Page 96 - Solving Housing Disputes

IV. HARMONISING THE SYSTEM

Introduction

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4.1 In this Chapter, we continue our proposals for reform of the current system.
Housing law represents a vast array of disputes, from tenancy to public law
obligations, resolved across various courts, ombudsmen and tribunals. Most
housing disputes in any given year are County Court possession claims, while
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other housing disputes, as varied as service charges and local authority licensing
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disputes, are resolved in the FTT (PC). Various redress schemes exercise
jurisdiction over maladministration complaints against housing providers,
including the Property Redress Scheme, the Property Ombudsmen, the Housing
Ombudsmen and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The
Tenancy Deposit Protection schemes all offer online dispute resolution of disputes
relating to tenancy deposits. They all exercise discrete and occasionally
overlapping coverage of acts of maladministration by housing providers. The
redress landscape is profoundly disaggregated, as demonstrated by the graphic
below from Professor Chris Hodges recent book, Delivering Dispute
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Resolution:

270 See para 3.1.

271 In 2018, there were 121,712 landlord possession claims and 19,508 mortgage possession claims issued
in the County Court, ‘Mortgage and Landlord Possession statistics, July to September 2019’, (Ministry
of Justice, 14 November 2019) available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-
landlord-possession-statistics-july-to-september-2019

272 For instance, local authorities can take action against housing providers for disrepair either where
there is a hazard under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004, or where it amounts to a statutory nuisance,
pursuant to section 80 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

273 Hodges note 157 above p. 341.

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