Housing: Proportionate Dispute Resolution
FURTHER RESEARCH PAPERS
The documents listed below were prepared between November 2003 and November 2005. They are published here as they were originally written. Each document is dated. They do not take into account how the law may have changed since they were drafted. None of the documents listed below represents the Law Commission's official view of the matters discussed, nor are they an authoritative statement of the law. We hope, however, they may be of interest.
We would be interested in your views on whether it is useful for further information to be made available in this way. Please send us your comments.
Further information:
- Existing court and tribunal jurisdictions, England and Wales
- Numbers of housing disputes in England and Wales
- Research on civil procedure in England and Wales (costs, enforcement and appeals)
- Mediation
- Planning and commonhold dispute resolution systems
- Other jurisdictions
- The social tenants' perspective
Existing court and tribunal jurisdictions, England and Wales
The legislation conferring jurisdiction on the variety of existing courts and tribunals which currently hear housing dispute cases:
- County court jurisdictions (147 pages, December 2005)
- High Court jurisdictions (137 pages, December 2005)
- Magistrates' court jurisdictions (124 pages, November 2005)
- Crown Court jurisdictions (21 pages, November 2005)
- Tribunal jurisdictions (72 pages, December 2005)
The working methods on how we drew up these tables is also available (4 pages, November 2005).
Numbers of housing disputes in England and Wales
A statistics paper (52 pages, September 2005) covering numbers of housing disputes heard by different courts, ombudsmen and other bodies is available. The paper also looks at the numbers of housing problems experienced by people, or about which they seek advice.
Research on civil procedure in England and Wales (costs, enforcement and appeals)
How courts and tribunals could fit into our proportionate dispute resolution system.
- The impact of different costs rules on disputants' choices (16 pages, September 2005)
- Enforcement of court and tribunal decisions (58 pages, March 2005)
- Appeals procedure and theory (44 pages, November 2004)
- The differences between courts and tribunals (12 pages, November 2003)
Mediation is discussed at length in the issues paper. Where mediation leads to a settlement, enforcement of any agreement may be an issue. We considered the Enforcement of mediated agreements as contracts (30 pages, September 2004)
Planning and commonhold dispute resolution systems
How two existing regimes for dispute resolution deal with particular issues:
- Choice of dispute resolution procedures – planning law (5 pages, October 2004)
- Commonhold dispute resolution (10 pages, August 2004)
As well as examining courts, tribunals and other dispute resolution methods in England and Wales, we have also looked at how housing disputes are resolved in other jurisdictions.
- Report to Law Commission on Australian Tenancy Tribunals by Caroline Hunter and Judy Nixon (30 pages, June 2005)
- European approaches to alternative dispute resolution in residential tenancy disputes (10 pages, September 2004)
- Innovative French courts (4 pages, April 2004)
The social tenants' perspective
Discussions with tenants at the Tenant Participation and Advisory Service annual conference in August 2005 led us to develop The social tenants' perspective explaining how dispute procedures could enhance relationships and communication between landlords and social tenants.