Housing lawyers group writes open letter to Gove amid concern over directions to use Ombudsman
The Housing Law Practitioners Association (HLPA) has issued an open letter to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, amid concern over proposals it claims seek to “exclude the majority of people of modest or lesser means from the courts”.
In the letter, published in Legal Action Magazine, the association’s co-chair, Spike Mullings, began by thanking Gove for his letter of 28 December, which “recognised the important work of HLPA members”.
However, Mullings went on to note that a variety of government and non-government institutions had put forward and continued to develop “proposals that seek to divert disputants whose claims are deemed to be of lower value away from a determination by the courts and rule of law”.
Gove’s letter, in which he shamed three more failing social landlords, had urged solicitors “to tell social housing tenants that the Ombudsman should be the first route for reporting complaints with their landlord – and that it is unacceptable for landlords to let legal proceedings get in the way of repairs”.
Mullings wrote that while the HLPA saluted the fact that the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) had been “cognisant of the deep and dangerous complacency within the housing provider sector as to housing conditions, damp and mould”, the tragic case of Awaab Ishak’s death still occurred when the HOS had “all the powers and broadly all the resources it has now.”
Mullings added that the HLPA was “not aware of significant extra resources being deployed.”
He added: “The HOS’s efforts in this arena are focused around bringing about a culture shift in the provider sector rather than redress for tenants. Respectfully, it is naive to think that the HOS has the capacity to investigate and seek a remedy for every case of dangerous damp and mould that you are calling to be referred”.
Mullings also pointed out that poor housing conditions were dangerous and many times needed an urgent remedy. “But the HOS’s website says this: ‘If you are unable to resolve your complaint through your landlord’s complaints procedure you can refer it to the ombudsman.’ A social housing sector that has been found to have been asleep at the wheel for decades must mark its own homework before any independent scrutiny from the HOS can be considered. These timescales are too long for urgent cases.”
The letter cited an estimate by Giles Peaker of the Nearly Legal blog that the HOS awards around 25% of what the courts consider is reasonable.
Mullings also noted that the FAQ’s on the Housing Ombudsman site say that it will not take a complaint if there is any legal action underway, but it also says it “cannot compel a landlord to carry out repairs”.
Consequently, housing lawyers “are being asked to advise people who need legal redress, many times urgently, to forego that legal redress and bring a complaint, first through the housing provider’s complaints procedure and then to the HOS. Such advice would be negligent and a solicitor or adviser should expect to face censure if they did such a thing in the way that I have set out.”
In his letter Mullings pointed out that letting accommodation that is unfit for human habitation is against the law. “The law needs to intervene in cases where it occurs. However, since 2013, a number of factors have conspired (and continue to conspire) to make it substantially more difficult for tenants to get legal redress in disrepair and housing conditions cases. Effectively, the legal aid service has been defunded generally and housing law advice deserts continue to grow.”
In the letter Mullings asked why the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 had not prevented the Awaab Ishak tragedy. He noted that since the Act came into force in 2019, no reports of trial outcomes have been seen.
He concludes: “Clearly, the HOS has a valuable role to play in changing the culture of social landlords, which is an important part of the piece. But unless tenants can get full legal redress with timely remedies for urgent, dangerous problems and proper damages awards calculated in a predictable and reasoned way, using the legislation that is on the statute books right now, then they are left legally disenfranchised and we will continue to see housing conditions cause misery, injury and, I fear, the worst of all consequences."
Lottie Winson
