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03 May 2024 / Daniel Bacon
Issue: 8069 / Categories: Features , Property , Landlord&tenant
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Next steps for housing loss prevention

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Daniel Bacon explains the new court duty scheme—& how it could help both tenants & landlords
  • Outlines the two stages of HLPAS, the legal aid scheme covering possession cases.
  • Provides a glimpse into the work of duty solicitors in court.

The Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS) replaced the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme on 1 August 2023. It is an architecture for providing free legal advice to tenants facing eviction. There are two stages to the current scheme. Stage 1, prior to court, lifts the usual means assessments of Legal Help to provide free, early and non-means-tested legal advice to tenants facing eviction—for example, once they have received an eviction notice. Stage 2 provides free-at-the-point-of-need advice and representation to any tenant facing a claim in the county court first-instance possession lists. Again, there is no means assessment; it is just an opportunity for any tenant to take advice and to be represented.

Stage 1

The HLPAS scheme Stage 1 strips away some of the administrative burden

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Sponsored by
Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS
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NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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