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

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enefit was raised, representing 23% of the total. Although this proportion is somewhat lower than expected it is still sufficiently significant to make further analysis worthwhile. The numbers and percentages of the ‘first hearing outcome’ cases in all the courts in this study are shown in the Table 8. Table 8: Number and percentage of cases where housing benefit was noted as a problem by court Court All London West Northern 1 (n = 530) (n = 358) (n = 47) (n = 58) Number 121 93 10 15 3 Percentage 23% 26% 21% 26% 5% 77 Northern 2 (n = 67) The possible reasons for the marked difference shown here between Northern 2 court and the other courts have already been discussed in Chapter 4 (see p. 24). The following table shows the different outcomes, by court, of cases in which housing benefit was noted as a problem and the rent arrears possession cases in which housing benefit difficulties were not involved. Although numbers are small, in each of the courts where data was collected on the outcome of first hearings, there was a clear difference in outcomes between cases where housing benefit problems were noted, and those without such problems. Table 9: Outcomes, by court and by presence or absence of housing benefit problems Outcome of first hearing Outright possession order Did case have HB issue All courts London court (No: n=409 Yes: n=121) (No: n=265 Yes: n=93) West Country court (No: n=37 Yes: n=10) Northern 1 court (No: n=43 Yes: n=15) Northern 2 court (No: n=64 Yes: n=3) No 16% 8% 22% 28% 36% Yes 2% 2% 0% 0% 0% Suspended No 25% 17% 22% 40% 47% possession order Yes 14% 12% 40% 13% 0% Adjourn- No 49% 63% 35% 33% 2% ment Yes 83% 84% 60% 87% 100% Withdrawn, No 12% 11% 22% 0% 16% etc. Yes 2% 2% 0% 0% 0% Although the precise pattern is different for each court, it is immediately apparent that a higher proportion of cases are adjourned once housing benefit is raised as an issue. This is true even for London court where a high percentage of adjournments are granted in any event. In each of the courts, when housing benefit problems are involved, there are virtually no outright possession orders granted; fewer suspended possession orders (except in the
anomalous case of West Country court, which involved only ten cases in total); and fewer cases are dismissed, withdrawn, or struck out. These findings confirm the common perception amongst the practitioners who took part in the focus groups, and indeed of the district judges themselves, that housing benefit issues are distorting the work of county courts in dealing with rent arrears cases. Judges’ views and knowledge of housing benefit In our interviews with district judges, almost all of them mentioned housing benefit as a problem before being prompted to discuss it, and it became clear that the issue is a very complex one. The two main problems with housing benefit are: Delays in payment can lead to apparent arrears which will in fact be paid once the claim has been properly processed. Errors in calculating benefits can lead to disputes over the amount of rent arrears. Frequently the district judge is called upon to decide whether the delay or error has been caused by the tenant failing to provide the necessary information, or by the failure of the housing benefit administration to keep to time limits or their negligence in dealing with documents supplied by the tenant. DJ B expressed the frustrations of many of the district judges about housing benefit when he said that “we really are in Wonderland here”, meaning that it was often impossible to find out the true situation regarding rent arrears. This view was amplified by DJ F: “Really…nobody can make sense of what’s happening, you know. Nobody knows: the tenant doesn’t know, and the landlord doesn’t know, what the real position is. And everybody knows that what the tenant’s being asked to pay is not likely to be the right figure. So the whole thing becomes nonsensical really.” In describing housing benefit, no fewer than four of the district judges described it as “a nightmare” while many others used phrases such as “overwhelming issue”, “huge problem”, and “bugbear”. This situation impacts on the work of the county court in two specific ways. First, the delay and possible errors in administering housing benefit mean that more arrears cases are brought to court. DJ Q estimated that: “If housing benefit was sorted out we would have half the cases we do (laughs)…I mean, if you didn’t have those housing benefit problems, I would say the majority of cases probably would never come to the court, they wouldn’t be listed.” Secondly, district judges often have no option but to adjourn a proportion of cases in each list for further information about the defendant’s housing benefit claim: 78
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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
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: also the most common explanation gi
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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