The Housing Law Practitioners’ Association (HLPA) would like to thank Simon Mullings for all that he has accomplished during his two terms as its co-chair. What follows is a very small selection of his many achievements.

He was first elected in March 2020, as the country was going into lockdown. He wrote a powerful piece illustrating the invidious position housing clients and their representatives would face without a stay of possession proceedings.1‘Lawyers in lockdown: stories from the frontline’, Law Society Gazette, 30 March 2020. He explained how one client, who had COVID-19-type symptoms, was compelled to attend a court hearing of their application to suspend a warrant. He took their instructions within the confined space of the county court duty scheme office, successfully suspended their eviction, before himself entering a quarantine within quarantine at home, to keep his family safe.

Shortly afterwards, he was the fee earner for HLPA when it intervened in Arkin v Marshall [2020] EWCA Civ 620; June 2020 Legal Action 44. The case confirmed that the protection afforded by the stay in possession proceedings applied to stay of executing warrants for possession.

To ensure that when the stay was lifted there was an appropriate management of the backlog of possession cases, Simon and Marina Sergides (then his co-chair at HLPA) sat on the cross-sector working group chaired by Sir Robin Knowles. The group devised the Overall Arrangements for Possession Proceedings from 21 September 2020 until 1 November 2021.

It was also during Simon’s tenure as co-chair that HLPA successfully intervened in Khan v Mehmood [2022] EWCA Civ 791; February 2023 Legal Action 33, which confirmed that the 10 per cent Simmons v Castle uplift,2Simmons v Castle [2012] EWCA Civ 1288. applied where damages are awarded, should continue to apply in housing disrepair claims.

Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil CBC [2023] EWCA Civ 1416; February 2024 Legal Action 33, in which Simon, Giles Peaker, Justin Bates KC and Tom Morris represented HLPA as an intervener, continuing its 100 per cent record of successful interventions. HLPA argued that compliance with a local authority’s internal complaints scheme should not be a prerequisite for a tenant to bring a housing conditions claim; this view was reflected in the judgment. The Court of Appeal set out some matters that may be relevant to how the court exercises its discretion on whether to impose a stay pending alternative dispute resolution. The court expressly declined to provide a checklist of factors, emphasising this will depend on the circumstances of each case.

Both latter cases have successfully resisted threats to funding of housing cases, protecting those working in our sector from repeated measures that undermine its sustainability, measures that would further jeopardise access to justice for our client groups.

Another noteworthy achievement by Simon, and others at HLPA including Serdar Celebi, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Eleanor Solomon and Sara Stevens, was their work on fixed recoverable costs (FRCs). This initially prompted further consultation in respect of cases involving vulnerable clients. Subsequently, the government announced a two-year delay in introducing these reforms in housing. The reforms pose a real threat to the sustainability of tenant-focused legal representation and some of us remain hopeful that the introduction of FRCs in housing claims will be abandoned altogether.

Simon speaks truth to power, holding government departments accountable at every opportunity, requiring them to recognise the impact of their policies on our sector. His prolific use of social media has also shone the spotlight on these issues and raised HLPA’s profile, and consequently its influence, which he has used effectively to bring about awareness of the issues impacting our clients.

The civil service has consulted with him on various aspects of housing policy, including rental reform. At the same time, he has campaigned on this issue and collaborated with other groups, which no doubt contributed to the momentum culminating in the Renters (Reform) Bill. But he is not complacent about this progress. For instance, many of us saw him giving evidence to the Renters (Reform) Bill scrutiny committee on 16 November 2023, eloquently arguing why the new proposed Housing Act 1988 Sch 2 ground 8A should be dropped from the bill.

He leads the housing team at Hammersmith and Fulham Law Centre, where he has had conduct of important cases such as Rakusen v Jepsen and others [2023] UKSC 9; April 2023 Legal Action 44. This case highlighted a lacuna in the existing rent repayment order provisions that limits liability to an immediate landlord, while a superior landlord is exempt. It is anticipated that this loophole will be addressed by the 15 November 2023 amendments to the Renters (Reform) Bill.

He has also somehow found time to co-author LAG’s Housing Possession Duty Desk: a practical guide (2021) with Sue James. And, of course, he always finds time for another of his great passions: music.

It has been my pleasure to co-chair HLPA with Simon during his second term. Despite the social, political, legal and policy challenges in recent years, his fight to retain and improve the sustainability of our profession and the rights of our clients cannot be overstated.