Construing local authority policies when issuing civil penalty notices (City of Bradford MDC v Kazi)

16 Oct 2024

Housing, Local Government

Publisher

LexisNexis

Issue

19th September
Tara O'Leary

The Court of Appeal has ruled that a local authority (and on appeal, the First-tier Tribunal (‘FTT’)) did not fetter their discretion when applying a policy in order to calculate fines imposed on a landlord by civil penalty notices (‘CPNs’) served under the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004). The Upper Tribunal (‘UT’) had been wrong to interpret a provision in the policy as being so unduly rigid as to amount to an unlawful fetter of discretion. The provision was concerned with a percentage adjustment to the penalty in light of aggravating and mitigating factors.

Read the full article by Tara O’Leary, on LexisNexis here.