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When everyone has a home

028 9024 5640: Housing & Debt Helpline for Northern Ireland

Legal

Customer awarded damages for harassment by their bank

22 January 2014

In the case of Roberts v Bank of Scotland PLC [2013] EWCA Civ 882, the UK Court of Appeal upheld an award of damages against the Royal Bank of Scotland for harassment.

The case was brought as a civil claim under section 1 (1) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which provides:
“A person must not pursue a course of conduct (a) which amounts to harassment of another and (b) which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of another”.

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Case law, Legal

New protocols for dealing with social rent arrears

15 January 2014

Over the last number of years, as a result of the economic downturn, there has been an increase in the number of possession proceedings against homeowners and social tenants who have fallen behind in paying their mortgage or rent.

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Repossession, Social Tenancies, Legal

Curbs on migrant benefits

31 December 2013

From 1 January 2014 new restrictions will be placed on migrants’ entitlement to benefits.

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Benefits, Minority Groups, Legal

EU restrictions to be lifted

18 December 2013

From 1 January 2014 the UK’s transitional controls on citizens of Bulgaria and Romania (A2 countries) will come to an end. These controls have been in place since Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007. The lifting of restrictions means that citizens from those countries will be able to access all of the labour market and will no longer be subject to a Worker Authorisation Scheme (the Scheme).

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Benefits, Minority Groups, Social Tenancies, Homelessness, Legal

Impact of negative equity on possession proceedings

4 December 2013

Housing Rights Service solicitor, Carmel Ferguson, provides a round-up of some recent cases heard in the Chancery court in Belfast. They look specifically at the matter of repossession when a property is in negative equity and also the legal procedures to be followed when a lender takes action for possession.

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Legal

Judicial Review of allocations to transfer applicants

7 November 2013

A recent Northern Ireland High Court decision provided important judicial interpretation on the Housing Selection Scheme rules and the allocation of housing to transfer applicants. The decision has already affected a number of our clients and impacted on how social landlords manage allocations.  Solicitor Chris McGrath outlines the case.

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Social Tenancies, Practical tips, Case law, Legal

Response to Rent Arrears Protocol

Consultation Response
October 2013

Housing Rights Service is fully supportive of the aims of this pre action protocol. It is a very positive step which we hope will encourage more pre action contact; promote the benefits of getting good independent advice; and, above all, help to avoid costly and unnecessary legal action. In our experience, tenants whose cases have ended up in court are generally unaware of the legal consequences of a court order. We are therefore wholly supportive of the Lord Chief Justice’s decision to issue a Practice Direction in cases of social housing rent arrears. As the protocol states “Eviction should always be viewed as a last resort and should only be used when all other avenues have been exhausted.”

PDF icon HRS Response Rent Arrears Protocol Oct 13.pdf

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Social Tenancies, Legal

Draft Office for Fair Trading guidance for the lettings market

18 October 2013

The Office for Fair Trading (OFT) has just launched a consultation on draft guidance which aims to help letting agents and landlords comply with existing consumer legislation.

The UK wide consultation exercise seeks to clarify how the law applies to the lettings market. It also sets out the OFT's views about how the legislation might apply at each step of the lettings process. Dealings relating to business tenants are not covered. 

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Private Tenancies, Legal

Challenges to the bedroom tax

9 October 2013

Over the last few of weeks, a number of challenges to the ‘bedroom tax’ have been heard in Great Britain. The bedroom tax is a new measure introduced under the Government’s programme of welfare reform whereby the amount of Housing Benefit which a social tenant receives will be reduced if they are regarded as under-occupying their home. The bedroom tax has not yet been introduced in Northern Ireland.

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Social Tenancies, Welfare Reform, Legal

Preventing possession in social rented housing

25 September 2013

Nicola McCrudden is the Policy & Communications Manager at Housing Rights Service. Below she describes her recent experiences of possession hearings at Laganside county court.

Sitting in Laganside county court, Belfast, on a Thursday morning listening to a stream of possession hearings made me confident of the need for a pre-action protocol for non payment of rent in social housing. 

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Repossession, Social Tenancies, Landlord, Legal

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