An increase in the number of housing repair cases brought by “no win, no fee” lawyers against Brighton and Hove City Council is putting pressure on budgets, according to a report.
Disrepair claims by council tenants using solicitors have “significantly increased” in the past two years, according to the report to the council’s Housing and New Homes Committee.
The report said that the increase was a growing burden on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which is funded by tenants’ rents and is used to manage, maintain and repair council housing.
The HRA budget report said that the claims had given rise to higher legal costs while the council was also having to pay to settle some claims as required following proceedings.
The council has budgeted an extra £380,000 in the coming financial year to fund two lawyers and cover some of the cost of settling claims.
Work is under way to analyse where the claims are coming from and whether they are linked with the backlog of routine repairs.
The backlog increased over the past few years because only emergency repairs were carried out during the coronavirus pandemic.
By summer 2022, the backlog had grown to more than 9,000 routine repairs.
The council’s assistant director for housing needs and supply, Martin Reid, spoke about the situation with tenant and leaseholder representatives recently.
Mr Reid said:
“Legal companies are targeting poor and vulnerable communities. It’s not around the nature of the repair. We have to do the repairs as a landlord. We often haven’t heard of them.
“There are some repairs we should be getting ahead of. But this is now a thing for social landlords – where legal companies are bombarding communities. We have had issues where tenants have lost out.”
Residents lodging claims through some law firms can receive less than half of the payout, with the law firms taking 60 per cent of the money.
The council’s Housing and New Homes Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Wednesday 24 January. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
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