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Legal aid for evicted tenants once ban ends, demands Law Society

The Law Society for England and Wales says legal aid should be made available for tenants who face eviction once the extended ban ends on August 23.

In a statement released in response to the extension, the society says the additional two months of the ban is ”an important step to protect vulnerable tenants during the uncertain time brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Simon Davis, president of the Law Society, says the move is “bringing relief to millions of tenants” and adds:  “The government first brought in these measures on 26 March 2020, for an initial period of three months, but has now extended for an additional two months, so vulnerable tenants can get the help they need, and courts can continue to make the necessary arrangements. 

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“The government has also committed to passing new court rules that will protect vulnerable tenants from eviction once the stay has been lifted.

“When hearings recommence, it is vital that legal aid is available to tenants and that the safety of court users is ensured.”

The society points out that schedule 29 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 remains in force until the end of September.    

Under this Act, landlords must provide tenants with a notice period of three months when issuing a notice seeking possession.

Tenants are still obliged to pay rent during this period. If they are unable to do so, the government encourages open and honest conversations between the landlord and tenant about the tenant’s ability to pay rent.

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    Hope they assist the tenant for their bankruptcy hearing also. Any tenant I evict will be for arrears so I will chase those arrears to the very end

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    So the lawyers are demanding legal aid for tenants? Clearly it is 'legal aid' for them as they are the ones who will receive the State funded handout.

    Barry X

    WE should be demanding Legal Aid for all the poor landlords driven to the brink of bankruptcy in their old age as they may only have one or two properties supposed to be paying for their pensions but now poverty stricken and highly discriminated against by all the incompetent government's anti-landlord measures and announcements - creating a problem for many that otherwise wouldn't have existed.

     
  • jeremy clarke

    This is all beginning to sound like a labour party manifesto, everything free for everyone with no consequences!

    Barry X

    The only consequences (quite serious ones) are for the highly discriminated against and often defamed landlords.

     
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    Sounds typical law society. They will jump on any bandwagon if it fills there pockets. A very dishonourable way to earn a living. And the decline in the quality of good Solicitor’s over the decade and the quantity of them now around I suppose you have to be on the look out for any pocket to pick.

  • dale james

    Ambulance chasers charter!

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    Offer Half rent incentives says agency chief. Am I missing something . The rent is L E S S than the L.H.A rate. So tenant gets paid full amount of rent and then keeps half . Thus sitting in my house doing nothing actually getting paid half the amount of rent . Am I missing some thing does that sound fair? Will the Insurance company accept half payment for the buildings insurance???The Gas eng accept only half payment for the annual check??? The Electrician accept half payment The court cuts their fees by half?? REALLY

  • Mark Wilson

    The problem for a good number of landlords will be that their paper work will be defective and loads of claims will get kicked out on technicalities.

    Barry X

    Typically veiled anti-landlord rhetoric from this man I (and I expect others) consider to be nothing but a clown.

     
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    Defective paperwork should be overlooked if the Judge deems the tenant to be worthy (through their actions/behaviour) of eviction. Alas, they will be (albeit temporarily) saved by nothing more than mere technicalities. We’re not talking a LL failing to provide a water-supply, people-trafficking or having roughed up the tenant, what we’re actually talking about is an Energy Performance Certificate, that literally no-one cares about, being out-of-date/one point too low that it falls into an abitrarily-decided prohibited band or, perhaps, the LL having taken the equivalent of 5.008 weeks deposit instead of these arbitrarily-decided 5.0000 weeks maximum. Blatant greed by The Law Society and desperation by LA Housing Depts is what it is.

     
    Mark Wilson

    Barry why are you so abusive? You seem to be the one living in cloud cuckoo land. If you think that judges will not be delighted to throw out claims for the smallest of errors you are the clown. It humoured me how you failed to comment on my previous post when I told you of extensive FTT and Upper Tribunal experience, as i said, on many occasions acting for Landlords. I was also recently part of a working group for the Law Commission dealing with issues in the leasehold sector.

    The truth is the truth, nothing veiled nor anti Landlord.

     
    Barry X

    Mark - as always you delude yourself and/or attempt to project yourself as something you're not.

    I didn't see your further post as I had to go back to hospital again for a few further routine blood tests and things (I have cancer and have been on chemotherapy for several years to keep me alive).

    If I'd seen you're further posts and had the time and energy I would have probably replied.

    I personally have plenty of experience at the FTT but none at the Upper Tribunal though do sometimes read some of the public domain write-ups on judgements and cases. Just because you have "extensive" FTT and Upper Chamber experience (assuming that's even true and not just more bu**sh*t from you) then so what? It proves NOTHING!

    I've met plenty of people who seemed respectable enough (though deeply flawed) in the Tribunal court room but often turned out (as expected) to be more or less ideologically fixated, bigoted and slogan dependant raving loonies when met in the open plan area of Alfred Place.

    I imagine that if you do go there now and then (perhaps "extensively" but I doubt that) then you're probably very much like that yourself... its certainly how you come across to me in your posts and replies and things.

    By the way, whats all this "It humoured me how you failed..." nonsense? That's not the way you're supposed to use the word "humoured" in a sentence. Humouring someone means going our of your way to please or appease them even when you disagree and is not something you can do to yourself when someone "failed" to respond to you because they were busy and had far more important things to do!

    Once again in your case I'd say "The lady doth protest too much methinks".

     
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    @Luke - should be - perhaps, but it won't be. Judges will invariably side with the tenant who is on legal aid against the "fat cat" landlord. No EPC shown before they moved in, Gas Safey lapsed because of Covid-19 - in other words ANY EXCUSE.

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    • D G
    • 11 June 2020 18:42 PM

    “When hearings recommence, it is vital that legal aid is available to tenants and that the safety of court users is ensured.” This is the only part that relates to the story and there is no explanation of why this would be necessary in the first place

  • PossessionFriendUK PossessionFriend

    Its 'necessary' from the Government and Local Authorities view, so that they can fend -off the problem of housing shortages and defaulting tenants - onto the Private sector for as long as possible.

    The 'Tide' will turn after the eviction suspension, albeit slowly as the Govt introduces the Pre-Action Protocol. That will take longer to evict Tenants, but with the backlog of those previously, and already in the system,
    L.A's will be over-whelmed, and they've told the MHCLG Select committee that, see their report 20/5/20

    LA representative said, "My colleagues, particularly in London, are filled with dread at the thought of facing a cliff-edge when the evictions extension expires."

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