Blanket Injunctions against travellers not possible…

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Gypsies and Travellers:

It has been the practice over the past several years for local authorities to apply to the courts for a “blanket” borough-wide injunction against travellers setting up unauthorised sites and taking over open land.

The Court of Appeal has now reviewed several such anti-traveller injunctions following a recent case and submissions from a number of local authorities, Liberty and the London Gypsies and Travellers.

The Court of Appeal determined that there are around 38 such injunctions currently in force and concluded that as more are obtained, pressure builds on other authorities to do likewise. And because these injunctions are usually sought against “persons unknown” there are rarely any represented defendants.

In
Bromley LBC v
Persons Unknown (Liberty, London Gypsies and Travellers, and numerous
local authorities, intervening) (2020) as
reported by the
nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/ Bromley
LBC applied for an injunction preventing unauthorised encampments on
171 sites in the borough (fields, car parks etc). It also sought
injunctions against waste and fly-tipping.

The
Deputy High Court judge had
granted the injunctions
against waste and fly-tipping but refused it in respect of the
encampments. It was the
latter decision that was
the subject of the
appeal.

The
Court determined that it
is
possible to obtain an
injunction against
“persons unknown” and also that the injunction can
be obtained in
anticipation of possible future unlawful acts.

However,
the question was whether
or not it
was proportionate in terms of Art.8, ECHR and the
Equality Act 2010. In
this regard, the court
identified following
points for consideration,
as reported by nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/:

(a)
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are a particularly vulnerable
minority group whose members routinely experience discrimination and
the worst social outcomes of any minority group. A nomadic lifestyle
is a central element of their lifestyle and culture. There is a
serious shortage of sites for them to use which, in turn, leads to a
situation where they end up having to set up unauthorised
encampments.

(b)
the injunction was, in effect, an “all borough” injunction;

(c)
there was no evidence of past criminality by the affected group;

(d)
there were no suitable alternative sites provided (or identified) by
the local authority;

(e)
the cumulative effect of other injunctions obtained by other local
authorities in the area;

(f)
there had been no proper engagement with the affected groups, no
consideration of the needs of elderly (or other similarly vulnerable)
members of that group; this one was considered of central importance,
with the Court explaining that “… if the appropriate
communications, and assessments (like the Equality Impact Assessment)
are not properly demonstrated, then the local authority may expect to
find its application refused”.

(g)
the injunction was sought for a long period of time (5 years, without
any built-in review period);

(h)
it was possible that the injunction would impact on permitted
development rights (a planning law concept – in fairness, the Court
is quite keen not to get into the planning law issues);

(i)
whether or not the local authority would suffer irreparable harm.

The
Appeal Court upheld the Deputy
Judge’s decision
that it was “disproportionate to grant the injunction” and
the Appeal was
dismissed.

The onus is now put on local authorities as the only obvious solution to this issue is to provide more designated transit sites for the Gypsy and Traveller community.

The nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/ website states that: The “obvious implication is that an anti-traveller injunction just became a lot harder to obtain if the local authority claimant doesn’t also provide some lawful sites which can be used. Given that most authorities would rather eat nails than provide suitable sites, this should – hopefully – cause some of our leafy shire councils to start to rethink their approach.

“It’s also something that the government will need to consider as part of the ongoing consultation on a proposal to create a new criminal offence of trespass for the purposes of establishing an unauthorised encampment…”

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BREAKING: MPs urge government to bring tougher fire safety rules in for ALL private rented properties

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Debate in parliament today included calls for government not to ignore shared rented homes, HMOs and smaller tower blocks when framing new legislation.

MPs are urging the Government to take
buildings under 11 metres tall into account amid concerns that it is only
targeting high rise blocks with new fire safety measures.

As
phase two of the Grenfell Tower fire inquiry opened this week, MPs met to
debate the fire risk in flats
and shared housing, also raising fears about the poor maintenance of fire
doors, issues with compartmentation
and risky building cladding.

MP for Reading
East, Matt Rodda, highlighted concerns about risks in residential buildings under 18 metres,
the level initially covered by the work after Grenfell to identify high-risk
buildings with Grenfell-like (or ATM) cladding.

“Thousands
of people in Reading live in multiple occupancy buildings under 11 metres –
which will be the same across the country,” he said. “These low-rise flats have
the same potential problems as high rises but they’re not on the government’s
target list.”

