Members of Chambers - Sean Pettit

Call: 1997

Qualifications: BA(Hons) LSE

Practice Areas Landlord and Tenant. All areas of the law pertaining to Private and Social Landlords and Tenants, including: Possession; Disrepair; Breach of Covenant; Nuisance; Unlawful Eviction; Quiet Enjoyment; Rent Assessment; Service Charges; Environmental Protection Act; Mobile Homes.

Local Government Housing and Homelessness, including: Secure and Introductory tenancies; Homelessness; Community Care; Welfare Benefits.

General Public Law, Human Rights and EC law, particularly in the context of Housing and Homelessness.

Real Property, including: Rights of Way; Trespass; Nuisance; Trusts of Land.

Employment, including: Unfair Dismissal; Discrimination; Equal pay.

General Civil Law, including: personal and industrial injuries; consumer contract.

Karolina Jurkowska v HLMAD Ltd [2008] EWCA Civ 231 (CA). The Employment Appeal Tribunal's exercise of the power exceptionally to extend by 33 minutes the prescribed time limit for serving notice of appeal was, on the particular facts, not an unlawful exercise of discretion.

Leon Denton v Southwark London Borough Council [2007] EWCA Civ 623 (CA). When considering whether it would have been reasonable for a homeless person to continue to occupy accommodation within the Housing Act 1996 s.191(1) the local housing authority had to disregard the conduct or course of conduct that had led him to leave that home.

Rikha Begum v London Borough of Tower Hamlets [2005] 1 WLR 2103 (CA) Homelessness. Where an application for housing assistance under the Housing Act 1996 Part VII was not "identical" to, or based on "exactly the same facts" as its predecessor application, the local authority was required to treat the second application as a valid application. The Court of Appeal gave guidance as to the approach housing authorities should adopt to subsequent applications under Part VII. (Tower Hamlets have been granted permission to appeal to the House of Lords).

R (Bashir Bantamagbari) v London Borough of Westminster [2003] EWHC] 1350 (Admin) Homelessness. A council had acted unlawfully in refusing to accept a reference from another council, under s.198 Housing Act 1996, to house a homeless person as that person was correctly found to be unintentionally homeless.

London Borough of Newham v Anwar Ali (27/11/03) LAG . Possession. The Housing Act provides a complete code for possession and the part of the code which deals with overcrowding is Ground 9. The landlord can only claim possession on the basis of overcrowding where the criteria for Ground 9 apply and the landlord must use Ground 9 to claim possession on the basis of overcrowding.

R (B) v London Borough of Southwark (No2) (Admin 22/10/2003) LAG Local Government, Human Rights. The Local Authority agreed to pay £3,000 in respect of damages claimed for misfeasance and/or breach of the Claimant's Human Rights.

R (B) v London Borough of Southwark. (The Times 30/7/03) Homelessness. A prison cell was not accommodation within the meaning of s.175 Housing Act 1996. Therefore a prisoner eligible for release who had no other accommodation was homeless within the definition in the Act

London Borough of Wandsworth v Victor Bankole (Wandsworth CC 17/3/2003) LAG . Possession. A joint tenant's Notice to Quit was insufficiently clear, notwithstanding a 'saving' clause and, therefore, did not terminate the tenancy.

London Borough of Lambeth v Delroy Stewart (2002) HLR 747 (CA) . Homelessness. The defendant council was entitled to conclude that the claimant, who had been convicted of an offence giving rise to a five-year sentence, had made himself intentionally homeless within the definition in s.191 Housing Act 1996. A term of imprisonment did not break the chain of causation.

Monarch Insurance Ltd v Customs and Excise Commissioners. (1999) The taxpayer could not claim input tax relief in respect of the purchase of four motor cars where the hire purchase agreements relating to the cars were not in the name of the taxpayer and there was no evidence that they had been assigned to the taxpayer.

Professional Associations

Housing Law Practitioners Association

Training and Teaching

Law Society Accredited training course provider in Housing and Employment.

Former Part-time teacher, London School of Economics: Land Law, Equity and Trusts.