Page 32 - Solving Housing Disputes
P. 32
dashboard for parties to upload and monitor relevant documents and the
progress of their dispute.
68
2.34 At Phase 1, the HDEG, local courts, services and housing providers should
agree upon certain categories of disputes that must be directed into the pilot
HDS for a pre-agreed period. A category of disputes should be identified that
provides an evidence base for a Phase 1 evaluation. For example, it might be
possible to identify a local authority area where possession and disrepair cases
and service charge disputes are piloted for a finite period in the HDS, this
69
could be confined to social housing or it might include privately rented.
2.35 We recommend that the pilot include independent lawyers in each pilot
location to provide parties with legal advice on their rights, interests and
obligations, remunerated under a discrete arrangement (based on a legal
aid contract or otherwise) at a sustainable rate, capable of taking the
dispute to court and tribunal if the dispute cannot be resolved through
the HDS.
2.36 Phase 1 would require an array of HDS staff capable of addressing the
categories of dispute selected. The following staff would be needed at Stage
1, who could be seconded at least during the pilot phase from the advice
sector, local authorities, ombudsmen services and the judiciary, drawn from
local or geographically wider provision if need be:
• housing managers
• environmental health officers and/or surveyors
• lawyers
70
• Tenancy Relations Officers or investigators
• investigators
68 See para 2.73 below.
69 It would not be necessary to have a single category of landlord for all areas within the pilot - different
categories of landlord could be piloted for different categories of dispute. This might be particularly
relevant where private possession claims are concerned if it is thought that the extent of resistance to it
might render it unworkable; in that case, private disrepair cases and/or service charges could still fall
within Phase 1.
70 E.g. Ombudsman investigators.
26
