Result.

Today I have been in Croydon Magistrates Court over this statutory nuisance business. Even with the Court being put on a heightened level of security this still managed to be a very formal affair. The case was heard in front of a three Magistrates in courtroom number 8. Despite all this finery the proceedings were probably best described as an absolute shambles. Firstly neither the Magistrates or the Clerk had any of the relevant paperwork. They then proceeded to ignore the fact that the wrong summons had been sent to the wrong people and hear the case anyway. After that it started to go down hill.

Presentation Housing Association were represented by Marsons Solicitors (SDA/000814-0019) who had appointed a Barrister to act on their behalf. This barrister going by the first name Saddiq was a very accomplished performer who used to be a government solicitor. I can only speculate that he used to work at the Department for Energy and Climate Change alongside Ravi Gurumurhty, a director at the company. He made much of the fact that the summons should have been sent to either CAYSH or the residents of number 50 rather then the company he was representing. Although this was also my opening argument the Magistrates threw out the case on two technicalities;

Firstly that the owners of a property cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of their tenants as per a (very) recent and unspecified ruling by the Supreme Court (Law Lords). Secondly that the notice was not provided within the parameters set out in Section 82 of the act. Presentation then made an order for costs and the Magistrate told them to go away. So no costs were awarded.

I requested a copy of the Judgement that should shed more light on this mysterious Supreme Court ruling but for today that's a loss. Guess how drunk I'm going to be getting tonight.