Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Guardian - 16 November 2011
City of London action against protesters obstructing the highway at St Paul's is open to many interpretations...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Guardian - 20 September 2011
A month after the riots the government has forced the hand of social landlords, changing their role from protector to prosecutor...

Sara Stephens, Solicitor
Journal of Housing Law - July 2011
In November 2010, the Government published a consultation paper on proposals for reform of the legal aid system in England and Wales. The paper argues that the legal aid system has expanded too far, becoming one of the most expensive systems in the world...

David Marshall, Partner
Journal of Housing Law - July 2011
Until 1995 charging fees for civil litigation which were contingent upon the result was unlawful. This prohibition often caused problems for impecunious clients who for one reason or another fell outside the scope of the legal aid scheme...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Journal of Housing Law - July 2011
As if reforms to legal aid and civil litigation costs weren't enough, the Ministry of Justice has issued a consultation on reform of the County Courts and civil procedure, titled "Solving Disputes in the county courts: creating a simpler, quicker and more proportionate system"...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Guardian - 13 July 2011
Plans to criminalise trespassing where no damage has been caused will impact Gypsies, travellers and protestors...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 31 May 2011
Giles considers Pinnock, the sequel, and a trio of revealing decisions on homelessness...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 18 April 2011
When it comes to possession orders, is the Supreme Court championing the human rights of tenants or just unnecessarily clouding the issue?...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Law Gazette - 10 March 2011
The Law Society has been coordinating responses from members of its relevant committees (planning, conveyancing and housing) to large parts of the Localism Bill. This is the bill that proposes to bring in far-reaching plans to devolve power to the local community to build on the government’s idea of the ‘Big Society’...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 29 November 2010
Giles examines what's in store for housing law practitioners...

Giles Peaker and Sara Stephens, Solicitors
Solicitors Journal - 22 November 2010
The green paper post-mortem paints a bleak picture of what civil legal aid provision will look like if the MoJ gets its way. Giles and Sara contribute to this article, providing a snapshot of what their services may look like...

Andrew Brookes, Partner
Andrew gives an update on housing law in 2010 including possession hearings, nuisance and anti-social behaviour, tolerated trespassers, homelessness, tenancy deposits and judicial reviews...

Debra Wilson, Partner
As Autumn beckons, John Keats' words (To Autumn, 1820) "Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness..." are lovely to contemplate, except perhaps where this involves neglected, urban trees...

Charlotte Collins and Giles Peaker, Solicitors
Solicitors Journal - 12 July 2010
After persuading the Supreme Court to lay the "zombie-like creature" to rest, Charlotte Collins and Giles Peaker pick over the bones of the tolerated trespasser...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 6 July 2010
Giles reflects on what the new government means for the Tenants Services Authority, the private rental sector and assured shorthold tenancies, the continuing uncertainty over tenancy deposit schemes, and the public law defence...

Rebecca Sheriff, Trainee Solicitor
The majority of tenants in the private sector give their landlords a deposit against possible non-payment of rent or damage to the property. This is often an area of dispute with some landlords being slow to return deposits at the end of the tenancy or making unfair deductions...

Charlotte Collins, Solicitor
On 23 June 2010 the Supreme Court handed down judgment in the case of Austin v London Borough of Southwark[2010] UKSC 28. This case is the final chapter in relation to tolerated trespassers which should put the issue finally to rest...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Law Gazette - July 2010
In his first speech as housing minister, Grant Shapps announced that the government was scrapping recommendations to further regulate the private rented sector. He said further regulation would ‘create burdensome red tape and bureaucracy’ for good landlords...

Charlotte Collins, Solicitor
On 23 June 2010 the Supreme Court handed down judgment in the case of Austin v London Borough of Southwark an appeal heard by a panel of five Law Lords on 21 and 22 April 2010. The Appellant Mr Barry Austin, is the brother of the late Alan Austin who was the original tenant of a one bedroom flat on the Aylesbury estate in Southwark...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 16 February 2010
The uncertainties over which social housing organisations fall within the scope of human rights law as ‘public bodies’ is both a prompt to tidy up their operations and an opportunity for tenants to call them to account...

Andrew Brookes, Partner
We successfully acted for the respondent in the recent mortgage recovery case of Vedalease Ltd v Cascabel Investments Ltd...

Sarah Hughes, Solicitor
Resolution Review - June 2009
On 4 February 2009, the House of Lords delivered their Judgement in Holmes-Moorhouse (FC) v London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (2009) and held that a father with a Shared Residence Order was not entitled to Local Authority housing because his children ‘could not reasonably be expected to reside with him’...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 1 December 2009
The House of Lords delivered ground-breaking judgments in 2009, the question now is how housing lawyers will live with them, and whether the new Supreme Court will take a different approach to human rights defences...

Patricia Carr, Solicitor
This article analyses the decision in the Holmes-Moorhouse case and discusses what advisors for applicants and local authorities should do in the light of the decision...

Debra Mo, Partner
Kehoe represented a valiant attempt to influence the workings of the Child Support Agency, says Debra Mo, but was this worthy case doomed to failure and what means of redress remain?

Debra Wilson, Partner
Cohabitees (couples who live together who are not married) are a reflection of the diverse family trends that have evolved over the last few decades. Divorce rates have increased, with a corresponding decrease in the number of marriages contributing to greater incidences of cohabitation...

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal, 25 November 2008
During 2008 there were some major housing law cases, shaping practice into 2009, while proposed new legal aid contracts from 2010 will involve big decisions in the coming year for most practices...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Solicitors Journal -  7 October 2008
The government-approved tenancy deposit schemes should provide a successful dispute resolution mechanism, but solicitors should be involved in the on-going consultation over its actual...

Timothy Waitt, Solicitor 
Journal of Housing Law - July 2008
Introduction In July 1998 the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the important disrepair case of Wallace v Manchester.¹ The judgment was seen as a watershed, laying to rest...

Andrew Brookes, Partner Journal of Housing Law, July 2007
This edition of the Journal contains a series of articles about the impact of the Human Rights Act on housing. A number of complex cases where arguments about the application of the Act in...

Andrew Brookes, Partner, Anthony Gold and Nick Billingham, Partner, Devonshires
Introduction The Smith Institute Report, Rethinking Social Housing¹, has created a debate in the housing press about the possibility of ending security of...