Antisocial behaviour seminar: closure orders, injunctions, and committal proceedings

This seminar is brought to you by the Garden Court Chambers Housing Team. 

This will be an in-person-only event at Garden Court Chambers, followed by drinks from 8pm. This event is aimed at lawyers who represent tenants.

Speakers will address common legal, practical and tactical issues arising in relation to closure orders, anti-social behaviour injunctions and associated committal proceedings. 

The enforcement powers under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 are an increasingly common feature of housing law practice and have potentially serious implications for our clients, particularly vulnerable persons and those suffering from disabilities.  

Topics of discussion will include effective case management of anti-social behaviour cases, defences under the Equality Act 2010, issues relating to mental capacity and committal proceedings.

Speaker Panel

Paul Powlesland, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Paul believes everyone should have the right to a safe and secure home. He acts tenaciously for tenants who are threatened with eviction, and also acts for homeowners threatened with eviction by their mortgage company. He is adept at using whatever legal mechanisms are available to keep tenants and mortgagees threatened with eviction in their homes. Paul also accepts instructions in cases relating to sub-standard housing, as well as discrimination and other illegal practices by landlords. Often instructed on a public access basis, with little advance notice, he regularly succeeds in getting warrants of possession suspended.

David Renton, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
David Renton specialises in housing, discrimination and employment law. David acts for tenants and mortgagors in possession hearings, mainly where possession is defended on Equality Act, human rights or public law grounds. David is also regularly instructed in disrepair cases in the county court and magistrates' courts, carrying out work under both legal aid and no-win-no-fee agreements. He also appears in homelessness appeals under section 204 of the Housing Act 1996, in occupation orders, and in related cases involving the overlap of housing and family law.

Owen Greenhall, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Owen Greenhall has a broad practice encompassing aspects of criminal and public law. Owen has significant experience of injunctions and committal proceedings as brought in the context of protests and more generally. Owen has a specific interest in discrimination claims brought by Romani Gypsies and Travellers. 

Angharad Monk, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Angharad is a housing law specialist and conducts work across all areas of housing law. She is regularly instructed in anti-social behaviour cases and has worked with Liberty on strategic challenges to the abuse of the ASBCPA 2014 powers.