Page 107 - Solving Housing Disputes

prospect of introducing “Case Builder”, an online decision tree that would
provide structured guidance, and potentially produce template documents, before
a person initiates a claim online.

4.18 For housing disputes, any decision tree should assist people to identify who their
dispute is against, whether the dispute relates to condition or status and should
structure questioning so that, at the end of the process, the person is directed to
the correct dispute resolution procedure. Any decision tree should offer drop-off
points at key moments to legal advice available through the portal.

Alternative dispute resolution

4.19 As discussed in the previous chapter, pre-action protocols for housing disputes
encourage parties to engage in ADR prior to the initiation of a claim. Yet unlike
the pre-action Road Traffic Accident portal, pre-action ADR in housing is not
well joined up with the subsequent court process. There are too few ADR
providers. Arrangements for housing legal aid are an impediment to engagement,
there is little public knowledge about ADR and arguably inadequate or
infrequently applied consequences for failure to engage with it prior to
commencing a claim.

4.20 If pre-action ADR is to be encouraged by the courts, it should be part of a more
structured, coherent pathway. 306 One way to make the dispute resolution process
more coherent would be to incorporate ADR providers within the single point of
entry for disputes. Mediators or alternate ADR providers should be incorporated
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within the HCRS pathway. Parties could be signposted or alerted to ADR
providers, or, where pre-action ADR is required under the protocol, the digital
claim form through the HCRS should feature a pathway, nudge or dropoff point
to accredited providers, to see whether parties are capable of resolving their
disputes at the pre-action stage. This pre-action ADR could also offer users Early
Neutral Evaluation (ENE) of the strengths and weaknesses of their disputes,
using the experience and expertise of judges and specially trained case workers.
Legal Help should be extended where necessary to cover the provision of advice
and assistance for users participating in pre-action ADR, to encourage uptake

306 Hodges, note 157 above p. 558.

307 For instance, those conducting ENE through the Financial Ombudsmen Service, Tenancy Deposit
Scheme or Ombudsmen staff responsible for negotiating with parties to disputes.

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