The government is hiring 1,000 new judges and tribunal members this year to cope with increased demand due to the Renters’ Rights Act.

While it had previously talked about taking on a similar number across all courts and tribunals, Minister for the Courts and Legal Services Sarah Sackman has told the NRLA that the figure relates to the impact of the Act. She also confirmed that full end-to-end digitisation of the courts will be in place by April or May next year.

The government is creating a new centralised hub, with two new digital services - for possession and for the Residential Property Chamber – under development, with the first stage of the changes planned for rolled out by the end of the year.

Sackman says the new digital possession service will offer an online route for making and responding to possession claims, allowing landlords to file documents and receive updates and outcomes virtually. This will replace the existing process, where the courts must process and issue claims via physical documents, increasing the risk of lost documents and delays.

Option

Sackman says landlords and tenants who are representing themselves will still have the option to continue to engage with the court via paper statements, but all internal case management work will be dealt with digitally.

She is committed to setting up a non-judicial body to determine appropriate rents for given areas, in a bid to reduce pressure on the First Tier Property Tribunal, but is still working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and other partners to figure out how this will work in practice.

Number

Increasing the number of judges and tribunal members is a good start, says NRLA CEO Ben Beadle, but landlords need confidence they can take back possession of their properties in a straightforward and timely manner where they have legitimate reason to do so, something that will depend entirely on how the process works in practice.

They also need to know what’s happening when it comes to the new body charged with dealing with challenges to proposed rent increases.

“With increasing numbers of tenants expected to do this under the new rules, we need a clear plan in place from the government to prevent the tribunal becoming overwhelmed,” Beadle adds. “There also needs to be a clear mechanism by which it can monitor how well the courts are coping with the increased demand.”

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