Suggestion to prevent tenants claiming legal aid for repair claims

Disrepair

In 2006, the Social Housing Law Association, a group of social housing professionals and their lawyers, suggested to the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) that the threshold value for the small claims court should be raised from £1, 000 to £5, 000 in order to keep most housing cases involving repairs in this court. Cases with a value above the threshold are treated favourably as are able to use the fast track. Use of the fast track enables tenants making claims for disrepair to claim legal aid, and there have been concerns that this encourages unmeritorious claims which landlords do not have adequate resources to defend.

Keeping more cases in the small claims court would make it five times more difficult for tenants with disrepair claims to access public funding. It would also decrease the legal costs paid by social landlords to claimants’ solicitors. However, it was also advised that such an increase in the threshold could badly affect tenants with genuine complaints. The government, in 2007, decided not to raise the threshold of the small claims court in respect of housing claims, although it did raise the threshold of the fast track court to £25, 000.