Page 7 - Solving Housing Disputes
P. 7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

          Too many people in England and Wales find it difficult to enforce access to housing
          or other housing rights. Over the past decade, homelessness has more than doubled,
          putting  further  strain  on  the  sector.  Local  authorities  are  struggling  to  discharge
          homelessness duties with limited housing stock. Early legal advice and intervention
          to address housing problems, homelessness and associated or underlying issues has
          been greatly attenuated by the cuts to civil legal aid. This has caused large parts of the
          housing  advice  sector  to  collapse,  resulting  in  “advice  deserts”.  Moreover,  court
          closures have further frustrated access to justice as respondents simply cannot afford
          to attend possession hearings outside their own towns.

          Once in the system, housing dispute resolution suffers from disaggregation: there are
          too many places a person might go to resolve a dispute, with adversarial processes
          that can be difficult to access, navigate and understand for lay people.
          This Working Party builds upon the current endeavours of Government to improve
          the way housing disputes are resolved by presenting proposals to create a more unified
          and accessible housing dispute system. Key to these reforms are greater coherence,
          access  to  legal  advice  and  information,  and  conciliatory  methods  to  resolve
          disputes.
          The report is set out in two parts, making the case:

              •  First, for a future model of dispute resolution, the Housing Disputes Service
                 (HDS), and
              •  Second, irrespective of whether the HDS is introduced, for essential reforms
                 to the current system.


          The HDS would be an entirely new and distinct model for dispute resolution. It would
          fuse  elements  of  problem-solving,  investigative,  holistic  and  mediative  models
          utilised elsewhere in the justice system. It offers a new approach premised not just on
          dealing with individual disputes, but rather on  remedying underlying issues that
          give rise to housing claims and sustaining tenant-landlord relationships beyond the
          life of the dispute.





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