The Cost of Disrepair Claims - The Bowen Appeal

The appeal against the judgement in the Bowen case has been withdrawn.

In March this year we reported on the judgement in Bowen v Bridgend County Borough Council & Others. In that case the court ruled on costs claims in 11 disrepair cases. All the claims were funded by Conditional Fee Agreements. The court held that the tenants’ solicitors had breached the CFA Regulations and therefore, that the CFAs were unenforceable. The court also restricted the size of the success fee, disallowed fees paid for pre-action reports and limited pre-allocation costs. This was a mighty blow against the disrepair industry and held out some encouragement for defendant landlords facing large claims for costs.

Since March there has been a very noticeable decline in the number of new disrepair claims. This is no coincidence and can be linked to the decision in Bowen. Tenants’ solicitors have been very aware that they may not be able to recover their costs. It has been possible since the Bowen judgement to negotiate substantial reductions on claimants’ claims for costs.

P D Associates, the solicitors in the Bowen cases, appealed the decision and the case was due to be heard before the Court of Appeal in October. An embargo was put on the outcome of the appeal. Tenants’ solicitors have been notably reluctant to settle costs claims pending the appeal decision. It has now emerged that P D Associates withdrew the appeal just before the hearing.

This is good news for landlords but it is too soon to think that the flood of disrepair claims has been stemmed. The last few months have been too quiet and it is likely that claims handlers and tenants’ solicitors have been using the time to adjust their procedures to comply with the judgement in the Bowen. They will not just go away.

A copy of March’s Housing Bulletin is available via this link

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