|
MAJOR CONFERENCE
Scottish Association of Law Centres (SALC)
Stopping Eviction:
Is lack of access to remedies for tenants threatened with eviction a
major scandal?
This conference discusses the background, the law and practice.
Monday 3rd November 2003
Venue: Logie Baird Suite, Quality Hotel Central, 99 Gordon Street, Glasgow
Cost: £75.00 (Concessionary cost places £30.00)
The law for tenants threatened by eviction is progressive and has
recently been improved for Scottish Secure tenants. Court
action should be a last resort and decree should be rare.
Post-decree abandonment and actual eviction should be almost unheard
of. We in Scotland can be proud of these reforms.
The same however cannot be said of practice. Often the reforms
seem largely stillborn. The experience of housing lawyers and
advisers is that housing associations can be very aggressive.
Local authority practice seems often to be largely unaffected by the
law. Around 30,000 local authority actions are in the courts
each year and in, at least, 10% of these cases, tenants and members
of their family lose their homes as a consequence: the equivalent of
a small town. Often (probably in the majority of cases) the
raising of the action, obtaining of the decree and the loss of the
family's home are unnecessary.
It can be difficult to get tenants to seek advice. There is
however an enormous amount of advice given but this does not seem to
connect, save in the areas covered by law centres, with appropriate representation.
Scottish Association of Law Centres (SALC) is concerned to promote
the availability of quality advice by all sectors as well as quality
representation by solicitors able, if necessary, to run the case to
full defence and proof.
SALC believes that homelessness will only be tackled if all advice
agencies and law centres work together to ensure that tenants and
their families obtain the "full spectrum" of services they need.
This conference is recommended for all those concerned with landlord
and tenant law. The conference connects up with related areas
including mental health, community care, dementia, asylum, money and
benefit advice. Attendance at the conference is a must for
those advising tenants whether they be in the statutory or voluntary
sectors, law centres, advice agencies, solicitors in private
practice, CABx, housing associations or local authorities.
Progressive landlords and their lawyers will also find the conference
of value.
Organised by Scottish Association of law Centres (Bookings to Legal
Services Agency)
PROGRAMME
9.40 - 10.30Scottish Association of Law Centres (SALC) AGM
(Law Centres only) Chair: Felix Mulholland, Convenor, SALC
9.30 - 10.30Registration and coffee
10.30 - 10.50Introduction: Paul D. Brown, Principal Solicitor, Legal
Services Agency and Mhairi Selkirk, Independent Researcher will
introduce some eviction statistics and discuss the need for the
"Full Spectrum of Services"
10.50 - 11.20Keynote address: What are the lessons from
research? Presentation by Professor Tom Mullen, School of Law,
the University of Glasgow, Professor Mullen is one of Scotland's
foremost academic commentators on housing law and has undertaken
extensive research on how the law is applied in practice. He
has supported law centres for many years and was on the Board of LSA
during the initial development of SALC itself.
11.20 - 11.30Discussion
11.30 - 11.45Break
11.45 - 12.05How do rent arrears arise and is there a need for
housing benefit reform: both practice, proceedings and tapers; Steven
Craig, Welfare Rights Officer, Queens Cross Housing Association,
Member of Committee, Scottish Welfare Law Practitioners Association
12.05 - 12.25The substantive law: The reasonableness defence, recent
changes and relevant case law; Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor,
Govan Law Centre, Mike is a well known commentator on housing law and
has an extensive case load. He has, for a number of years, had
heavy involvement in debt law generally.
12.25 - 1.00Human Rights and Practical Points on Defending
Eviction; Derek O'Carroll, Advocate, Derek has lectured and written
extensively on housing law as well as having worked at LSA and
formerly been Principal Solicitor at Govan Law Centre. He
drafted the Executive's Model Scottish Secure Tenancy and has an
extensive housing and public law practice.
1.00 - 2.00Lunch (not provided)
2.00 - 2.20Defending Eviction: Procedure; Adrian
Stalker, Solicitor, Shelter Scottish Housing Law Service, Adrian has
an extensive case load in Sheriff Courts throughout Scotland all in
the field of defended eviction and preventing homelessness.
2.20 - 3.45Workshops
3.45 - 4.00The Future: how will the Debt Arrangement
Scheme impact on Eviction/payment actions?; Jim Gray, Jim Gray was
formerly Principal Solicitor, Drumchapel Law & Money Advice
Centre. He is a well known author in the field of debt
law. Through SALC he was involved with work that resulted in
the Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act.
4.00 - 4.30Plenary: report back from each workshop and
discussion led by Stopping Eviction Working Party
The workshops are designed to be participatory
WORKSHOPS - 2.20 - 3.45
1. LSA runs a comprehensive service for tenants threatened with
eviction: this includes free drop-in surgeries and free In-Court
advice and representation at Glasgow and Greenock Sheriff
Courts. A LSA lawyer will introduce LSA's holistic approach
based on the fundamental principle that eviction should really be the
last resort and should only take place after detailed scrutiny by the Court.
2. It is fundamental to the whole area to ensure that tenants
are getting the benefits to which they are entitled. After all
that is probably the only way many are going to be able to afford to
pay the rent!. Steven Craig, a highly experienced Welfare
Rights Officer at Queens Cross Housing Association will discuss
maximising benefits in general with particular consideration of
housing benefit.
