Law Society rejects government plans for specialist Housing Court
The Law Society has said the Government has failed to make the case for creating a specialist Housing Court.
Responding to a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government consultation, Chancery Lane said better resourcing of existing courts and signposting parties to advice and information should “ensure cases are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner”.
It said some private landlords did not understand the complexities of their cases and were reluctant to pay for legal advice that would ensure they understood the defences and counter-claims available to tenants.
This lack of knowledge meant landlords then often complained about perceived ‘delays’.
Many defendant tenants were unable to secure legal advice before the first hearing, the Law Society said, with the expert advice received coming through the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme “at the door of the court”.
It said the lack of legal aid “compounds issues which could be resolved at a much earlier stage with expert advice from qualified legal professionals”.
In other reactions to the potential new court, specialist housing barristers from Garden Court Chambers said: “Our main concern is the potential non-availability of legal aid and conditional fee agreements for tenants to be able to fund legal representation.”
They feared a new court might be set up as ‘no costs jurisdiction’ like a tribunal “and therefore there would be no legal aid and no means for tenants to fund legal representation”.
The Residential Landlords’ Association said the current system was “not fit for purpose, with housing issues dealt with by a range of civil and criminal courts and tribunals”.
It said a specialist Housing Court could bring these together in one place and should be “judge-led and sit outside existing court buildings, in civic buildings, schools or even pubs – outside opening hours of course – to relieve pressure on court buildings and speed up the process”.
Housing charity Shelter said the proposed court “might improve access to justice, but without sufficient resourcing and access to legal aid, changes to the court system could be disastrous for renters.
“Our support for a specialised housing court is entirely dependent on it being adequately resourced.”
Mark Smulian
