Page 103 - Solving Housing Disputes

largely been dealing with leasehold management, leasehold enfranchisement and
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park homes disputes. These include:

(a) instances of parallel jurisdiction requiring expertise, such as service charges;

(b) where a separate determination is required (by virtue of powers held by
respective fora) but where the same facts and evidence apply to both, such
as applications for lease variations (FTT) and claims for rectification
(County Court);

(c) where court and tribunal have partial jurisdiction, such as enfranchisement
claims where the landlord is missing; and

(d) convenience in dealing with all elements at once, such as payability of
service charges. 296

4.11 In our Working Party’s view, disputes such as those identified at (a) and (c) ought
to be capable of being heard in one jurisdiction only, rather than there needing
to a be a mechanism to respond to concurrency. While we do not offer a view on
the types of dispute which ought to migrate (save perhaps for type (d)), plainly
specialism ought to inform whether a dispute is transferred from one jurisdiction
to another.

4.12 Rationalising the housing disputes landscape will require ongoing diligence and
oversight of the deployment of judicial resources in housing disputes. The
MHCLG will be convening a Redress Reform Working Group in 2020, with an
intention to promote greater rationalisation and coherence in the landscape of
redress providers. This is welcome, but as we understand it, that Working Group
is concerned with maladministration. There is a parallel need for leadership and
oversight to ensure coherency in where court and tribunal disputes are heard, and
in the rationalisation of judicial resources. We recommend the establishment
of a judge-led Working Group comprising senior courts and tribunals
judiciary and senior Ministry of Justice and HMCTS staff to oversee the
structure, development and evolution of the housing disputes landscape,
with a view to promoting greater harmonisation across systems and

295 Ibid.

296 Ibid p. 14-15.

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