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

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Although numbers are small, court data on the different levels of arrears for the three main orders: outright possession, suspended possession and adjournment, indicates a relationship between the level of arrears and the outcome. Unsurprisingly numbers of weeks in arrears at summons are not greatly different as these will be a reflection of the practices of the landlord. It is the level of arrears at the first hearing which differs between the three outcomes, illustrating the importance of both the absolute level of arrears on the outcome and also the efforts of the tenant in reducing arrears (see further Chapter 6, above). Chart 11: Levels of arrears for different outcomes (n=523) 25 20 15 10 5 0 OPO SPO ADJ Wks in arrears at summons Wks in arrears at hearing What emerges is the importance of the level of arrears, but that this is always considered in the context of the circumstances of the case, and in particular those of the tenant, as explored in Chapter 6 above. Housing Benefits The issue of housing benefit as a factor in rent arrears repossession cases came out very strongly from the focus groups. This is hardly surprising given the increasing number of tenants in social rented accommodation who are in receipt of housing benefit (see Chapter 2). Focus groups composed of both claimant and defendant representatives felt that housing benefit was a crucial influence, responsible for many cases being adjourned at initial and subsequent hearings. Participants indicated that several district judges were well informed about which local authority departments had a reputation for delay and poor administration of housing benefit. Although, as already highlighted, housing benefit was not found to be a particularly significant issue in previous research (Nixon et al, 1996), the picture had changed by 2001 when a study was carried out into the experiences of black and minority ethnic defendants. (Blandy et al, 2002). By that time, housing benefit “proved a very significant, if not the major, factor in the development of the arrears of the majority of tenants who were interviewed” (p. 16) and was 75
also the most common explanation given by defendants for rent arrears in the 150 cases examined during that research. The impact of these difficulties was acknowledged by district judges in that study, who considered that they led to unnecessary adjournments and repeat hearing dates. One judge estimated that housing benefit issues were involved in 40% of rent arrears cases; another felt that the difficulties could “lead to the collapse of this court's ability to effectively list possession cases” (pp. 90-91). The study found that in Leicester County Court only 12% of the cases were adjourned at the first hearing, compared to 64% at Wandsworth County Court, and suggested that these different outcomes were in part caused by lengthy housing benefit delays in cases involving Lambeth LBC. The problems faced by, and caused by, the administration of housing benefits are well known. For example, it accounted for 10% of the nearly 19,000 complaints made to the Local Government Ombudsman in 2003/04 (Local Government Ombudsman, 2004). However, efforts made to improve the system seem to be having some effect. Statistics from the Department of Work and Pensions indicate that more councils are reaching the government’s targets; the average number of days reported by local authorities for processing new claims (for which the target is 14 days) has reduced from 55 days in 2002/03, to 49 days in the fourth quarter of 2003/04. But clearly a number of local authorities are failing to process new claims within 8 weeks, which has serious consequences for arrears cases based on the mandatory Ground 8 (see Chapter 8, below). However, in answer to the question whether county courts might be given discretion in such cases where the rent arrears resulted from a delay or failure to pay housing benefit, the Housing Minister Keith Hill responded that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister had no plans to amend Ground 8, in view of the improving performance of local authorities in administering housing benefit (Hansard, 12 July 2004: Column 876W). In this chapter we consider the impact of housing benefit under the following headings: Findings from the data on recorded cases Judges’ view and knowledge of housing benefit Housing benefit as a factor in determining reasonableness and type of order Responses of judges to housing benefit scenario Findings from data on the recorded cases Here we draw on data from 530 cases where the outcome of the first hearing was recorded. This is the number of such cases where we can be sure that the researcher recorded whether or not housing benefit was noted as an issue. In 121 cases the issue of housing 76
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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
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: What must be emphasised is that whi
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
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DCA Research Series No. 6/05 The ex
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