Page 10 - Solving Housing Disputes

I. INTRODUCTION

Change your view of litigation from an adversarial dispute to a problem to be solved
1
– Sir Ernest Ryder

Background

2
1.1 Housing is a fundamental necessity, some would say a human right. Yet too many
people in England and Wales find it difficult to enforce access to housing or other
housing rights.

3
1.2 In the current expanding rental market, landlords frequently do not know or
understand their legal obligations; tenants are often unaware of their rights or feel
4
incapable of enforcing them. Landlords are too often, intentionally or
unwittingly, failing to discharge their obligations to make repairs or take other
5
safety measures that are found within a complex legal and regulatory overlay. At
the same time, tenants fear the consequences of enforcing rights and standards in
6
their home.

th
1 Sir Ernest Ryder, ‘The Modernisation of Access to Justice in Times of Austerity’ (5 Annual Ryder
Lecture, University of Bolton, 2016), available at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/20160303-ryder-lecture2.pdf

2 Adequate housing was recognised as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights.

3 In 2018/19, the private rented sector accounted for 4.6 million or 19% of all homes, having doubled in
size since 2002, see Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, ‘English Housing
Survey:
Headline Report, 2018-19, p. 1 available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upload
s/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/860076/2018-19_EHS_Headline_Report.pdf

4 Poll and Rodgers, ‘Getting the House in Order How to improve standards in the private rented
sector’ (Citizens Advice, 2019) available at https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/CitizensAdvice/
Housing%20Publications/Getting%20the%20House%20in%20Order.pdf

5 60% of tenants surveyed by Citizens Advice reported disrepair in their home in the last 2 years, which
a landlord was responsible for fixing, ibid p.8.

6 Citizen’s Advice surveyed over 2,000 tenants in 2018, and found that tenants who made a formal
complaint to their local authority or redress scheme had a 46% chance of being issued with a reprisal
4