The government is to use banning orders to crack down on rogue landlords and property agents. The orders will be used in cases involving serious offences against tenants. Ministers say such offences could include failing to carry out work required by the council to prevent a health and safety risk to tenants, threatening tenants with
A property company has won the right to repossess a house after the occupier failed to comply with an obligation to insure it and keep it in good repair. The case involved a woman who had lived in the house all her life. In 1985, ownership passed to her brother. In 2008, the brother sold
The government is introducing new rules on minimum room sizes in homes in multiple occupation (HMO) as part of a crackdown on rogue landlords. Ministers want to strengthen the ability of councils to tackle ruthless landlords who exploit tenants and charge them extortionate rents to live in poor conditions. Other proposed measures to help councils
A landlord was entitled to require bank references and to impose other conditions before allowing a tenant to assign three underleases on residential apartments. That was the decision of the High Court in a case involving two commercial property companies. At the first hearing, the tenant had sought a declaration that the landlord had acted
The standard break clauses to be found in most commercial tenancy agreements often lead to disputes, but it’s thought the numbers are likely to rise dramatically over the coming few years as the country adjusts to the Brexit decision to leave the EU. Declining orders mean more and more firms may use the break clause
The Brexit vote caused a significant drop in confidence and investor demand in the UK commercial property market, according to a survey by the Royal Institution of Commercial Surveyors (RICS). Both the investment and occupier sides of the market have been affected and both rent and capital value expectations fell into negative territory. A survey
A pub owner has won an appeal against planning permission for a large development that would almost entirely block out light from her premises. The court heard that developers had been granted permission to demolish a single storey building and replace it with a three storey block comprising of commercial premises on the first two
A private sector tenant has lost her appeal against a possession order that she claimed infringed her human rights. The tenant was in her mid-forties and had suffered since childhood from a personality disorder and psychotic symptoms. She had lost two public sector tenancies owing to her behaviour. Her parents bought a property for her
A commercial tenant has won a dispute over exercising a break clause even though it served notice to an out-of-date address. The case involved four landlords who were the trustees of a retirement scheme that owned the freehold of a large building. Three floors in the building were let to a commercial tenant on a
A landlord has been ordered to pay damages to a commercial tenant after carrying out noisy and intrusive renovation work over a two-year period. The case involved an art gallery that occupied the basement and ground floor of a multi-storey building. The lease entitled the landlord to carry out building works but it also contained