This Saturday Slot post is the seventh and final part of my weekly series of posts on Court Hearings (in the UK). You can see the others >> here.

After the hearing

You will probably think of lots of things you should have said!  Don’t worry, we all do that.

If you missed the hearing

The Judge will probably (although not necessarily) have awarded the case to your opponent in your absence.  You can telephone the court to find out what the decision is, although you will may have to hang on a long time before your call is answered.

If you had a genuine reason for not attending (for example if you had an accident on the way to the court) you may be able to get the decision set aside, and a new hearing listed.  However you need to deal with this asap, and it is best to get some advice from a solicitor first or, better still, get them to make the application for you.

Appeals

If you are seriously unhappy about the decision the Judge made you should ask the Judge for permission to appeal. He will probably refuse, so you will need to seek legal advice immediately as there are time limits for putting in an application for the decision to be appealed (which means getting it is looked at again by a more senior Judge).

As mentioned in part 6, the solicitor advising you will want to know what the Judge said when he was giving his judgment.  If you have not written this down, it will be difficult for him to help you.  Sometimes the hearing will have been recorded, but getting transcripts done is time consuming and expensive.

If you have not made notes at the time the Judge was speaking (by far the best thing to do), write down as much as you can remember as soon as possible after the hearing.  If you don’t do this quickly your memory will fade, and you will probably find it difficult to remember anything clearly.

The court order

The award or order made by the Judge (but not his speech beforehand about the case) will be typed up and sent to you later, sometimes as much as several weeks later (another reason why you should take care to write things down accurately).

For many types of hearing nowadays (for example possession hearings) the Judge fills in a pre printed form, and this is sent off to be typed, often in a completely different court.  It is not unknown therefore, for errors to creep in.  You should always check your court order very carefully when you receive it.

If you find an error (for example I have often come across possession orders which state that the order was made pursuant to a discretionary ground when in fact it was made under a mandatory ground – an important point), the thing to do is send the court order (or rather a copy of it) back to the court telling them what is wrong, and asking them to amend it.

They can do this under a rule known as the ’slip’ rule.  You will get the order back a week or so later with the wrong part crossed out in red and the correct wording written in, also in red.

If your opponent fails to comply with the order

You will have to enforce it!  Sadly very many county court judgments remain unpaid.  Getting a CCJ is not at all the same as getting the money. Often getting the money is far far harder than getting the decision.

Enforcement of judgments is a very long and complex subject in itself, and whole books have been written about it.  I have a fair amount of information about this on my Landlord Law site, plus you will find helpful leaflets on the court service web-site.

In conclusion

I hope this short series has been helpful for you.  If you want to bring a claim for rent arrears, or for possession of premises against tenants or squatters, I have several do it yourself kits which you can purchase.  They all contain detailed instructions and a discussion forum where you can ask me question.  Plus they all come with telephone support.

What is your experience of the matters discussed here?  Have you had any instances of the court order being incorrect?  Have you successfully been able to get a re-hearing where you missed the first hearing?

Note: Many thanks to Simon Parrott of Sharman Law Solicitors who proof read this series for me and made helpful comments.

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• Saying it is a civil matter and nothing to do with them
• Pitching in and helping the landlord evict the tenant, and
• Moving the homeless tenant on

I was therefore pleased to see in Legal Action Magazine, a report where the police were brought to account for their inappropriate conduct (also ably reported here on the Nearly Legal blog).

Naughton v. Whittle and Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Manchester County Court, 30 November 2009

The story starts in March 2006 when Ms Whittle told her tenant Mr Naughton that she wanted him to go. When Naughton stayed on in the property, pressure was brought to hear on him by the landlords brother. Then on 11 April Ms Whittle physically accosted Naughtons girl friend, wrenching the keys from her hand and injuring it.

Naughton then returned home to find the locks being changed. The police on being called, took the landlords side, threatened Naughton with arrest for breach of the peace, and physically removed him from the property after which the locks were changed.

He sued both the police and the landlord Ms Whittle.

The police did at least give in gracefully and settled the claim by paying £2,500 in respect of the claims made against them for trespass to person and land.

The claim against the landlord

The defence put in by Ms Whittle illustrates another legal misunderstanding, which landlords sometimes optimistically put forward as a legal rule. She said that Naughton had not paid any rent and that therefore he had not had a proper tenancy, just a temporary agreement pending negotiations for a real tenancy. Sort of like the Urban Myth I discuss here.

