Jon Holbrook and Nick Billingham explain how to strike a balance between landlords and tenants
Many tenants are unable to pay their rent, through no fault of their own, and judges are rightly sympathetic to their plight. But there are some tenants who are at fault in failing to pay their rent. Too many judges are unable to distinguish between these two types of tenants.
Catalyst Communities Housing Association v Colemack (Brentford County Court, 7 November 2006, unreported) illustrates the problem (see graph on p 507). In June 2000 the court gave Ms Colemack 13 years to repay her arrears of £3,337 at £5 per week. During the next six years she succeeded on seven occasions to get the warrant suspended while her arrears continued to increase. By the seventh warrant suspension Colemack’s arrears were £12,358 yet the district judge gave her another 47 years to pay them.
The housing association became tired of the court ‘driving a coach and horses’ through its rent recovery systems, and an appeal to the
