The exercise of judicial discretion in rent arrears cases - Sheffield ...

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8. The tenant, a retired woman of 68, is making an application to suspend a warrant for possession, made in favour of her local authority landlord. A suspended possession order was made against the tenant seven months ago on payment of rent plus £2.80 per week. The tenant is on housing benefit, but has an adult son living with her and therefore a non-dependent deduction is made from her benefit. The local authority were initially unaware that the son was living with her and she was overpaid benefit of £250, which was subsequently deducted from her rent account. This together with the ongoing non-dependent deduction, which the tenant is struggling to pay regularly led to arrears of £350. Since the court order arrears have risen to £400. The tenant explains that she has difficulty obtaining any money from her son, and finds it very difficult to make her payments regularly. 125
DCA Research Series No. 6/05 The exercise of judicial discretion in rent arrears cases This study is concerned with how judges exercise their discretion in cases where social landlords seek possession against their secure or assured tenants on the ground of rent arrears. Through interviews with district judges, as well as observation of cases and examination of court files it examines: • the factors which influence the orders which judges make in housing possession cases; • how far there is a consistency of approach between district judges. A wide and diverse range of factors was reported by judges as being influential in how they exercised their discretion in individual cases. For further copies of this publication or information about the Research Series please contact the following address: Department for Constitutional Affairs Research Unit Selborne House 54 Victoria Street London SW1E 6QW Tel: 020 7210 8520 Fax: 020 7210 0693 E-mail: research@dca.gsi.gov.uk http://www.dca.gov.uk/research
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The exercise of judicial discretion
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The Research Unit, Department for C
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Contents Executive summary i Chapte
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Executive summary The research ques
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the shift to housing officers appea
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Conclusions A wide and diverse rang
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on the role of judges under the exi
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Northern 1 court hears over 1500 ho
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significance to a particular respon
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The application may be adjourned; t
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such forms are completed in less th
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In November 2001, the Legal Service
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Levels of arrears Although the reas
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Table 2: Rent levels from ODPM stat
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Table 5: Changes in outcomes of ini
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Table 6: Impact of participation on
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The focus group participants consid
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consideration in this chapter, the
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Neither of the judges seemed to con
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chambers, where the possession list
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Most of the district judges felt th
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The views of the claimants’ group
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Qualitative and quantitative data f
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anything to say, and wants to stay
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Table 7: Sources of training and up
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sought with what they know the judg
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Chapter 5: Judges and landlords Int
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Chart 7: Orders granted by requests
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some unevenness in the impact of re
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Thus it can be seen that the type o
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District judges differed on how muc
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There were three other, more genera
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Conclusions In this chapter, we hav
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Chapter 6: Judges and tenants Intro
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approach he was more confident in t
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“I think in terms of exercising d
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Family make up The broad powers of
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are trying to deal with the particu
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“I wouldn’t dream of making an
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interpreter. Similarly, many of the
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Judges are human too - personal rea
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understand the proceedings, a great
Page 87 and 88: What must be emphasised is that whi
Page 89 and 90: also the most common explanation gi
Page 91 and 92: anomalous case of West Country cour
Page 93 and 94: District judges’ knowledge. Some
Page 95 and 96: Two of the judges interviewed felt
Page 97 and 98: DJ: I’d be inclining towards the
Page 99 and 100: how he dealt with the housing benef
Page 101 and 102: Chapter 8: Particular decisions: gr
Page 103 and 104: Table 10: Outcomes in Ground 8 case
Page 105 and 106: Others were, however, prepared to g
Page 107 and 108: It is perhaps not surprising that,
Page 109 and 110: the basis of the original possessio
Page 111 and 112: Chart 13: Impact of family make up
Page 113 and 114: The advice to the tenant was often
Page 115 and 116: Chapter 9: Conclusions Where the la
Page 117 and 118: shows that the vast majority of tho
Page 119 and 120: important determining factors is th
Page 121 and 122: Thus it is likely that that even th
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Page 125 and 126: Lawrence J (1995) “Sentencing pro
Page 127 and 128: give a typology of the characterist
Page 129 and 130: In analysing cases percentages have
Page 131 and 132: Appendix 2 - Research instruments 1
Page 133 and 134: What factors would you ascribe thos
Page 135 and 136: 20. Typically, how would you descri
Page 137: with a duty desk representative who
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