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Legal

Housing (Amendment) Bill: Social Development Committee accept Housing Rights’ recommendations

21 January 2016

The Assembly’s Social Development Committee has published its Report on the Housing (Amendment) Bill. In this, the Committee have accepted two recommendations made by Housing Rights in written and oral evidence.

The Housing (Amendment) Bill was introduced to the Assembly in 2015; amongst other clauses, the Bill aimed to allow information-sharing to and between the NI Housing Executive and registered housing associations in relation to antisocial behaviour.

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Policy, NI Assembly, Legal

Court of Appeal rules that all benefit income to be included when assessing affordability

30 November 2015

Carmel Ferguson, Housing Rights solicitor, looks at the case of Samuels v Birmingham City Council, in which a homeless applicant challenged the local authority's decision that she was intentionally homeless because she had been evicted from a previous property due to rent arrears.  The original decision maker had felt that Ms Samuels's rent was affordable when compared with her income.

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Benefits, Homelessness, Case law, Legal

Antisocial Behaviour and Housing

2 November 2015

Housing Rights’ Antisocial Behaviour course will run for a second time on 2 December 2015. The first took place on the 9th September in Belfast. The sold out course was a huge success with participants.

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Regulation, Social Tenancies, Private Tenancies, Legal

New consumer rights legislation will impact on tenants, landlords and agents

28 October 2015

The main elements of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the Act) came into force on 1st October 2015. The Act aims to make the laws on consumer protection clearer and easier to understand, saving consumers and businesses time and money.

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Regulation, Private Tenancies, Landlord, Legal

Domestic violence, relationship breakdown and housing

27 October 2015

Domestic violence accounts for approximately one-fifth of all recorded violent crime in Northern Ireland. Whatever form it takes, domestic violence and abuse is rarely a one off incident, it is a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour which tends to escalate over time. It often continues after the couple have separated. The following statistics show the serious extent of the problem in Northern Ireland. 

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Practical tips, Legal

Supreme Court says intentionality should be considered at time of decision not application.

30 September 2015

A Supreme Court case, Haile v London Borough of Waltham [2015] UKSC 34, decided that Housing Officers should not base decisions on intentionality on the applicant’s circumstances at the time they became homeless.

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Homelessness, Legal

County court appeals: identifying a point of law

26 August 2015

Certain decisions made by the Housing Executive can be reviewed by following a procedure laid out in the Housing Amendment Act (NI) 2011.  These include decisions on whether or not someone is a Full Duty Applicant and on whether the accommodation offered to a homeless person is reasonable.

The applicant also has a right to appeal to the county court if the review is unsuccessful, but they can only appeal on a point of law.

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Practical tips, Homelessness, Legal

Introductory tenancies: Does the scheme penalise secure tenants in emergency accommodation?

30 July 2015

Solicitor Chris McGrath discusses some recent Housing Rights cases where victims of domestic violence and intimidation have been required to fulfil the requirements of the introductory tenancy scheme despite being long standing secure tenants.

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Social Tenancies, NI Assembly, Legal

Court holds that NI Executive has failed in its legal duty to adopt an anti-poverty strategy

24 July 2015

The terms of the Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 placed a legal duty on the Executive Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly “to adopt a strategy setting out how it proposed to tackle poverty, social exclusion and patterns of deprivation based on objective need”

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NI Assembly, Legal

Case law: Residential care fees capital disregard

17 July 2015

Carmel Ferguson, solicitor with Housing Rights, looks at a UK Court of Appeal cases which considered whether the value of a care facility resident's home could be disregarded if the resident's child intended to return to live in it at a later date.

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Case law, Legal

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