About Us
Why do we exist?
As renters know, rogue landlords operate across the
Private Rented Sector and have little regard for the law.
Indeed, many landlords, who are required to
license their properties, do not bother. This is despite the fact that
occupants of Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are 6x more likely to die in a fire than others in
the private rented sector.
Landlords' disregard for the law comes as little
surprise; Local Authorities' enforcement against rogue landlords is
pitiful. In England, each Local Authority prosecutes an average of only
1 to 2 landlords yearly for the criminal offence of letting unlicensed
properties.
Meanwhile, most legal mechanisms directly available
to renters are almost redundant: they are expensive and time consuming,
and offer little chance of success or serious compensation.
Yet there is one powerful legal tool that renters
can use: Rent Repayment Orders (RROs), which give renters the power to
get back up to 12 months' rent from rogue landlords, without the need to
hire a solicitor, or the risk that losing a case will lead to paying the
other side's costs.
Few renters know that RROs exist and fewer still
are supported to make them. So renters continue to suffer and rogue
landlords continue to get off scot-free.
That's where Flat Justice comes in: we exist to
bridge the gap between the vast number of renters who could make RROs
and the much smaller number who do.
We empower renters to make Rent Repayment Orders in
order to win justice for themselves, hold their landlords to account and
improve the safety of privately rented property.
Our guiding principles:
1.
We
believe every renter has a right to live in safety and in peace.
Our first priority is to help renters win justice from landlords who
violate these rights, and, in doing so, create a deterrent against
landlords disregarding them to begin with.
2.
We
believe in empowering renters to win justice themselves. In the long
term, we think change will only come from renters themselves having
greater power. So, in our practice, we encourage renters to upskill
themselves, expand their knowledge, and gain experience of winning
justice.
3.
We see
ourselves as part of a bigger renters' social movement. We orient
our work to complement the wider ecology of renters' groups who work to
improve the law regarding in the Private Rented Sector and improve
private tenants' rights.
What do we do?
We do all things Rent Repayment Orders!
Specifically, there are four key aspects of our
work:
●
We represent tenants in Rent Repayment Order
cases.
●
We provide free advice and resources to renters
making their own RRO applications.
●
We campaign to make RROs a more accessible and
more viable tool for renters to use to win justice from rogue landlords.
●
We challenge RRO judgments that we believe are
unfair by assisting appeals to higher courts, so creating valuable case
law that assists all Applicants
What we
don't do:
●
We don't
do Deposit Reclaim. Deposit reclaim is easy: you can do it yourself.
To claim your deposit back independently, use
this brilliant DIY pack by Unipol.
Shelter also has
useful resources here.
Useful tip on deposits : You will
see a couple of deposit reclaim outfits advertising on Google, charging
extortionate commissions up to 45%. They are not solicitors even though
they may advertise pictures of solicitors on their website. Please check
their T&Cs very carefully
●
We don't
make claims at the County Court. We do not make claims for issues
other than Rent Repayment Orders. In turn, we do not make claims that
must be made at the County Court.
The team:
Flat Justice is a very small team. Initially, we
were run by just our three Directors! Since our founding, we have taken
on one full time case-coordinator, one part time case-coordinator, as
well as a handful of law students who wanted experience advocating at a
Tribunal.
While each of our team has expert knowledge of Rent
Repayment Orders, we are not
solicitors. If we were solicitors, you probably would not end up
getting much rent back after fees!
That said, our extensive knowledge of the Rent
Repayment Order process and the relevant laws goes well beyond what most
solicitors know about RROs. This is because RROs are a very specialised
area of law.
Owing to our size, roles at Flat Justice are not
concrete, and each member of the Flat Justice team is variously involved
in each of the different aspects of our work.
Yet, each of the team does focus on particular
lines of work. Find out about the team and what we all focus on below:
Daniel, Founder and Director:
Daniel helps make key decisions about the direction
of Flat Justice. Daniel also works on cases, progressing applications
from submission right through to preparation for the hearing.
Guy, Director:
Guy provides overall direction and oversight to
Flat Justice. Guy is also involved in assisting with cases, and develops
the FJ DIY RRO Guide as well as other key resources for DIY applicants.
Benjamin, Director:
Benjamin, alongside the other Directors, helps make
key decisions about the direction of Flat Justice.
Iyabo, Director
Iyabo is a former client of Flat Justice who is now
also a director. We are a grass roots organisation and like to involve
stakeholders in our work. She also brings expertise in social media.
George, Advocate and Campaigns:
George
is now a pupil barrister at 187 Chambers and continues to work as an advocate
for Flat Justice, presenting cases before the First-tier
and Upper Tribunal. He was recently junior barrister in our
Court of Appeal case against Global He also assists with research and political/policy
campaigning undertaken by Flat Justice.
Below, George appears on BBC
Breakfast to explain the Supreme Court decision in the Rakusen case: a
case that dealt with the principal first established by Flat Justice in
the
Goldsbrough decision
Francesca, Advocate:
Francesca has also completed her training as a
barrister and works
primarily as an advocate, presenting cases before the First-tier and
Upper Tribunal.
