Ministry of Justice to delay introduction of fixed recoverable costs in housing cases for two years

The Government has delayed the introduction of fixed recoverable costs (FRC) in housing cases.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We want to reform civil justice costs because giving all parties certainty upfront will ensure no one is locked out of justice for fear of how high their legal fees might be if they lose.

“However, it is important that our reforms are aligned with wider reforms in the housing sector which is why we’ve taken the decision to delay introduction in these instances by two years.”

The MoJ added that the delay for housing cases would “allow for the impact of changes in the housing sector to become clearer over the two year period”.

These changes include the introduction of the Social Housing Regulation Bill, which hands additional powers for the Regulator of Social Housing.

The MoJ also pointed to the December 2022 letter from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, to the legal profession asking them to refer social housing tenants to the Housing Ombudsman for advice about resolving complaints with their landlord.

In the letter, in which he shamed three more social landlords, Gove 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”.

However, in late January Housing Law Practitioners Association (HLPA) issued an open letter to Gove expressing concern over proposals it claims seek to “exclude the majority of people of modest or lesser means from the courts”.

The association’s co-chair, Spike Mullings, claimed 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”.

The MoJ said it would still press ahead with its FRC reforms for other civil cases. These wider FRC reforms will be implemented in October 2023.