Page 19 - Solving Housing Disputes

2.9 What these developments reflect is that the traditional adversarial model has
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been found wanting in terms of access, unmet need, delay, cost and
satisfaction with outcomes. Moreover, most people do not like going to court.
If we can find a more compassionate, useful way of resolving their disputes
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and problems, we should adopt it. These developments have encouraged our
Working Party’s thinking and our proposal for something holistic and
problem-solving, which looks to the drivers of a dispute and tries to identify,
address and remedy them. We recommend the piloting of a new Housing
Disputes Service (HDS).

The Housing Disputes Service

2.10 The HDS would not be a court, tribunal or ombudsman. It would be something
entirely new. It is a proposed model for dispute resolution that would set out
all the circumstances and relevant issues in a housing relationship, not
confined by the parties’ initial assumptions as to what the issues are, which
can themselves reflect an information imbalance derived from unequal
resources between the parties. The investigation would include identifying,
assessing and attempting to find solutions for the underlying problems giving
rise to the housing dispute and meeting participants’ real interests in the
outcome. The aim is to ensure that all relevant areas of dispute are brought to
the surface, including compliance with notice and other contractual and
regulatory requirements.

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2.11 Although the HDS will need to evolve, both within a pilot period and - if
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successful - once it starts to be rolled out nationally, both geographically and
in terms of the disputes it deals with, it is nonetheless worth pausing to
consider the nature of housing law and therefore of the potential ambit of the

35 The Residential Landlords Association highlighted that the current average wait time in London for
certain possession claims is 30 weeks from court application to bailiff enforcement. Wood, ‘The wait of
justice: the slow pace of the courts in Greater London’ (Residential Landlord Association Blog, 15
January 2020) available at https://research.rla.org.uk/research-blog/the-wait-of-justice-the-slow-pace-
of-the-courts-in-greater-london/

36 See the JUSTICE’s Understanding Courts, note 26 above, which made an array of recommendations
aimed at improving a court and tribunal system alien and alienating for most citizens.

37 See para 2.31.

38 See para 2.20.

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