The Council had been found to have unlawfully evicted the respondent, and now appealed against the calculation of statutory damages awarded. It said that the court should in its valuation have allowed for the propensity for a move from a secure tenancy with the authority to an assured tenancy with a housing association on the sale of the freehold.
Held: The appeal was allowed.
Briggs LJ said: ‘Turning to the valuation required by s.28(1)(a), the assumption that the residential occupier continues to have ‘the same right to occupy the premises as before that time’ by no means requires an assumption that those rights are set in stone thereafter, immune from adverse change, whether by the landlord’s lawful action or by operation of law. If there is anything which the landlord in default can lawfully do to mitigate the adverse effect of those rights upon an open market purchase that must be taken into account . . the valuer is equally obliged to take into account the inherent fragility of a secure tenancy to becoming downgraded by operation of law into an assured tenancy, on a sale of a local authority landlord’s interest to a private landlord purchaser.’
Arden, Briggs LJJ, Sir Stanley Burnton
[2013] EWCA Civ 494, [2013] 1 WLR 3390
Bailii, Bailii
Housing Act 1988 27 28
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Tagro v Cafane and Another CA 23-Jan-1991
The private landlord held premises under a lease from a local authority which prohibited sub-letting and assignment. He sub-let to the plaintiff and then unlawfully evicted her. He appealed against an award to her of statutory damages, submitting . .
Cited – Melville v Bruton CA 29-Mar-1996
Statutory damages awarded for a wrongful eviction must allow for other the fact that parts of the property were in occupation by others. The comparison required by the Act ‘necessarily involved valuing the unincumbered interest on a factual as . .
Cited – Wandsworth London Borough Council v Osei-Bonsu CA 22-Oct-1998
Where one joint tenant had given notice and the landlord mistakenly excluded the other tenant, the husband, from possession, the landlord could not rely on the defence of ‘reasonable cause’. The tenant has the choice of possession or statutory . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – Loveridge v London Borough of Lambeth SC 3-Dec-2014
The Council had granted a weekly secure tenancy of the premises to the appellant. The Court considered the calculation of damages awarded for an unlawful eviction of a residential tenant.
Held: Section 28(1)(a) requires the basis of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Housing, Damages
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.503554