FOR HOUSING LAW PRACTITIONERS AND ADVISERS: NOW IN THE NEW 5th EDITION FROM THE LEGAL ACTION GROUP
An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers
One of the law's most challenging areas of specialty is certainly housing law. The authors Nic Madge, a circuit judge and founder member of the Housing Law Practitioners' Association has, together with his colleague Claire Sephton, refer to it as `hard law' and, for most practitioners it certainly is, and for a number of reasons explained in the book's excellent introduction.
It's also hard law, explain the authors, `because of the effect that housing cases can have on people', from economic deprivation to personal bitterness to the agony of homelessness and its attendant problems.
For barristers, solicitors as well as housing managers, housing advisers and students, here is a casebook from the admirable Legal Action Group which provides valuable guidance in this fraught area. Completely updated for 2012, this new fifth edition, presents within its more than 1,200 pages, a comprehensive statement of what is happening with housing law today in the courts.
As these are real cases that are related therein, one needn't be reminded that the book deals not with the theoretical, but the demonstrably practical applications of the law in housing matters which are very useful in court.
Yes, the book confronts you with grim realities. This is a common law book of housing, revealing real issues, real people, real confrontations and conflict and of course the judicial decisions resulting from each case. Conveniently for the practitioner, each case is introduced with a short sentence summary followed by a succinct narrative of the essential facts. This practical, factual approach is from the point of view of the practitioner, the key value of the book.
Speaking of convenience, the books offers a number of features designed to make life easier for experienced and inexperienced practitioners alike, each equally hard pressed for time. Logically divided into twenty chapters, the book deals with the full spectrum of housing issues, from human rights and housing, to tenancies to possession procedure, to harassment and illegal eviction to mortgage possession proceedings and homelessness... and, of course, much more. It's fair to say that the book provides, in one place, virtually all the cases you might need to refer to, which means you as an adviser have direct access to any number of useful examples of the ways in which the law is interpreted and disputes resolved in practice.
This useful and easily navigable -- as well as affordable -- book also provides extensive resources for your further research, including tables of complaints and investigations, cases, statutes and statutory instruments, as well as a table of European legislation, plus a detailed index of almost 100 pages at the back.
If you're a lawyer, or say, a voluntary adviser, or employed in a relevant area by a local authority, you would do well to acquire this book, which is also available in electronic format. The date of publication is noted as at 2012.
