Page 153 - Solving Housing Disputes

in the county court. There are numerous other examples, both at the appellate
level and in practice.

13. Where perhaps we most fundamental differ is reflected in the proposition
(Dissent, para.17) that “[i]t is only by providing legal advice and assistance
to the tenant, homeless person, or other occupier of housing that fairness can
be achieved” (emphasis added). This doubtless underlies the principal thrust
of the Dissent, that what is needed above all is more legal aid for - among
other things - litigation. Litigation is not, however, the only route to fairness
for the reasons we have articulated at Report, para.2.8. Litigation is the route
which lawyers see, because that is our training, but there is no basis for
suggesting that it is the only route.

14. Few are satisfied with the current dispute resolution system; nor is the HLPA
354
Dissent. The economics of legal aid practice are a scandal: reliant on costs
in successful cases, there is an implicit conflict of interest between legal aid
solicitors and their clients, who rarely want to find themselves in court, an
355
alien, alienating and confusing experience of which they feel little part. The
compression of issues routinely ignores underlying problems. The bifurcation
of jurisdictions is confusing enough for lawyers, never mind lay people. The
356
delay to which an adversarial system is inevitably prone continues to leave
people - including the vulnerable - in unsatisfactory accommodation not only
for months but sometimes for years on end. Landlords, too, want swifter
remedies and, as things stand, that translates into swifter evictions rather than
357
outcomes which are positive for tenants as much as for them.

354 Dissent, para.36.

355 There is no recognition anywhere in the Dissent of their clients’ perspective or feelings about the
system.

356 At least two parties with different interests, tactics and goals are bound to generate delays as each
manoeuvres their way towards the decision they seek, not to mention courts balancing how they provide
their time to numerous cases and the vagaries of how court time is used.

357 Save where the landlord wants to sell, there is prima facie no benefit to a landlord in an eviction, only
additional cost. Of course, there are badly behaved tenants, of whom a landlord may want to be rid, but
this already moves us into the terrain where recognition and understanding of the tenants’ underlying
problems may affect the outcome.

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