims, left in possession now argued that the common law rules should not be allowed to deprive him of his home, … Continue reading Sims v Dacorum Borough Council: SC 12 Nov 2014
The tenant took on a weekly tenancy in 1975 of Wandsworth under an ‘Acceptance of Offer of Accommodation’. The document made no provision for service. The tenant left for America leaving A as a caretaker. Wandsworth ended the tenancy serving a . .