Page 42 - Solving Housing Disputes

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of the dispute. A digital case file of the dispute should be accessible to the
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parties, their legal advisors and the appellate level. If there is no agreement
at Stage 3 and a Stage 4 adjudication is issued in a dispute that remains
contested, any party can reject the outcome and require it to be referred to
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court or tribunal by way of appeal as of right on fact or law.

2.57 Like the FTT (PC), HDS determinations will be enforceable through the
courts. Ombudsmen schemes experience a high rate of compliance with their
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orders, and we would expect the same for the HDS. Should enforcement of
a Stage 4 HDS determination be necessary, we expect digital case files from
the HDS to be easily transferrable to enforcement in the courts and tribunals
– potentially through the digitisation project for enforcement currently being
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undertaken as part of the Reform Programme. During the pilot phase,
specific arrangements would need to be made for disputes appealed to the
court/tribunal stage. Specific court and tribunal staff should be appointed to
take conduct of HDS appeals during the pilot phase, and it will be desirable
for those appeals to be heard on an expedited basis in order to preserve such
benefits as the HDS process has been able to secure, even if there remain
issues in dispute.

96 It may again be borne in mind that there may be more than two parties and more than one dispute: a
housing relationship may give rise to disputes between the landlord and the tenant, the local authority
and the landlord or the tenant, and even the police where anti-social behaviour and the use of housing
powers are in issue.

97 This will include written representations from both sides, the Stage 2 interim assessment and final
Stage 4 decision with reasons and all other communications - see above, para 2.53 and 2.56. It may be
that this would impose a disproportionate burden on the appellate body, and that these basic documents
may be separated out from the remainder, though everything needs to be available at the appellate stage.

98 We recognise that this could lead to unmeritorious appeals taken in order to delay, to a greater extent
than currently. While this cannot wholly be avoided (any more than it can be wholly avoided now), a
non-legally aided party might face either a strike out application or an application for security for costs.
Where legal aid is in issue, the party’s lawyer will need to be satisfied as to merits.

99 The Housing Ombudsman has 97% compliance with orders within three months of decision making,
‘The Housing Ombudsman: Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19’ (Housing Ombudsman, 23 July 2019)
p.7 available at https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Housing-
Ombudsman-ARA-2018-19-Web-Accessible.pdf

100 Digital case files remain part of the civil enforcement project as part of the HMCTS Reform
Programme, though the completion date for that project has been pushed back to July 2021.

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