However the Judge was not having any of this. He found that the tenant had paid rent and that there was no question of any temporary agreement. He made the following award:

• £7,000 for general damages (£275 per day for the 28 days he was deprived of occupation) and
• £1,500 for aggravated damages

Total payable by Ms Whittle: £8,500.

The Judge refused to offset the £2,500 paid by the police saying that each ‘tortfeasor’ must pay the appropriate damages for the wrong they had done. So all in all

Total damages awarded to Mr Naughton: £11,000.

Not bad, but still not nearly as high as the award in the Cashmere v. Walsh case.

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This is a guest blog provided by The Purple Teardrop Campaign. Note that the figures given in this post have been challenged by some readers. If you have any queries or comments regarding this please contact the Purple Teardrop campaign direct.

Modern day Slavery

Slavery died out two hundred years ago, didn’t it? Eradicated. The world saw the error of its ways and freed all the slaves. No more mass shipping of Africans to the plantations in the USA and West Indies. The trouble is, evils that we think we have eradicated, from tuberculosis to racial and religious persecution, have a habit of insidiously creeping back.

And slavery is no exception. There are more slaves in the world today than there ever were in the centuries leading up to its ‘abolition’. Incredible, isn’t it? But sadly all too true. Why? The same old reason – its a great money spinner. Slavery, or human trafficking as it tends to be referred to these days, is the world’s third most lucrative illicit trade, after weapons and drugs. It is a trade that is largely hidden, surrounded by the silence of fear of violence and reprisals. And it is happening in a town near you right now.

Slavery past and present

Before ‘the abolition’, people were kidnapped from their towns and villages and sold into slavery. Today, poverty in the third world and less developed countries, forces people to leave home in search of a good job, a better life elsewhere and the opportunity to send money home to their families. Nothing new in this, nothing wrong so far. But this is where the slave trader steps in. All he or she has to do is to offer a way to that better life and the slave-to-be is unwittingly hooked and reeled in.

How it happens

The slave trader, usually referred to these days as the human trafficker, offers a young woman passage to a western country, a job and somewhere to live. She will have to repay the cost of her travel out of her wages. Seemingly nothing wrong so far. What a wonderful opportunity! But the reality is very different. When she arrives in the UK, her passport is immediately taken away from her and the nightmare begins. Typically she will be beaten and raped several times on her first night in England and then imprisoned in a house or flat the next day. She is forced to have sex with multiple clients every day, not allowed to leave the house and the beatings will continue to break her spirit. Quite often she is also made to take drugs to make her dependent and therefore more compliant.

Marta’s story

My name is Marta. I’m going to England. These good people have got a job for me at a hotel in London. I’m going to be a waitress. I’ll work hard so I can send money home to help my family. I’m so excited! I’ll learn English and make new friends. My family are so happy for me”

A wonderful opportunity for a girl from a poor country, on the face of it. However a very different Marta picks up her story just a few weeks later.

“My name is Marta. I work 16 hours a day. I am raped by up to 30 men each day. I learn English words – for sale, whore, hurt, sex, client. This room is my prison. I was beaten again today after. I tried to escape. They say they’ll kill my family if I try again. I am so alone, so frightened. I have no hope any more”

And Marta is just one of many girls and women who are tricked into a life of sexual slavery. These girls are not prostitutes. They are the unwilling victims of human traffickers, exploited, enslaved, beaten, threatened and raped.

The figures

No-one knows how many Martas there are in this country. The Home Office made an estimate of 4000 women. Independent research suggests up to 10,000 women are trafficked into the UK every year.

The number of times each girl will have to have sex will depend on her age and appearance. The younger and prettier she is, the more the traffickers can charge and the less frequently she will be used, to keep up her value. The average per year is probably around 4000 times. If you take the conservative figure and multiply 4000 girls by 4000 times, that equates to 16 million rapes a year. A commodity, bought and sold, a girl is worth £150, 000 a year to her traffickers. Multiply that by 4000 girls and you can soon see why slavery is alive and well today.

It could be in your street right now

It is happening today in towns all over Britain, not just in the cities. It could be happening on your round. Typically the traffickers will legitimately rent a small house in a residential street. It could be in a middle class area, not necessarily in a red light area or one known for drugs. Small and discreet, probably only the one girl enslaved there. No other criminal activity goes on at the address. Not the sort of thing you expect to be happening in your area, so it doesn’t cross your mind that it might be.

