Social housing: tenant

Andrew Brookes

Partner

Giles Peaker

Partner specialising in housing, public law and residential and commercial leasehold disputes.

Paul Ridge

Partner in the Public Law team and Head of Housing and Property. As well as individuals Paul regularly advises charities and organisations in regulatory matters and disputes. He represents individuals, campaign and action groups, charities, schools and religious organisations. His aim is often to deal with issues swiftly, economically and without litigation. He has experience of mediation and ADR, but where needed Paul litigates. He has a string of cases through the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Paul regularly acts for family members and the Official Solicitor in the County Court, High Court and Court of Protection. He is currently acting for a large number of residents and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

Edward Taylor

Associate Solicitor

Bahareh Amani

Bahareh joined the Property Dispute and Dispute Resolution team on 1st June 2023 from the Housing and Property Dispute team which she was a part of since November 2018. She has specialised in litigation and property disputes since qualifying in 2010 and joined Hodge Jones & Allen in December 2018 as a Senior Associate, and was promoted to Partner in May 2022. Bahareh has experience in the area of civil litigation since 2005. Bahareh is a tenacious litigator and is recognised for her strengths in negotiating settlements to benefit her clients. Bahareh has also led and supervised leading cases in the Court of Appeal as well as challenging by way of a High Court Appeal . She has conducted a variety of cases, including property related litigation, contested possession claims, disputes arising for misrepresentation on sales and purchases and Party Wall Act claims. She has also acted for Freeholders and Leaseholders on disputes arising out of service charges, ground rent and mismanagement of leasehold interests. She has acted for clients on a group action, securing positive outcomes for her clients without the need for contested trial. Bahareh has acted on both residential and commercial property disputes, including possession proceedings arising for breaches of lease and covenants, forfeiture claims as well as Lease renewals and claims arising from business leases contracted in or out of the 1954 Landlord and Tenant Act. Since joining the Dispute Resolution team she has acted for both Claimants in relation to claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependant) Act 1975, as well as executors, seeking challenged to wills based upon capacity and undue influence and claims for beneficial interests in property. Bahareh’s approach to property disputes and litigation has been to consider alternative means and to avoid court process and litigation, and where possible to address matters with the opponent in a conciliatory approach, without the need for litigation however, where this is not possible, Bahareh is a confident and strong litigator in areas of property disputes and enjoys presenting her client’s cases raising points of law, and finding arguments to further her client’s case.

Manjinder Kaur Atwal

Housing director Manjinder Kaur Atwal has over 13 years’ experience in housing and property litigation law. She handles a wide variety of housing and property law dispute cases including possession claims and eviction matters, landlord and tenant disputes, homelessness, housing disrepair, bringing judicial review matters, reviews and appeals relating to local authority housing decisions, bringing and defending injunctions, boundary disputes, property nuisance/negligence claims, consumer and contractual matters, debt recovery, and enforcement. She also has considerable experience dealing with small claims cases and multi-track cases, and undertakes her own advocacy at court and tribunals on behalf of her clients. Manjinder is dedicated to achieving the best possible outcome for her clients and has earned a reputation for taking on difficult cases  deemed without merit, going on to obtain excellent results for clients. Her most notable recent undertaking is her work assisting victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. As well as assisting victims with their immediate housing needs, she is heavily involved in negotiations and raising awareness for those who have been impacted. Manjinder and her team were amongst the first lawyers to assist the victims and was part of a team that set up two drop-in pro bono clinics at Al Manaar Mosque and Westway Sports Centre. She has appeared in the media on multiple occasions, discussing the needs of Grenfell victims and how the cuts to legal aid for housing disrepair have impacted vulnerable tenants. Manjinder regularly features in the media, speaking to TalkRadio Live and RT UK News discussing her work. She recently discussed the government's low levels of spending on social housing and the impact on landlords and tenants during the Covid-19 outbreak. She has also written numerous articles for media platforms on the current social housing issues.

Sara Stephens

Partner within the Housing and Property Disputes team specialising in all aspects of housing and property litigation including defective new build issues, complex disrepair, homelessness and possession cases. Also specialising in judicial review, particularly in relation to housing cases, and commercial property litigation.

Sophie Bell

Sophie Bell is a Partner in the Housing team at Hodge Jones & Allen. She has specialised in housing law for 18 years. Her work spans a wide range of practice areas covering all aspects of landlord and tenant and social housing law, including possession and eviction, homelessness reviews and appeals, judicial review cases and claims for disrepair. Sophie is a strong advocate of tenant’s rights and seeks to ensure those rights are fully protected. She takes an efficient, robust and compassionate approach to all her cases, representing individuals against various opponents including councils, housing associations and private landlords. She works with many highly vulnerable clients, particularly in relation to threatened possession matters, often successfully ensuring that not only is a possession order or eviction avoided but that the landlords take further steps to assist their tenants. Sophie has a wide knowledge of disrepair law and has recently achieved settlement in a number of cases whereby tenants have achieved substantial awards of damages, in addition to the completion of works to the property. Sophie also regularly takes on more complex housing cases. She secured a positive outcome for an elderly and vulnerable client who had been unlawfully evicted from his home by a property developer. Her client’s name was not on the title deeds for the property and the lawful owner appeared to be deceased, yet Sophie was able to obtain an order to declare that the client was the sole legal owner of the house. Claims were successfully brought against the property company and persons unknown, with Sophie obtaining a possession order and a five-figure compensation payout for her client. Sophie believes that tenants should be empowered wherever possible to stand up for their rights. She regularly seeks to find ways to ensure that the necessary information is made available to those who need it most to try and minimise the number of tenants and homeless individuals who do not know which way to turn.

William Ford

Partner

Christian Hansen

Solicitor, Housing and Public Law Christian frequently acts for groups of tenants and leaseholders in claims against landlords and freeholders, as well as acting for homeless applicants, and social services users in claims against local authorities. He often acts for vulnerable clients, including those without capacity to litigate. He is frequently instructed by the Official Solicitor. The current focus of much of Christian’s work is enforcing fire safety measures in residential buildings. Since 2019 and continuing through 2020, Christian has been helping several large residents’ groups bring fire safety claims against the freeholders and developers of their buildings, requiring the replacement of unsafe cladding, insulation, and cavity barriers, and claiming significant payments of damages. Christian continues to advise and represent clients across all residential landlord and tenant matters, including possession, eviction, disrepair, harassment, and all tenancy related disputes. He is highly experienced in acting for clients at all court levels. In both 2017 and 2018 he represented clients in the Supreme Court. He is an experienced advocate and has been a duty solicitor on county court housing possession lists for many years.  

Jayesh Kunwardia

Partner

Timothy Waitt

Partner