Housing & Homelessness

‘Within the field of social housing law, the depth and breadth of expertise is very high at the set.’

– Chambers and Partners, 2023.

We are currently recruiting housing barristers. Find out more.

The vast majority of the work we do is for people who are eligible for legal aid, and we are committed to representing the rights of tenants, other occupiers, applicants for housing and the homeless. The team continues to be instructed by leading social housing solicitors and not for profit organisations across the country.

Garden Court North Chambers understands that clients’ needs are frequently complex and members of the housing team regularly take on cases that intersect with other areas of law including community care, family law, mental capacity, welfare rights, discrimination and equality, mental health, public law, human rights, and immigration (including asylum support). We are experienced and skilled in assisting people with disabilities,  addiction issues, significant mental health problems or learning difficulties; those who lack capacity with respect to litigation and/or decisions about their welfare; those who are vulnerable due to age (young and old) and those who speak little or no English.

Garden Court North barristers provide realistic and carefully considered advice in language that is easily understood. This approach ensures that the client remains fully involved in the process throughout and is able to take their own fully informed decisions about their case.

Garden Court North Chambers’ barristers have acted in some of the most important housing cases in recent years including Connors v UK (2005) 40 EHRR 9, Kay v Lambeth LBC [2006] 2 AC 465, Doherty v BCC [2009] 1 AC 367, Manchester City Council v Pinnock [2010] UKSC 45, Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd and Ors [2014] UKSC 52 (North East Property Buyers litigation), Safi-v-Sandwell MBC [2018] EWCA Civ 2876 [2019] HLR 16 and Samuels v Birmingham City Council [2019] UKSC 28 [2019] P.T.S.R 1229.

We are just as dedicated to the kind of cases that might not make the law reports but which have a real and significant effect on the lives of individuals. We have a strong commitment to pro bono work where legal aid is unavailable.

The team has expertise across the whole spectrum of housing law, including:

  • defending possession proceedings for all tenants and occupiers, including mortgagors, and squatters;
  • homelessness appeals under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996;
  • judicial review (especially those concerning homelessness and including out of hours applications for interim relief to the duty High Court judge);
  • representing victims of unlawful eviction and harassment, including applications for injunctions for re-admittance in unlawful eviction cases;
  • injunction and committal proceedings;
  • disrepair and fitness for human habitation claims, including Environmental Protection Act claims;
  • closure orders;
  • travellers’ cases ( including in respect of designated sites and unauthorised encampments);
  • Mobile Homes Act cases;
  • Boating and waterways cases;
  • squatters’ rights, including adverse possession claims;
  • right to buy cases;
  • nuisance;
  • Housing Benefit matters; and
  • housing related community care matters.

Please contact the Practice Management Team to find out more about the work of the team or particular housing barristers. We accept instructions across England and Wales.

‘Within the field of social housing law, the depth and breadth of expertise is very high at the set.’
– Chambers and Partners, 2023
‘Garden Court North is rightly regarded as a leading set in the field of legal aid housing practice.’
– The Legal 500, 2022
Garden Court North Chambers is a strong set for tenant-focused social housing work. It has ‘strength and depth, a number of well-regarded barristers and a high-quality training programme for the sector/profession’. ‘There are some very strong lawyers in this set…’
– The Legal 500, 2021

Sign up to our mailing list

Our mailing list is dedicated to professionals with an interest in our work.

Sign up