He
added that residents were concerned about the poor maintenance of some fire
doors, often in blocks where they didn’t meet relevant fire standards.

“Residents
have been left with poor quality building materials in their homes, while
advice and testing of these materials is not up to standard.”

He
said there were large numbers of unregistered HMOs in his constituency, which were
particularly dangerous and could be exploited by unscrupulous landlords.

“While
local authorities lack the power to investigate these concerns, there may be
many fire safety risks in those buildings.”

Mr
Rodda added that little ACM cladding had been removed from buildings, while potential
human error meant residents might accidentally cause a fire risk as time went
on.

Clive
Betts MP agreed that there could be major risks in non-high rise buildings, often
in the private rented sector. He said: “Managing licences is where local
authority resources is key –where there could be an appeal it should be a local
authority decision, as it’s not for ministers to second guess.”

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Section 21 appeal to be heard

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An appeal that could have far-reaching implications for landlords’ rights to repossess their properties will be heard tomorrow (January 29th). Trecarrell v Rouncefield centres on the relationship between Section 21 notices and gas safety certificates. The landlord, Trecarrell House Limited, was initially granted an order to repossess the property using Section 21 powers, however the […]

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No wiggle room for pets

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At the start of the year, Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick MP, announced an overhaul of model tenancy contracts to put more pressure on landlords to allow ‘responsible tenants to have well-behaved pets’ in their rental property.

However, leading lettings and estate agent

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Selling platform for probate properties launches but with punchy costs

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Probatepropertyhub.co.uk claims to be a credible alternative to auctions but loads a lot of the costs on to the buyer rather than the seller.

A new online platform connecting property buyers and
solicitors aims to provide a speedy way to liquidate probate estates has
launched, but with some punchy costs for both buyer and seller.

Probatepropertyhub.co.uk is a new one-stop for probate property sales, exclusively for probate solicitors who can list properties for auction or as a ‘buy now’ for estates needing a super quick sale.

The platform was launched to help solicitors, particularly when assets need to be liquidated quickly; the buy now option lets sellers skip the auction process, guaranteeing completion within 45 days.

But in return, buyers pay a 2.5% fee plus VAT which must be paid within 24 hours of the sale, not on exchange, a fee which is non-refundable, and landlords buying through the platform will then have 60 days to exchange and 90 days to complete, or lose the fee.

If buyers use its eBay-style ‘buy it now’ button, then buyers have just 45 days to get to completion. Also, the site charges a minimum fee of £2,500.

Also, if the platform achieves more than the ‘guaranteed
minimum price’ agreed between it and the vendor, it takes 50% of the uplift.

“As executors have a legal duty of care to
safeguard the assets of the estate, how does probatepropertyhub’s model work
with this model,” asks independent Proptech Real Estate Strategist Andrew
Stanton.

A spokesperson for the platform says: “Solicitors
are required to provide the best possible outcome for clients, but this is
often a balance between achieving a quick sale and getting the right price,”
says a spokesman.

“They are legally compelled
to achieve the best price possible and so this can make it difficult to market
a property.

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Daily politics update: select committee chairs, Universal Credit direct payments

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Today’s update looks at the MPs elected as chairs of their Select Committees and a call made by an MP for the housing element of Universal Credit to be paid directly to landlords. Select Committee The following MPs have been elected as chairs of their Select Committees unopposed following the passing of yesterday’s 4pm deadline […]

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Rough Sleeping Initiative gains £112m

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The government plans to help more rough sleepers off the streets and into safe accommodation after an extra £112 million funding for councils has been announced by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.

The funding is a 30% increase this year and will be used by local authorities

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Joint AST and alleged victim has left?

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We have a couple only 6 weeks into a 6 months tenancy who have split up after a domestic incident involving the police, but no charges made. The alleged attacker is believed to have had similar issues before, but I have no proof.Also that person is known to smoke weed etc but again I have no proof.

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Retail turmoil sees more store closures and job losses in 2020…

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High Street:

Retail decline
continues in 2020 with several large groups closing stores and laying
off staff.

Retailers and staff
unions are seeking urgent action from government for the high street
as the number of stores, pubs and restaurants close, with town centre
properties lying empty in increasing numbers.

Throughout last year
around 16 stores closed every day. This was off-set to some extent
with around 9 new openings, but Britain’s top 500 high streets saw
a net decline of 1,234 stores, that’s according to figures produced
by the Local Data Company (LDC), retail analysts, and
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

These alarming
figures are for chain stores alone and do not include independent
stores – the closure figures produced for 2019 were the highest on
record.

