Permission Granted! Challenging the Heat Network Trap

We are fundraising £10,000 to cover the potential ‘adverse costs’ one client would owe Lambeth were she to lose her claim. To help Kirsty bring this challenge please donate via her crowdfunder.

The High Court has granted permission for both our clients to bring their judicial reviews challenging lawfulness of heating and hot water charges levied through Lambeth Council’s district heat network.

Granting permission, Richard Clayton KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, held that the claims raise “wider issues and points of law of general public importance”.

Permission was granted on both grounds:

Ground 1: The term of the tenancy agreement that the Council has invoked to raise the level of service charges is onerous and unfair and in breach of section 62 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or regulation 5(1) of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

Ground 2: The levy of service charges and the continuing demand for payment of accrued rent liabilities, together with other accompanying detriments arising from such liabilities is contrary to Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Further details of the issue being challenged can be found in our blog Inside the Heat Network Trap. Further details regarding the permission decision can be found on the Cornerstone website.

This claim is being brought together with counsel Tom Hickman KC (Blackstone Chambers) and Jeremy Ogilvie-Harris (Cornerstone Barristers).

To learn more, visit the Lambeth Tenants Heat Campaign website. Or if you’d like further information about the case, please get in touch at office@pilc.org.uk.

We are fundraising £10,000 to cover the potential ‘adverse costs’ one client would owe Lambeth were she to lose her claim. To help Kirsty bring this challenge please donate via her crowdfunder.