Flac wants legal aid for those facing home repossession
The head of Flac, the free legal aid service, is seeking wider powers to be given to the courts in dealing with mortgage holders in deep debt.
It also believes legal aid should be available in proceedings involving repossession of a family home.
Flac chief executive Eilis Barry yesterday warned of “a significant unmet legal need in relation to housing and homelessness”.
Among the legal actions urgently needed, she said, is for the Government to implement a commitment to establish a dedicated court or tribunal to deal with problem mortgage arrears on a case-by-case basis, with a view to proposing resolutions.
Housing advice was prominent among the 12,000 inquiries made to Flac centres last year.
Flac, in its 2017 report being launched today, said it has been concerned about the position of mortgage holders in long-term arrears and has advocated for the need for courts to have greater flexibility in such complex cases.
“Flac believes that the recent sale of thousands of mortgages in arrears to vulture funds exposes borrowers to a greater risk of losing their properties due to the uncertain nature of vulture funds,” it states in the report
One in four inquiries made to its centres last year focused on family law, but employment matters and housing were also prominent among 12,003 queries. Overall, a total of 25,817 people received legal advice.
Senior counsel Peter Ward, chairman of Flac, said: “It has been extremely difficult to secure political support for adequate funding of civil legal aid.
It is quite simply not a compelling political issue. Politicians do not feel any need to prioritise or champion the civil legal aid scheme or access to legal services.
Mr Ward said he believes better decision-making “across the legal system would represent a major advance in securing equal access to justice. We do need better and more transparent decision making for example in social welfare decision making and in social welfare appeals.”
During 2017, Flac was forced to engage in litigation in cases involving social welfare, direct provision, debt, and homelessness.
In one case, it secured the release of a man who had been unlawfully jailed for failure to pay debt and also successfully represented a seriously ill homeless man who had been denied emergency accommodation.
It assisted three tenants who had been discriminated against when the landlord refused to facilitate their access to the Housing Assistance Payment.
In a High Court matter, Flac secured compensation for a mother in direct provision for the excessive delay in determining her application for subsidiary protection, resulting in the loss of child benefit.