So far in 2020 new
research shows that around 10,000 retail jobs have already been lost
in January, with Mothercare, Debenhams, Game, Beales, HMV, Arcadia
toy retailer Hawkin’s Bazaar, Morrisons and Asda closing, closing
outlets or announcing redundancy plans.

Changing consumer
shopping habits, including new technology and the rise in online
sales, are to blame for the store closures and loss of jobs,
according to new research. The rising prevalence of cashier-less
checkouts will likely continue to impact on the number of retail
jobs. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) predicts that with
new technology on the way 65% of retail cashiers and checkout
operators and 60% of stock control staff jobs will become redundant
in the future.

But despite all the
turmoil, landlords and owners of retail property are looking to the
future availability of 5G wireless network technology as a potential
high street saviour.

Scott Morey,
executive director at Altus Group, told ITV News:

“5G presents a
great opportunity for retailers to further improve the underlying
performance of their physical stores by transforming the customer
experience and shifting the role of their store personnel towards
higher value tasks.

“Shoppers
fundamentally rely on stores during various stages of their shopping
journey and 5G has the potential to further improve that
interaction.”

However, the
findings of an Altus Group report provide a more optimistic outlook
than the forecasts produced by the Office for National Statistics
predict 65% of all retail cashiers and checkout operator jobs will
become redundant in future, as will 60% of staff working in stock
control.

Prime Minister Boris
Johnson is set to decide this week whether to allow the use of
Chinese Huawei technology in Britain’s new 5G network despite
protests from the US Government.

Mr Morey thinks
that:

“Whilst 5G will
transform the consumer experience, the starting point will be for
telecom companies and real estate owners to provide the
infrastructure and physical location points so 5G can reach its full
potential.”

Meanwhile, John
Whittaker the
biggest investor in Intu,
the leading
shopping centres property
company that owns
Lakeside in Essex and
Manchester’s Trafford Centre among several others, is being forced
to to restructure his
shareholding to appease
lenders.

John
Whittaker’s
private company Peel
Group owns 29.3% of Intu Properties and
has had to stump up more cash for the
special-purpose vehicles that hold his shares in
Intu as the stock
price has fallen and
lenders got the jitters.

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Three quarters of Airbnb users think the properties they visit are ‘regulated’

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Huge gap between expectations of short-lets platform users and the safety and regulation being delivered is shocking, a survey has shown.

The gap between consumer expectation and delivery on safety in the short-lets Airbnb-dominated sector has been revealed by a survey.

More than three-quarters (77%) of overnight guests want regular, independent inspections of all ‘pay to stay’ properties available on platforms such as Airbnb, while almost the same number (72%) assume that they’re already regulated.

The survey by Quality in
Tourism, which quizzed 2,000 guests who had stayed overnight in the UK over 12
months to October 2019, found safety and regulation was high on renters’ agenda
and 83%
supported the mandatory regulation of all Airbnb properties.

Many private landlords are
already highly critical of the current system which regulates the long-term let
sector – as well as hotels,
B&Bs and guesthouses – but not the growing ‘wild
west’ short-term lets market.

Quality in Tourism, which is a performance assessor for tourism and hospitality businesses in the UK, believes the lack of a level playing field between Airbnb and other types of accommodation means there is no way to hold amateur providers accountable.
And while there were thousands of successful, incident-free stays last year, it points to horror stories around the world including a balcony collapse, ceiling collapse, condemned buildings being rented, hidden cameras and fraudulent listings.
Deborah Heather, director of Quality in Tourism, says councils are just beginning to tackle the issue by considering mandatory licensing or regulation.

And the Scottish Parliament also recently moved to license all short-term lets.
But she urges councils to move fast. “Hosts can rent a spare room or even an apartment or house to a complete stranger, with little or no concern for that guest’s welfare,” she says.
“Consumers could be staying in unfit accommodation, some of which don’t even have basic safety equipment such as smoke detectors or carbon monoxide alarms.”

“Changes
need to be urgently made to level the playing field and align all operators to
become accountable and improve consumer safety, before it’s too late.”

Quality in Tourism is calling for new enforceable, mandatory
regulations that set out minimum standards and include compliance with fire safety,
food hygiene and building regulations.

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