Dealing with disrepair claims

This NFA Members Guide includes the following:

• Advice on prevention including staff training, accurate record keeping and good process.
• Managing claims effectively
• Taking action against unfounded cases
• Complaints against complaints handling companies

https://councilswithalmos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LibraryDocuments/SharingGoodPractice/NFA-Disrepair-briefing-disrepair-forum.pdf

This presentation was part of the CWAG General Meeting in May 2022.

A combination of the removal of the legal aid cap, the ending of PPI and the measures in the Homes Act 2018 (implemented 2020) have shifted the focus of no win no fee solicitors onto disrepair issues and compensation in the social sector.

Currently the social housing sector is facing a deluge of disrepair claims and councils are spending £millions defending cases. However, there is little public debate around the issue as landlords worry speaking out will only increase the volume of claims.

South Tyneside has a robust approach strongly contesting every claim and therefore potentially making the council a less attractive target to the so called ‘claims farmers.’

Residents often get drawn into making a claim without fully understanding the context and the difficulties extricating themselves once a particular point has been reached and their case has generated costs. It is a major problem if the claim letter is the first knowledge the landlord has of a problem. The priority for the council / ALMO is to respond quickly and rectify the problem removing the basis of the claim.

Information is key in tackling disrepair claims upstream. All South Tyneside ALMO and technical staff have received training to raise awareness and ensure staff respond appropriately to information from a range of sources, and act at speed and respond to and document all issues and actions.

The legal process draws a distinction between ‘no evidence of disrepair’ and ‘no disrepair’ therefore the ALMO uses every opportunity to check and document property condition issues e.g. those visiting a tenant will ask ‘are you happy with your property?’ this will either highlight problem issues or confirm ‘no evidence of disrepair’ which can be documented and used to counter later disrepair claims.

The council uses a private legal firm to fight cases and employs a specialist cost lawyer to negotiate costs – whilst this is expensive it sends the message to claims firms that they may not achieve the settlements they hope and adds to the disincentive to target the area.

The ALMO employs specialist surveyors in-house and would not recommend agreeing to an independent surveyor to assess the claim preferring instead a joint survey using their own in-house experts.

The ALMO is also planning to undertake a full stock condition survey to identify problems in the stock and improve their information base.

This guidance note sets out a view from the Housing Ombudsman that landlords should not close their complaints procedure prematurely if a resident commences with the pre-action protocol but should rather continue to try to resolve the issue. The disrepair protocol does not take precedence until papers have been served, therefore landlords should try to resolve complaints in parallel with pre-action claims.

This will maximise the opportunities to resolve disputes potentially sooner through the complaints process and in a less adversarial way.