• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • My Services
  • Training and Events
  • Landlord Law
Landlord Law Blog

The Landlord Law Blog

Interesting posts on residential landlord & tenant law and practice In England & Wales UK

  • Home
  • Posts
  • News
    & comment
  • Analysis
  • Cases
  • Tips &
    How to
  • Tenants
  • Clinic
    • Ask your question
    • Clinic replies
    • Blog Clinic Fast Track
  • Series
    • Renters Rights Bill
    • Election 2024
    • Audios
    • Urban Myths
    • New Welsh Laws
    • Local Authority Help for ‘Green improvements’ to property
    • The end of s21 – Protecting your position
    • End of Section 21
    • Should law and justice be free?
    • Grounds for Eviction
    • HMO Basics

Election 2024 – We need more legal education in schools

This post is more than 1 year old

July 1, 2024 by Tessa Shepperson

Election 2024 Legal EducationIt looks as if Labour (if they win the election on Thursday, 4 July) will be looking to update the school curriculum. One thing I would like them to consider is basic legal education in schools.

Why some basic law should be taught in schools

Everyone is deemed to know the law, and in most cases ignorance of the law is not allowable as a defence. However, in point of fact many people have only the vaguest idea about our legal system and how it works.

So, surely, our education system should help people understand the legal system and equip them for life.

For example:

  • The difference  between civil law and criminal law
  • The difference between common law/case law and statute law
  • The different courts and tribunals and the work that they do
  • The different kinds of jobs in the law (solicitors, barristers, court clerks, etc)

Why housing law is important for young people

In particular I would ask for there to be at least some training in housing law and tenants rights.

Most children, when they grow up, will be unable to afford to buy their own home, and so will either stay at home with their parents or rent.  Students studying at Uni away from home will also mostly live in rented accommodation.

But renting comes with a whole slew of rights and obligations which many tenants are unaware of.

As a minimum, tenants should have at least a vague awareness of:

  • The different types of tenancy
  • Landlords’ obligations regarding tenants deposits
  • Restrictions on landlord’s rights to increase rent
  • Landlord’s obligations on keeping property in repair and
  • The various certificates that need to be obtained and served on tenants (eg gas safety, EPCs and electricity)
  • A bit of guidance on tenancy agreements and the sort of clauses you will find there, and
  • The rules about eviction and recovery of possession

It would also be helpful to have some understanding of

  • The data protection rules
  • Rules about keeping pets in rented properties
  • Landlords obligations towards disabled tenants
  • The role of letting agents and what they do, and
  • How letting agents are regulated
  • The duties of Local Authorities towards landlords and their tenants

No doubt there are other issues which I have missed.

And finally

When my son was at school, I remember that as part of his history course, he had to study the history of surgery – which we both thought was a bit bizarre and put him off history for quite some time.

Learning about housing law – which will directly affect many young people when they leave school, would be far more useful.

If any schools or teachers reading this would like a bit of support in developing a teaching course along the lines above, I would be happy to help.

Previous Post
Next Post

Filed Under: Analysis, Election 2024 Tagged With: Law Training

Notes:

Please check the date of the post - remember, if it is an old post, the law may have changed since it was written.

You should always get independent legal advice before taking any action.
Please read our terms of use and comments policy. Comments close after three months

Primary Sidebar

Sign up to the Landlord Law mailing list and get a free eBook
Sign up

Post updates

Never miss another post!
Sign up to our Post Updates or the monthly Round Up
Sign up

Worried about insurance?

Alan Boswell

Sign up to the Landlord Law mailing list

And get a free eBook

Sign up

Footer

Disclaimer

The purpose of this blog is to provide information, comment and discussion.

Please, when reading, always check the date of the post. Be careful about reading older posts as the law may have changed since they were written.

Note that although we may, from time to time, give helpful comments to readers’ questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts.

Any comments or suggestions provided by Tessa or any guest bloggers should not, therefore be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified lawyer regarding any actual legal issue or dispute.

Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating a lawyer-client relationship (apart from the Fast Track block clinic service – so far as the questioners only are concerned).

Please also note that any opinion expressed by a guest blogger is his or hers alone, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tessa Shepperson, or the other writers on this blog.

Note that we do not accept any unsolicited guest blogs, so please do not ask. Neither do we accept advertising or paid links.

Cookies

You can find out more about our use of 'cookies' on this website here.

Other sites

Landlord Law
The Renters Guide
Lodger Landlord
Your Law Store

Legal

Landlord Law Blog is © 2006 – 2025 Tessa Shepperson

Note that Tessa is an introducer for Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers and will get a commission from sales made via links on this website.

Property Investor Bureau The Landlord Law Blog


Copyright © 2025 · Log in · Privacy | Contact | Comments Policy