Page 98 - Solving Housing Disputes

dispute resolution, taking into consideration pre-existing schemes, methods and
proposals for reform.

Cross ticketing

4.3 In recognition of the practical difficulties and limited political interest in creating
a Housing Court, a working party convened by the Civil Justice Council
recommended deploying the judiciary to ensure all issues in any given housing
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case are dealt with in one forum. Since the end of 2016, certain property
disputes that traverse both the County Court and the FTT (PC) have been subject
to the Residential Property Deployment of Judges Pilot. By this process, in some
cases proceedings commenced in the County Court are transferred to the FTT
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(PC) or alternatively, a judicial case management decision is made to deploy a
judge, who is both an FTT judge and County Court judge, to hold a hearing in
which all aspects of a single dispute (which traverses jurisdictional lines) are
solved. 278

4.4 We understand that some 500 disputes have been dealt with using this method,
and our Working Party supports its expansion. Flexible deployment of the

the County Court and part in the FTT (PC), which runs counter to section 49(2) of the Senior Courts Act
1981, providing that “every court shall so exercise its jurisdiction in every cause or matter before it as to
secure that as far as possible, all matters in dispute between the parties are completely and finally
determined, and all multiplicity of legal proceedings with respect to any of those matters is avoided”.

276 Civil Justice Council, Interim Report of the Working Group on Property Disputes in the Courts and
Tribunals (May 2016), available at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/final-interim-
report-cjc-wg-property-disputes-in-the-courts-and-tribunals.pdf

277 For instance, pursuant to section 176A of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.

278 Amendments to the County Courts Act 1984 and provisions of the Tribunals Court and Enforcement
Act 2007 (TCEA) mean that FTT judges are now also judges of the County Court and vice versa. Cross-
ticketing under the TCEA goes beyond property law and is intended to be part of a broad shift across the
judiciary, to “enable the flexible deployment of judiciary to meet fluctuations in workloads and
encourage greater consistency of standards and approach across previously disparate jurisdictions”,
House of Commons Hansard Ministerial Statements for 16 July 2009 (pt 0005) available at https://publi
cations.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090716/wmstext/90716m0005.htm See, for example,
the case study about a mobile home owner described by President of the Property Chamber, Judge Siob
han McGrath at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/mcgrath-how-to-avoid-dancing-
in-a-ring-spring-2017.pdf Cross-ticketing is used in cases such as service charge disputes, where a judge
can also consider issues around arrears of ground rent, enfranchisement cases where the validity of a
claim notice is not otherwise in the jurisdiction for the FTT (PC) and beneficial interests in land
registration cases, ibid.

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