Norman House, 105-109 Strand London WC2R 0AA Tel: 020 7836 3630 Email: ombudsman@ihos.org.uk www.ihos.org.uk

IHOS – ADR LAW REFORM Dr Mike Biles Housing Ombudsman

ADR - rising tide Housing Ombudsman’s role 3. Law Commission 4. IHOS – ADR portfolio 5. Reform

1. ADR - rising tide Cowl v. Plymouth City Council (The Times, 8 January 2002, CA) residential care homes - closure judicial review

“Today, sufficient should be known about ADR to make the failure to adopt it, in particular when public money is involved, indefensible”

“…lawyers acting on both sides of a dispute of this sort are under a heavy obligation to resort to litigation only if it is really unavoidable.”

“The importance of this appeal is that it illustrates that, even in disputes between public authorities and the members of the public for whom they are responsible, insufficient attention is paid to the paramount importance of avoiding litigation whenever this is possible.”

“The courts should make appropriate use of their ample powers under the CPR to ensure that the parties try to resolve the dispute with the minimum involvement of the courts.”

“To achieve this objective the court may have to hold, on its own initiative, an inter partes hearing at which the parties can explain what steps they have taken to resolve the dispute without the involvement of the courts.”

“In particular the parties should be asked why a complaints procedure or some other form of ADR has not been used or adapted to resolve or reduce the issues which are in dispute.”

2. Housing Ombudsman’s role “In Access to Justice I made it clear that I attached great importance to extending ombudsman schemes because I was convinced as a result of my enquiry that they offered many members of the public the most satisfactory way of achieving a just resolution of their complaints.” “This was especially true in the area of housing”

“In many situations an ombudsman scheme is more likely to produce satisfactory results.” “The relationship between a tenant and his/her landlord is a continuing one.” “Relations between tenants and their landlords need to be as good as possible”.

“Litigation in the courts is adversarial and therefore almost inevitably damaging to that relationship.” “Litigation can also often be extremely expensive and result in resources which could be much better used to improve accommodation being unconstructively used to meet legal costs”

3. Law Commission - Housing Court - Dispute Resolution - Alternative Dispute Resolution

Alternative Dispute Resolution : 6.180 IHO (core business) IHO – TDS OFT Community mediation

6.176 Civil disputes – court last resort 6.177 Possession – “court” only 6.178 Other housing contexts – ADR 6.179 Housing relationship continuum 6.181 Mediation – discretionary grounds suitable alt. Accomm.

4. IHOS – ADR portfolio Investigation Arbitration Mediation Adjudication (with a hearing) Adjudication (on the papers) Neutral assessment

5. Housing Law Reform “…considerable encouragement should be given to the appropriate use of ADR in the resolution of disputes about housing matters” “IHOS offers a comprehensive ADR package appropriate to the range of disputes that typically arise in the housing context”

“If the Law Commission’s proposals in this context were to contribute to the development of a centralized ADR service for housing, IHOS would be ideally suited to that purpose.

Norman House, 105-109 Strand London WC2R 0AA Tel: 020 7836 3630 Email: ombudsman@ihos.org.uk www.ihos.org.uk