Housing advice for Tenants and Homeless
We provide specialist advice in respect of landlord and tenant matters, including boundary disputes between neighbours and interpretation of restrictive covenants amongst others.
We are also one of only two providers in Dorset with a Legal Aid housing franchise enabling us to provide assistance on housing matters free of charge to tenants or homeless people who qualify for legal aid.
We provide advice and assist clients in a number of ways, including;
- Act on behalf of tenants who are threatened with or have suffered unlawful eviction. The claim will normally include an immediate application for an injunction against a landlord and a substantial damages claim.
- Advice to tenants in respect of possession proceedings. There are a number of hoops which landlords have to get through before they succeed in a possession action.
- Represent individuals who are the subject of anti-social behaviour injunction applications usually made by the local authority.
- Represent homeless people or people threatened with homelessness in terms of assessing whether they are unintentionally homeless and in priority need, therefore the local authority owes a duty to them. If the local authority turns down an application we can assist the applicant in applying for a review of that decision and (if the merits justify it) appeal to the court against any negative review.
- Represent people who are being subjected to harassment by neighbours.
- Action and apply for an order for landlords to carry out repairs and any damages if they are in breach of their repairing covenants and there is a serious injury or the risk of serious injury to health, should a landlord not respond to a prior letter. It is important that the landlord has been notified of any lack of repair. Condensation problems present particular difficulties in ascribing blame to the landlord.
For any further advice on housing matters please contact one of our team today to see how we can help.
