Demand for legal aid for tenants dealing with eviction

Am I missing something?

Surely if I initiate the the legal process to recover my asset for any reason, as agreed with the tenant when they initially rented my property for a fixed term, why should there be any reason for the tenant to renage on this agreement and get public funding to try to prevent my lawful posession of my property ignoring the private, and mutually agreed legal contract we both signed and agreed to.

I did not make any agreement for anybody to have a SRS style contract for any of my properties, so nobody should try to enforce SRS conditions on our agreement after both sides agreed the original t&c.

Does this mean my new tenants can only be accepted if there’s a clear and definite exit for them, eg international students.

public funding can be applied for if the tenant’s income and situation warrants it to be APPLIED for (dont forget it is not always given) . You may have a tenant that;s circumstances changed from when the tenancy started meaning they could now apply for help.

There is of course a whole conversation to be had on WHAT legal aid should be used for (which is the bigger quesion here!) and yes I agree, defending something like an eviction due to rent arrears/similar where the person broke the contractual agreement with the supplier. should not be the case.

Trouble is a supplier of a house for rental is NEVER seen as purely a contracted supplier . Housing has been made too political for that now – we are the bogyemen!

Reply to Markyboy: yes, you are missing the fact that Mr Emerson is talking about conditions under the provisions of the R(R)B which, once it is enacted, will bring an end to fixed term tenancies, making them all periodic. He, on the other hand, seems to be missing the latest help for tenants, giving them recourse to free legal representation and advice from the moment an eviction notice is served. Or am I missing something?

what is the actual deal with Legal Aid when it comes to possession claims anyway?
It can’t surely be available for every low income tenant when given a S8 now is it?

As there is an ability to defend a S8 is it immediately granted and only then the tenant is assessed to see if circumstances warrant a certificate being issued? Its always been a mystery to me how it is applied for, how it can be granted etc.. anyone out there able to shed some light on this please?

The new President of the Law Society is, according to the published info at his election, a specialist in international capital markets transactions and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Fluent in Japanese. Ergo, renters’ friend? Nobody can know who or what may have put the Legal Aid stuff in his mouth unless they unmask themselves. How about equal help for the (some are) really poor private landlord whose main income is rent and state pension?
Mr President, may I suggest you speak for ALL under the law, please may we all have equality of arms and equal access to justice, as envisaged by Lord (Harry) Woolf whose invited reforms have been rubbished by every government since he offered them? .

Let me correct the title.

Solicitors demand to stick their nose in the trough.

Tenants never actually win, they will still be evicted just causes everyone more stress. The only winners are the legal profession and the so called charities.

Reluctant Landlord I would suggest your first port of call should be Shelter’s website as they provide advice to tenants on how to stave off or at least delay eviction..

The authorities aren’t soft. If the cost of legal aid should work out cheaper than the overall cost of rehousing a tenant then there’s a good chance it’ll happen. Choked up courts are a godsend for the authorities as it delays the problem and by that time Labour’ might be in = 3 year contracts, £100,000 fines and more! Take a look at their manifesto pages 14 – 15.

Reply to the comment left by markyboy at 27/10/2023 – 00:42
System is designed to inconvenience landlords has much has they can and give the solicitors another nice little earner under the guise of wanting to help.tenants.

Reply to the comment left by Michael Booth at 28/10/2023 – 08:11
I think you over estimate how much legal aid will provide to solicitors in terms of funding. I doubt anyone wanting to earn a living would like to take on legal aid cases, that is if you can find a practice which facilitates legal aid. Alternatively the non legal aid private solicitors LLs will require to rebuff will not be cheap. Again this is not a method of providing equality of arms its a financial disincentive to engage in any form of proceedings. The bigger concern would be if there are suddenly DBA and CFA industries setting up shop in the legal profession to address this. If there was ever a time to ensure your legal insurance s up to date and you understand all the fine print…