3. Edinburgh is the "eviction capital" of
Scotland. The City Council raises actions and evicts among the
highest rate. Nobody could suggest that there is a lack of
general advice services in Edinburgh: there is however no law centre,
nor law centre outreach specifically dealing with defending
evictions. What is Edinburgh's policy, what happens in Court
and why, in spite of the best efforts of so many, is the situation so
bad?. Is there a need for a law centre?. Presentation by
Jemiel Benison, Edinburgh City Council
4. North Lanarkshire Council raises among the highest number of
eviction actions by volume and also evicts among the highest by both
volume and proportion of it's stock. There are only 2 or 3 CABx
in the local authority area. Very few tenants attend Court and,
as in Edinburgh, very few actions are defended. Yet it gets a
comparatively high "rating" from Audit Scotland. What
are the local authority policies, are changes necessary, what
services should tenants have "on the ground" and should
Audit Scotland's criteria be changed?. Presentation by Ian
Walker, SHAS (Shelter) Glasgow
5. In every single case the tenant and their adviser may need
to defend. In practice this probably can only effectively be
done by an experienced solicitor or Counsel. What is the law on
written pleadings and what should they contain if there is to be a
sound written foundation for defending an action?. (Remember
that a sound foundation for a defence is sometimes the best way to
ensure proper negotiation takes place). Presentation by James
Barrowman, Solicitor, Legal Services Agency
6. The status of an asylum seeker's housing provision is
directly related to their immigration status. This workshop
runs through the complexities of the law and describes what problems
may arise and what solutions may be available. Presentation by
Joe Bryce, former Advocate and Project Leader of Legal Services
Agency's Refugee Legal Project.
7. The needs of those with mental health problems and
incapacity have to be considered. Not only is the scope of the
law greater but there are extra practical complexities.
Presentation by Ronnie Franks, Project Leader, Legal Services
Agency's Mental Health Legal Representation Projects.
8. Getting the procedure right is important for landlords.
Landlord mistakes can be a good "technical" defence for
tenants giving an opportunity for negotiation. There are also
new issues such as the requirement for service on "qualifying
occupiers" under the 2001 Act. This workshop by Adrian
Stalker, Shelter Scottish Housing Law Service, will consider these
issues as well as, if time permits, Abandonment Notices and Notices
for Private Sector tenancies will be discussed.
9. Frontiers of housing law: a discussion of how Debt
Arrangement Schemes may impact, recent other developments and, if
time permits, an update on mortgage arrears cases. Presentation
by Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor, Govan Law Centre.
10. Glasgow City Council's review of advice and information
services has been rolled out across the City with 9 Area
Implementation Groups and a strategic planning group in
existence. Law centres are represented on virtually all of
them. The West area AIG has been designated a community legal
service area pilot. What does this mean?. What progress
has been made so far?. What links have been developed?.
Presentation by Amanda Pringle, Principal Solicitor, Drumchapel Law
& Money Advice Centre and Shaw Anderson, Development &
Regeneration Services, Glasgow City Council.
11. Dundee Sheriff Court is among the busiest in Scotland in
the area of eviction. A number of agencies are working together
to improve services for tenants. Peter Kinghorn, Principal
Solicitor, Dundee North Law Centre will discuss local authority and
housing association practice, the attitude of the Courts as well as
service development in Dundee.
12. Links between CABx, national organisations, law centres and
solicitors in private practice: the workshop discussing how referral
and a full spectrum of services can be guaranteed to tenants:
Presentation by Loretta Gaffney, manager, Easterhouse CAB,
representative CABx, GCC, Strategic Planning Group.
13. Some rural housing providers are among the most prolific
litigators (not just an urban problem!). How are services in
rural areas? What are Court practices? Workshop led by
David Peveril of the Bute Advice Centre, Rothesay.
14. Support for tenants with mental health or dementia
problems: finance, care packages, social work role: discussion led by
Helen McGinty, LSA's Mental Health Legal Representation Project
(Edinburgh & Lothians).
ABOUT SALC
Scottish Association of Law Centres is the representative
organisation of all Scotland's community and user controlled law
centres. Membership includes eight law centres with six
associates. It enables centres to work together to:
· Promote understanding of the work of area and issue based law centre
· Generate a better understanding of the need for more secure
funding and more development of law centres in Scotland
· To promote the "Value for Money" delivered by law centres
· Highlight the range and extent of unmet legal need in Scotland
· Work with key partners such as local authorities, Scottish
Executive, Scottish Legal Aid Board, voluntary and community
organisations to develop law centres in Scotland
· Contact SALC about its work (although not about this
conference) through its Secretary, Angus McIntosh, Principal
Solicitor, Castlemilk Law Centre, 30 Dougrie Drive, Castlemilk,
Glasgow, G45 9AD, 0141 634 0313, email: castlemilklawcentre@tiscali.co.uk
Stopping Eviction
CONFERENCE BOOKING FORM
Name _________________________________________________________________________________
Organisation ____________________________________________________________________________
Address _______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
Tel ___________________________________________
DX No ________________________________________
Email _________________________________________
Cost: £75.00 (Concessionary cost places £30.00). Note
VAT is not charged.
I enclose £ ______ / Please invoice me.
Please make cheques payable to Legal Services Agency Ltd. and post to
Legal Services Agency Ltd., 3rd Floor, Fleming House, 134 Renfrew
Street, Glasgow, G3 6ST, DX GW12
In the case of multiple bookings it would be helpful to list names of
the delegates attending the seminar.
All bookings will be acknowledged to the address given on the booking
form unless otherwise indicated.
Please direct all enquiries regarding seminars to Susan Clark,
Seminar Administrator at Legal Services Agency Ltd., 3rd Floor,
Fleming House, 134 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G3 6ST, DX GW12
Tel 0141 353 3354 Fax 0141 353 0354 Email lsa@fleminghouse.fsbusiness.co.uk
|
