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Housing management legal experts

We understand that your focus is the customers and communities you serve and also the complexities that can involve. We provide a flexible service which can be tailored to your needs, allowing your cases to be dealt with as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.  That can include helping to upskill your teams, acting as a “sounding board” or taking ownership of matters when you need us to.

We currently provide expert practical legal advice to housing associations and local authorities with housing stock in England and Wales. This can cover aspects of tenancy enforcement and dealing with issues of nuisance behaviour and/or criminal activity within their estates and communities. We have expert knowledge of The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 having supported much of the sector during implementation in 2022-23. We have a specific team dedicated to defending disrepair claims and are able to handle volume claims for you. We are also able to provide specialist advice and assistance in relation to all aspects of housing management, homelessness and allocations and issues and queries arising from The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. Please also refer to the more substantive list of services below.

We also provide non-contentious advice on a range of matters including drafting of tenancy agreements/occupation contracts, reviewing policies and procedures and providing one-off advice on specific topics.

We also offer a wide range of training courses specifically designed to be informative as well as practical in order to maximise our clients’ in-house expertise and management capabilities. This can help ensure that you are dealing with matters in the most cost effective way and by working alongside your team, we can help identify those areas where developing your own staff would be beneficial.

Specialist sector advice

We can provide expert advice on the following areas:

  • Enforcement of anti-social behaviour and nuisance issues to include possession claims and injunctions
  • Breach of tenancy/occupation contract injunctions (for example for access or property conditions)
  • Abandonment
  • Committals for breach of injunctions
  • Complex cases involving European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
  • Contested/disputed succession claims
  • Defending housing disrepair cases
  • Demotion/PCSC applications
  • Drafting warning letter and notice
  • Housing law and Mental Capacity Act 2005
  • Housing law and the Equality Act 2010
  • Possession claims for other breach of tenancy or less of security of tenure
  • Social housing tenancy fraud
  • Training for Housing Officers in court
  • Trespass
  • Unauthorised improvements/adaptions
  • Unauthorised sub-letting

Key contact

Bethan Gladwyn

Partner

Bethan Gladwyn is head of the housing management team as a result of her capability and specialist knowledge in her field of law. A specialist in social housing law and practice, anti-social behaviour and landlord and tenant (residential), Bethan assisted in setting up Wales’s first anti-social behaviour unit at Hugh James.

Where do I start? I think of Bethan and her team as an extension of our office such is the relationship I enjoy with the team. They go to great lengths to understand us as clients and when in need of legal knowledge and leadership which is invariably at short notice, they rise to the challenge and deliver with a smile.

Gill Barnett - Tai Calon Community Housing

Training

We have been working in partnership with the social housing sector as it has grown and developed, and we have an unrivalled level of expertise in the law and insight into the sector.

Our specialist housing management and property teams have developed a range of training sessions covering issues which we know present regular challenges for you. Our courses provide you with the up-to-date law, sound practical and pragmatic advice and solutions and the knowledge you need to try and avoid disputes arising. The sessions combine an element of teaching together with interactive tasks which are carried out in a workshop style.

Why use us?

Our team have worked with providers of social housing for over 40 years and use that wealth of experience to get to heart of an issue and get you the advice you need swiftly. The partners in our team maintain exceptionally close relationships with the key decision-makers in the sector ensuring they can anticipate the challenges that are ahead and navigate solutions as early as possible. Clients tell us that our team feels a natural extension of their own and our calm, approachable style blended with practical steps ensure they feel confident to manage the complexities they face.

Where possible we will help you to collaborate and knowledge share on areas where you have common interests to better understand the bigger picture and achieve more together.

How we act for our clients

You will benefit from a free initial telephone consultation meaning that expert help is only a call away. During this call we will establish if the query can be dealt with during the call or whether more detailed advice is required and if documentation needs to be considered.

We work with you to develop and implement a process for sending instructions that works for you. For some, it is a case of actioning instructions sent by e-mail on volume matters, for others it is a video call to discuss a new case and formulate a strategy and plan.

We also accept instructions via e-mail. Instructions will be reviewed upon receipt and you will be contacted if further information or clarity is required. Otherwise you will be provided with details of who in the team will undertake the work for you, timescales and an estimate of costs for the work we have been asked to do.

We do not offer a one size fits all service and will work with you and your teams to develop a process that works in harmony with you and your needs.

Webinars

Housing Management

Webinar Replay: The Equality Act for Housing Managers

Webinar: LATC: Renting Homes replay | April 2022
View More

Related services

Dispute Resolution Property Litigation Social housing

Next steps

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Call us: 033 3016 2222

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