Page 25 - Solving Housing Disputes

a resolution acceptable to all parties not be achieved through the HDS. It
would maintain a cadre of senior and professional officers with an array of
skill sets, so that specialist, technical expertise could be applied to problems
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arising within a dispute.

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2.20 Should the HDS proceed beyond the pilot stage, we propose the
establishment of a national service with local offices. Currently, the FTT (PC)
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operates out of several regional offices. Those areas could form the basis for
a core of large HDS offices featuring all the distinct skill sets for a national
service. However, the HDS should be a national service. Our intention is to
reintroduce advice and housing dispute resolution to areas where court
closures and legal aid shortfalls are currently frustrating access to justice.
Smaller offices should be established with identified core staff who could call
upon the specialist expertise from larger, centralised offices on an as-needed
basis. Courts are a stressful place for people facing the prospect of eviction.
Thus we recommend that when conducting face-to-face investigations or
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ADR, the HDS use venues other than courts, to reduce the anxiety of those
facing the prospect of homelessness.

2.21 The HDS would be distinct from traditional approaches to housing dispute
resolution through its new culture and operating method.

(a) Investigative – the HDS would investigate all matters within a
housing relationship, not merely those as presented by the parties.

Menini v Banco Poplare Societa Cooperativea (Case C-75-16) (on which the three dissenting members
of the Working Party rely – see Appendix B) may be thought to raise arguments about this, in light of
the very strong trend towards alternative dispute resolution, and as participation in Stage 3 is not itself
mandatory (see below, para 2.54), our Working Party’s view is that the establishment of the HDS as a
mandatory scheme would not amount to a fetter on Article 6.

51 This would range from the sort of expertise which would commonly be needed, e.g. environmental
health or surveying, to expertise only occasionally required, e.g. fire, disease or forensic accountancy. A
national service can afford to maintain a broad range of expertise, available to all local HDS centres.

52 See further below, para 2.31 onwards.

53 In London, the Eastern Region (Cambridge), the Midlands (Birmingham), Northern Region
(Manchester) and Southern Region (Hampshire).

54 We envisage that the HDS would be capable of conducting itself on a “pop-up” basis, travelling to
towns or communities to conduct interviews on an as-needed basis.

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