Modern slavery is a shaming indictment of life in the 21st century. We are not going to stop it overnight, but the more people who know about it, the more women and girls can be rescued. And you as landlords are uniquely placed to spot potential trafficking.

Watch out for these signs

What are the signs to look out for?

• Are the people in the property the same ones who signed the lease?
• Has it been sublet?

If a property is being used by people traffickers

• The women and girls staying there will rarely be seen, will not make any contact with their neighbours and
• there may well be frequent changes of women and girls staying in the house.
• The curtains may be closed all day and
• the occupants will not be seen maintaining the house or garden.
• The women will be foreign, unlikely to speak English, unsmiling and fearful .

Ring Crimestoppers

If you have any suspicion at all of somewhere that trafficked women may be kept, then ring Crimestoppers on 0800 555111. You do not have to give your name. You could be saving one woman from being raped thousands of times.

*****

About the Purple Teardrop Campaign

The Purple Teardrop Campaign against sex-trafficking was set up to do something about this appalling crime. It aims to make people aware of what is going on and let them know how to report any suspicions of women being held against their will and sexually exploited.

The Purple Teardrop Campaign also raises money to support the safe houses which provide practical care and support for those who have been rescued. Traumatised by their experiences and terrified of everyone, victims usually do not speak English and need specialist care.

If you can keep an eye open and report any suspicion of trafficking to Crimestoppers, you are helping enormously. If you would like to do more and help the Purple Teardrop Campaign to raise funds, we would very much welcome your support. For more information or to contact us, please visit www.purpleteardrop.org.uk.

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…..a personal if informed rant!

The Conservative / Lib Deb coalition housing benefit plans

So the new coalition government is gradually putting a plan together and have turned their eyes on housing benefit reforms. They have made bold and popular statements that appeal to many of us, me too, but few seem to be looking at the consequences of what they are saying. If you have worked in housing a long time then they jump out at you like a jack in the box.

I just want to examine one proposal, which is the plan to cut people’s housing benefit by 10% if they have been out of work for 12 months and look at where this will lead us.

Cutting housing benefit by 10% of the applicant has been out of work for 12 months

An innocuous enough proposal and one that will get many nods of agreement. The papers have always been full of articles on benefit cheats, scroungers, mis-use of tax payers money etc.  Just the other day I saw a piece on TV of a man on disability benefits claiming that he couldn’t walk more than a few yards un-aided who was filmed by benefit fraud officers energetically playing football for his local team.

I recently had to deal with a family with 8 children and a ninth due in November whose benefit payments were over £600 a week and that was without housing benefit on top of that. The council have a legal duty to re-house them but don’t have a property big enough so will have to spend thousands finding them a home and keeping them in it.

This prompted much talk in the office about benefit reforms and personal responsibility. Government statements aimed at tackling similar situations will always have emotional resonance for a huge majority of the population. We tend to respond in a knee jerk way…. even me, but what will it really mean if they go ahead with this 10% cut plan, marked for 2013?

Empowerment

A couple of years back the labour government decided to introduce a housing benefit scheme called ‘Local Housing Allowance’.

Basically this means that tenants of private landlords who are claiming housing benefit should no longer have the right to sign payments directly over to the landlord accept in specific circumstances. The reasoning behind this was to stop treating HB claimants like irresponsible children and to empower them to take charge of their finances.

Everyone I know who works in some way in the private rented sector thought this was the most ludicrous idea the government ever had, for 3 reasons:-

• Although some tenants would deal with the matter responsibly, what of the HB claimants with drink, drug or gambling problems or who were just terrible at budgeting ,who suddenly find themselves with an extra 5, 6 or 700 pounds in their bank accounts? How much of it would end up being used as rent?
• Rent arrears would rise and with it evictions and homelessness claims.
• Landlords would be less likely to rent to benefit claimants because of concerns over receiving rent.

The same issues crop up with this proposed 10% cut in HB.

Don’t get me wrong, I am more in favour of personal empowerment than most, but I also know you don’t achieve that by just giving a person their rent payments.

Reluctance to rent

For many years now the windows of most letting agents have had stickers saying ‘No DSS’, (even though this is now defunct) really meaning, no housing benefit claimants. Landlords have similarly been cautious. LHA put many landlords I speak to in a very reluctant mood. Procurement officers that I know working for local authorities tell me how much work they have to do to reassure landlords about tenants they are trying to place with them.

