Renters Rights Bill Seminar – Part 2 | 2nd October | 18:00

Hear from housing experts, Daniel Clarke (Chair), Cara Hall, Marie Paris, Dominic Preston, and Siobhan McGrath, President of the FTT who will deal with the Renters Rights Bill and the enforcement of obligations and termination of tenancies.

Gus draws on Strasbourg caselaw on Art 8 claims for failure to prosecute other offences to encourage our audience to consider bringing civil claims against the police and LAs where they fail to investigate unlawful eviction - particularly in serious cases involving violence

But equally, there is an opportunity to argue for a significant period of damages in cases involving periodic tenants where there is no obvious date where the right of possession came to an end - in one case resulting in an award of £52,600 in gen damages for breach of quiet enjoyment for 351 nights

Daniel points out that there is a danger that the focus on reinstatement when assessing the period of damages in SvK will lead to courts effectively punishing tenants for not pursuing reinstatement, even where they have no desire to move back in

Alice speaks about a recent case where a tenant was awarded damages for direct race discrimination on top of her award for harassment, reminding us that often these sorts of cases will go hand in hand

One of the significant changes coming will be to make knowingly/recklessly misusing possession grounds an offence which will give rise to an RRO - an attempt to deal with any mischief coming from the new grounds for possession

This could also lead to broader systems challenges where LAs are abdicating or frustrating their statutory functions in respect of prosecutions

It will only be in highly exceptional cases that the Admin Court will intervene in a decision not to use their prosecuting powers - but there are challenges to be made against failures to consider using those powers, and that might generate helpful material for civil claims for illegal eviction too