As the individual responsible for training Charter Housing in DIY injunctions (“Officers of the law”, 28 February, page 32), I thought I would add my own experience and views on DIY actions.

The success of any DIY action really depends on the skills of the individual and of course these skills are widely varied across the country. Tim Crook made the point in his letter (18 February, page 22) that there are potential pitfalls and hidden staff costs in taking DIY action. I would agree with these comments and feel that any action taken should be measured, targeted and effective. In Charter’s case this has proved to be an effective tool, but the reality of the situation is that without adequate training and, most importantly, experienced legal support for when things go wrong, the stress imposed on staff is equivalent to going five rounds with Mike Tyson.

As an experienced housing manager with many hundreds of DIY court appearances behind me, I am still often surprised by the judgments delivered by the courts and the tactics of both defendants and their lawyers. Even with my level of experience I still have to instruct solicitors on various cases. County court judges in the South-east often request skeleton arguments, which can be quite daunting and is no doubt designed to intimidate lay representatives.

Also, public funding is becoming the norm in possession and injunction cases since some solicitors now have the power to award emergency legal aid, and the housing officer will quite often find themselves facing an experienced lawyer.

Some solicitors see RSLs as easy money, and who can blame them? If you were shopping around for yourself, you would try to get the best you could at a price you could afford. Unfortunately, however, some RSLs are still in the dark ages and stay with a retained firm that does their development work, conveyancing and employment matters but are lost when it comes to antisocial behaviour.

There is clearly a need to cut the direct costs involved in taking legal action but at the same time without increasing the indirect costs and jeopardising the RSL’s reputation both with the courts and indeed with their customers and partners. There is room for both DIY and using legal services and the right balance must be struck between using housing officers as solicitors and solicitors as highly paid administrators.

Kevin Day, ASB Solutions

Source

Housing Today