Some councils deposit guarantee schemes have closed down completely when deposits have been withheld because of rent arrears caused by LHA and the deposit scheme budget quickly dwindled.

Once word gets around that there will be a definite cut in HB how many landlords will go back on the standard old ‘No DSS’ approach?  As I have written elsewhere councils are under a duty to provide housing for people who pass the full homelessness assessment route but don’t have enough council housing to fulfil the legal obligation and look to private landlords to fill the gap. The 10% cut will have a big effect here.

Empowerment Revisited!!!!!

The government states that cutting 10% off HB for people who have been on job seekers allowance for 12 months will encourage people to find work.

I am going to sound a bit cynical here so apologies in advance. Just as introducing LHA is not enough on it’s own to empower people, neither is cutting people’s benefits.

Every single day I meet so many benefit claimants who think that once they have filled in the forms their involvement ends there and rent is then the council’s responsibility.

A high proportion of people I deal with don’t even know how much rent they pay or when it falls due because again, to their minds, the council deals with these things.

When a fixed term contract comes to an end most council’s housing benefit teams stop payments until a new contract is issued. I get involved when the landlord complains of rent arrears and the tenant doesn’t even know that HB payments have stopped or why.

My great fear in this is that far from being empowered so many tenants will just accept less housing benefit as an occupational hazard and shrug it off thinking it is nothing to do with them.

Also, and in defence of many, looking for work is one thing, having jobs available to look for is another. The government is already talking about the amount of jobless and for many, depending on the area, working can be a difficult prospect.

Consequences

• If housing benefit doesn’t cover enough of the rent then this gives a landlord grounds to evict their tenant for rent arrears.
• If a tenant then becomes homeless as a result then they can approach the council’s homelessness unit who have a duty in many cases to investigate the claim.
• If they find that a person lost their home through rent arrears they can deem that the person is what is termed ‘Intentionally Homeless’ and refuse to re-house them.

Result?….

• More homelessness claims on already overstretched services having to find 25% cuts to fit the government’s budget.
• More loss of homes and with it weakened communities. How can you sustain a community when people keep moving?
• More families forced to make do, sharing with friends and family or living in overcrowded conditions.
• Damaged ability to rent other properties privately because of bad references.
• Less properties available for rent to benefit claimants.
• Loss of ability to borrow money because of damaged credit ratings.
• Smaller market for private landlords to invest in.
• Increased support costs for people who need social services involvement

And all this because of a populist idea of saving 10% on HB budgets. But how much will this cost a council overall? It costs tens of thousands of pounds to push a single family through the homelessness system, far more than would be saved by a 10% cut elsewhere. The difference is that cuts in HB would come out of the financial services budgets while increase in homelessness and support costs come out of housing department budgets, but all in all it is still the council’s pot.

A new government, new ideas but the same old lack of joined up thinking in favour of a crowd pleasing policy and demonization of people on benefits.

Ben Reeve-Lewis

About Ben Reeve-Lewis: Ben was the Tenancy Relations Officer for Lewisham Council for 11 years, prosecuting landlords for harassment and illegal eviction. Now he is a freelance housing law training consultant with a more balanced approach, delivering housing law courses for the Chartered Institute Of Housing, Shelter etc. His aim now is to help the housing world work as a interdependent system that benefits all

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This Saturday Slot post is the sixth part of my weekly series of posts on Court Hearings (in the UK). You can see the others >> here.

Judgment time

So.  You have finished making your presentation about your case.  You have cross examined your opponents witnesses and you think you have picked up on all the points you wanted to make.  It is now over to the Judge.

All the time you have been presenting and speaking, the Judge will have been making notes.  He will have been assessing you and assessing your evidence.  He now needs to come to a decision.

• Sometimes he will want to be on his own for a while to think about it.  In which case you will have to go out to the waiting room and wait for the Usher to call you back in again.

• Sometimes, in a complex case, the Judge will ‘reserve judgement’, which usually means you will have to come back on anther day to hear the result.

• However, in the vast majority of cases, the Judge will have made his mind up while the case was ongoing, and will be ready to go as soon as the parties have finished what they want to say.

The Judge’s judgment speech

Before saying which party has won, the Judge will make a little speech.  Generally he will start by saying what the case is about.  He will then summarise the evidence that has been presented to him and give his opinion (note that, in the tradition of court courtesy, he will rarely say bluntly that he thinks someone has been lying – he will generally say he ‘prefers’ the evidence of Mr A to that of Mr B).

