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

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Contents Executive summary i Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 The policy and legal context 7 Chapter 3 The pattern of cases 15 Chapter 4 Consistency and difference 21 Chapter 5 Judges and landlords 42 Chapter 6 Judges and tenants 56 Chapter 7 Particular factors impacting on decisions: levels of arrears and housing benefit 73 Chapter 8 Particular decisions: Ground 8 Cases and Warrants for 88 Possession Chapter 9 Conclusions 102 Bibliography 111 Appendix 1 Research methodology 113 Appendix 2 Research instruments 118 Tables Table 1 Court actions for possession by social landlords in England and Wales 1994-2003 11 Table 2 Rent levels from ODPM statistics and current study, with average arrears at first hearings 16 Table 3 Variations in the average levels of arrears at first hearings, by court 16 Table 4 Tenants' participation in hearings 17 Table 5 Changes in outcomes of initial hearings between 1996 and 2004 studies 18 Table 6 Impact of participation on outcomes 20 Table 7 Sources of training and updating 38 Table 8 Number and percentage of cases were housing benefit mentioned as a problem 77 Table 9 Outcomes by court and presence or absence of housing benefit problems 77 Table 10 Outcomes of Ground 8 cases 90 Table 11 Application outcomes suggested by DJs to warrant scenarios 99 Table 12 Focus group details 113 Table 13 Distribution of first hearing cases between courts 115 Table 14 Location of judges interviewed 116 Charts Chart 1 Requests and outcomes in all four courts 22 Chart 2 Requests and outcomes in London 23 Chart 3 Requests and outcomes in West Country court 23 Chart 4 Requests and outcomes in Northern 1 court 23 Chart 5 Requests and outcomes in Northern 2 court 23 Chart 6 Orders Granted by London DJs 34 Chart 7 Orders granted by requests of landlord 44 Chart 8 Outcomes across all courts for single people as compared to defendants with children 62
Chart 9 The impact of language difficulties on outcomes 65 Chart 10 The impact of mental health problems on outcomes 68 Chart 11 Levels of arrears for different outcomes 75 Chart 12 Length of adjournment suggested by DJs where housing benefit in issue 84 Chart 13 Impact of family make-up on the out come of application to suspend a warrant for possession 98 Chart 14 Network of influences on the decision-making process 109
Page 1 and 2: The exercise of judicial discretion
Page 3 and 4: The Research Unit, Department for C
Page 8 and 9: Executive summary The research ques
Page 10 and 11: the shift to housing officers appea
Page 12: Conclusions A wide and diverse rang
Page 15 and 16: on the role of judges under the exi
Page 17 and 18: Northern 1 court hears over 1500 ho
Page 19 and 20: significance to a particular respon
Page 21 and 22: The application may be adjourned; t
Page 23 and 24: such forms are completed in less th
Page 25 and 26: In November 2001, the Legal Service
Page 27 and 28: Levels of arrears Although the reas
Page 29 and 30: Table 2: Rent levels from ODPM stat
Page 31 and 32: Table 5: Changes in outcomes of ini
Page 33 and 34: Table 6: Impact of participation on
Page 35 and 36: The focus group participants consid
Page 37 and 38: consideration in this chapter, the
Page 39 and 40: Neither of the judges seemed to con
Page 41 and 42: chambers, where the possession list
Page 43 and 44: Most of the district judges felt th
Page 45 and 46: The views of the claimants’ group
Page 47 and 48: Qualitative and quantitative data f
Page 49 and 50: anything to say, and wants to stay
Page 51 and 52: Table 7: Sources of training and up
Page 53 and 54: sought with what they know the judg
Page 55 and 56:
Chapter 5: Judges and landlords Int
Page 57 and 58:
Chart 7: Orders granted by requests
Page 59 and 60:
some unevenness in the impact of re
Page 61 and 62:
Thus it can be seen that the type o
Page 63 and 64:
District judges differed on how muc
Page 65 and 66:
There were three other, more genera
Page 67 and 68:
Conclusions In this chapter, we hav
Page 69 and 70:
Chapter 6: Judges and tenants Intro
Page 71 and 72:
approach he was more confident in t
Page 73 and 74:
“I think in terms of exercising d
Page 75 and 76:
Family make up The broad powers of
Page 77 and 78:
are trying to deal with the particu
Page 79 and 80:
“I wouldn’t dream of making an
Page 81 and 82:
interpreter. Similarly, many of the
Page 83 and 84:
Judges are human too - personal rea
Page 85 and 86:
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
Page 123 and 124:
110
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 and 138:
with a duty desk representative who
Page 139:
DCA Research Series No. 6/05 The ex
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