Housing

What Clients Say | What Other Solicitors Say: Housing

Eviction

Usually we can prevent evictions of local authority and housing association tenants. We are expert at sorting out Housing Benefit problems and/or negotiating with landlords.

Mr K had been evicted due to rent arrears and was sleeping rough. The court had turned down three applications to suspend the eviction warrant and refused permission to appeal. He had already lost an appeal against refusal of housing benefit because of failure to provide information. However, unnoticed by previous solicitors, an advice agency and all the judges involved, Mr K suffered from a mental disability. We obtained psychiatric evidence, and successfully applied to cancel the eviction order. A successful appeal to the Social Security Commissioners obtained the housing benefit which reduced his rent arrears so that Mr K could return to his home.

Disrepair

We get the repairs done and compensation for the discomfort and inconvenience. Compensation for disrepair is often more than any rent arrears.

Ms X's council landlords asked the court to evict her, claiming more than £15,000 in rent arrears. She could no longer live in her flat and had stopped paying rent when she had been flooded out after the council's contractors left the roof uncovered in a rain storm. We persuaded the court to strike out the council's claim and to order it to redecorate Ms X's home. In addition the council agreed to pay to pay compensation of £17,500 to Ms X.

When Ms P came to us, rain water had been dripping through her ceiling for 13 years. The year before, her previous solicitors had settled a disrepair claim for £2,500 and without an order for works. We claimed against the landlords and the solicitors. Within weeks the landlords fixed the roof and later they paid £5,000 compensation. The solicitors' insurers paid compensation of £30,000 for their professional negligence.

Homelessness and Transfers

We have a strong record of helping people to obtain emergency and permanent accommodation after they have been refused by the local authority. Similarly we can help with transfers to suitable accommodation.

Mr M and his wife lived in one room and had to share the upstairs bathroom/toilet with 10 others. Mr M became wheelchair bound and had to use a bucket which his wife had to empty. The room was too small to manoeuvre his wheelchair. We persuaded the local authority to re-house Mr M as homeless. In addition, the council agreed to provide carers to Mr M and a grant for Mr and Mrs M to furnish their new home.

The council refused to house Ms E and her baby daughter and told her to go back to her abusive and violent partner. We challenged the council's decision and they accepted that she was homeless and agreed to re-house her.

The council had refused to re-house Mr and Mrs M although Mr M could not manoeuvre his wheelchair in the one room they occupied and had to use a bucket because he could not reach the upstairs bathroom/toilet the couple shared with 10 others. Using community care and housing law, we persuaded the council to re-house Mr and Mrs M as homeless, to provide carers for Mr M and a grant for the couple to furnish their new home.

Ms L's housing association flat was next to rooms containing pumps and other machinery. Her landlord agreed to move her and a court awarded her £14,500 compensation.

After a double leg amputation Mr Z was released from hospital to his council flat on the first floor without a lift. The council refused to move him and when he came to us he had been housebound for nearly a year and. Using community care as well as housing law, we persuaded the council to re-house him in a specially adapted ground floor flat.