It is ESSENTIAL that you write as much as possible of this down.  If you are unhappy about the decision the Judge comes to, and take legal advice after the hearing, the first thing the solicitor will ask you is the reasons the Judge gave for coming to the decision he did.  If you can’t tell them, then it will be very difficult for them to advise you.  So write it all down.  (Most hearings are recorded and you may be able to get a transcript if necessary, however this could take some time, so it is always best to have your own notes.)

Once he has finished summarising the case and the evidence, the Judge will then say what his decision is.

Judgment

The Judge won’t always give the winning party everything that they have asked for.  And in some cases, where there are a lot of different items (for example in a claim for damages against a tenant) he may agree to award compensation for some items but not for others.  Or he may agree to make an award, but the sum awarded will be less than the figure claimed.

Once the Judge has made his decision, there is nothing you can do about it.  It is no good trying to explain to him that he is wrong.  You had your chance to do that earlier.  Only in very, very, rare cases, where the Judge has clearly been under a massive misapprehension (and he accepts this) will you have any chance of changing his mind, and frankly I have never heard of this happening.

Once he has announced his decision there are a number of other things which will need to be decided.

Time for payment

In a financial claim, the Judgment will set out a date by which payment must be made (and this is the earliest date when the winner can issue enforcement proceedings).  The Judge will generally want to talk to the defendant about his financial circumstances before he decides on what this period will be.  However it is unlikely to be more than 28 days or at most six weeks into the future.

Often the Judge will make an order for payment by installments.  However he will only do this if he feels that the installments are of a sum which the defendant can actually afford.  Often judgment creditors are outraged at the miserly monthly payments which the defendants are ordered to pay.  Again though, there is nothing you can do about this.

The significance of an installment order is that so long as the defendant keeps up the payments, you cannot use any of the court enforcement procedures.  However if the defendant misses a payment, the whole lot falls due.

Time for possession

If you are a landlord and have followed the advice given in my do-it-yourself kits, you will have used a mandatory ground for possession.  In which case the Judge will not be able to delay the date for possession more than six weeks from the date of the hearing.

If you have obtained possession under a discretionary ground however, the Judge can ’suspend’ the order so long as the defendant does or does not do something – generally this will be paying the rent arrears by installments.  Again, you will not be able to enforce the order and get vacant possession while the suspended order is in force.

Costs

For big complex cases costs can be huge, and often there can be long complex hearings just about the costs.  There is a whole profession of legal costs draftsmen who specialise in this work.  However for the sort of cases we are talking about, costs are going to be far less significant.

Some important points:

First – costs are always in the discretion of the Judge.  Although generally the winning party will get costs, if the Judge considers that they have behaved badly in some way, he may say that he will not award costs, or in very rare cases can even award costs to the losing party.

Second – you may need to remind or ask the Judge to deal with costs.  It is not something he will do automatically.

Third – for many types of hearing, all you will get is fixed costs plus the court fee.  And the fixed costs will generally only be awarded if you have used a solicitor.  Which means you may only get the court fee.

Fourth – for small claims trials you can usually get your own costs of traveling to the court (including parking) but the Judge will expect you have have receipts to prove what you have paid.  Make sure therefore that you have these with you.  You may also be able to get an award to compensate you for having to take time off work – again subject to proof.  Get your employer to write a letter for you about this.

Finally – for the interim type of hearing discussed in part 4, the Judge will often order that costs be ‘in the case’. This means that they will fall to be decided by the Judge at the end of the case.  Which means in turn, that if you win at trial, you need to remind the Judge about this and get him to make an assessment.

Don’t get too worked up about costs.  Sadly, many judgments go unpaid, and often the winner will be lucky to get his judgement paid at all.  In particular landlords evicting for arrears of rent will rarely see any of the judgment debt paid.  Sad but true.

Before you leave the courtroom

Make sure you have the details of the award written down correctly.  If you are not sure, ask the Judge to repeat it.

Check also that you have all your documents and other possessions.  If you have handed something to the Judge that you need back, remember to ask him for it.  Try not to leave anything in the room, as if you do, you may have to wait some time if there is a long hearing in there after you.

How does this post match your experience at court?  Do you always try to get costs or do you think it is a wasted effort?

In the next and final installment, I will be looking at the aftermath of the hearing.

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