Housing Possession in the Time of Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on household debt evidenced by a significant increase in rent and mortgage arrears. In response, the landscape of eviction in England and Wales has changed fundamentally. Lenders, landlords, regulators and the court system have all introduced measures designed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on households in an effort to assist them in keeping their homes, for now. While all possession hearings were suspended between 27 March 2020 and 20 September 2020, landlords and mortgagees are now able to bring claims for possession under new rules known as the ‘Overall Arrangements’ (OA). In addition, a new ‘Housing Possession Mediation Pilot Scheme’ (HPMPS), intended to run for six months, was introduced on 1 February 2021. These initiatives are designed to increase opportunities for the parties to reach agreement and avoid the need for a substantive court hearing, thereby reducing the number of evictions and relieving pressure on the already overburdened court system. In assessing the potential effectiveness of these new temporary measures, this article will begin with a detailed account of the OA and the HPMPS, the aims that underlie them and the extent to which they have transformed the possession process. While evidence relating to their implementation and effectiveness is necessarily scant given their recent introduction, recourse to the literature on the use of remote hearings and mediation in other areas of the civil justice system offers a means by which to assess their potential effectiveness. What this review reveals is that some but certainly not all aspects of these new temporary arrangements should be considered for retention into the post-pandemic era