Blue, Case-Coordinator:
Blue prepares cases, and supports DIY Applicants
with their claims. Blue is focused on making Flat Justice's approach to
case work more collaborative: involving applicants in their own pursuit
of justice. Blue also works to deepen Flat Justice's ties with the wider
renters movement.
Fenella, Case-Coordinator:
Fenella prepares cases
and in quieter moments, pursues research & assists with creating
resources for DIY Applicants. Alongside Flat Justice, she works as an
Advocate for a human rights group.
What kind of organisation is Flat
Justice?
Flat Justice is a Community Interest Company.
Whilst we are not a charity, we have a special structure under company
law, and have to pass a 'community interest test'. We operate on a
not-for-profit basis and our purpose is serving our community: private
renters, mostly in London.
Fees we charge for representation are used to fund
the free advice and free resources for DIY Applicants, as well as our
campaigning work. Our fees are the lowest we think we can charge without
going bust. We also have an Asset Lock, meaning company assets are
reserved for our stated aims. If and when the company is wound up, the
remaining assets will be donated to
Shelter, the housing charity.
Flat Justice has Professional Indemnity Insurance
and is a member of
AdviceUK, a quality assessment and
training organisation for social welfare advisory services
Internally,
Flat Justice works more like a network than a company. While some key
decisions are made by the Directors, many decisions and focus areas are
worked out by the whole team.
We don't believe in a rigid hierarchical structure:
we're concentrating on getting justice for renters and believe we are
best placed to do so when our team works fluidly and collaboratively.
How Flat Justice began:
Flat Justice was founded in 2017 by our co-director
Daniel Herm-Morris. Daniel
had lived in an unlicensed and unsafe House of Multiple Occupation
(HMO). Like many rented properties, it had a number of hazards (in his
case, exposed wires in the shower).
Daniel made a Rent Repayment Order on the basis
that the property required an HMO licence but did not have one. The
outcome was positive, but the process showed how daunting and
ring-fenced the law can be – especially when tackled without prior
knowledge. Services and support for renters navigating the process were
lacking.
Daniel felt strongly that it was a renter's right
to live in a safe home. With the hope of making RROs accessible and
providing other renters with the help he'd needed, he set up Flat
Justice.
Since then, Flat Justice has grown as a team. We
work to demystify the law of the private rented sector, supporting
tenants living in unlicensed properties or suffering from other offences
covered by HaPa 2016. We continue to inform renters of their rights, and
to assist them in claiming power back over criminal landlords!
Key wins!
We've won a lot of rent back for tenants!
We have won countless Rent Repayment Orders for renters we have
represented. To date we've helped tenants get over ₤750, 000 of rent
back.
One of those we represented was Iyabo Oba. Iyabo lived in a property in
Hammersmith & Fulham that was not licensed but needed a licence. We
helped Iyabo to win ₤4918.38 from her landlord.
HearIyabo below talking about
what it felt like to win!
We've shown that 'Property
Guardians' can make and win Rent Repayment Orders
We represented Summer Oxley, a 'Property Guardian', who was awarded
₤4,937.40 from her Guardianship company. In bringing the claim, we
helped show that 'Property Guardians' can successfully make Rent
Repayment Orders.
Read about the win
here
We've supported DIY Applicants
to win big:
Many of the DIY Applicants we have supported have won big!
We supported Kelly, who was assisting her daughter and her daughter's
flatmates in a tricky case. Kelly's daughter and her flatmates won ₤27,
358! You can read more about the case
here:
We've helped increase the
number of Rent Repayment Orders, and encouraged better compliance by
landlords:
Since 2017, the number of Rent Repayment Orders made has vastly
increased. We know that this is in part due to our work in bringing
claims, supporting DIY applicants to make their own claims, and our
efforts in clarifying case law that have made RROs easier to make.
In helping to increase the number of RROs, we've helped increase the
deterrence for landlords to evade licensing.
We've won key cases at the Upper Tribunal to develop RRO case law:
We've won a number of key cases at the Upper Tribunal that have
developed RRO case law.
Some we are particularly proud of:
●
In Taylor V Mina we
clarified that licences cannot be transferred between landlords. You can
find out more about this victory
here and here Georgie talking
about it
here
●
In Sharma V Lau we
clarified that Applicants are not limited to claiming one year's rent
from the date they make an application. Instead, Applicant's have one
year from when an offence ends to make a claim. And that, once an
Applicant is in time, they can choose any period of the offence to claim
back.
●
In Opara V Olasemo we
clarified that Applicants do not need to prove an offence beyond 'any
doubt at all' but only 'beyond reasonable doubt'.
●
In Goldsbrough
we established
that tenants can choose which
landlord they wish to make a claim against. That said,
Goldsbrough has since been overturned by
Rakusen. Rakusen is heading to the Supreme Court so we will have to
wait to see if the principle of
Goldsbrough is reestablished. 
One of the first actions of Flat Justice was to have the
English Tribunals amend the RRO1 form to make this timing clear:
previously the form had stated one could only claim a maximum of 12
months' rent immediately prior to the application date.