Social Housing Legally Defensible Position?

I am asked more and more these days what that statement actually means. So, I wanted to add a bit of detail, or as they say, meat around the bone. 

If you head to the internet and search for the term Legally Defensible Position, it will bring a myriad of sites which are all very in-depth with regards what your position is, in truth though, the way we understand what a defensible position is, is to look closer at case law. Take a little look at things that have happened in the country and how those responsible have been hung, drawn and quartered. 

Now it’s very insensitive for me to detail the cases that have been pushed into the public eye but if you google landlord court action for non compliance, you’ll soon find a lot of content that will open your eyes. 

Let’s take a look at law though and what we know to be a defensible position. In theory, this position should be exactly the same from Housing officers to technical teams, engineering team to CEO and so on. The position on safety and compliance should be flawless with no holes. Unfortunately this is not always the case, the reason, because each person needs something different to showcase that they are meeting their own objectives and goals. In some cases this means very little care for what the person below them is doing, until it’s too late. 

In Housing you need to ensure that the homes and castles you provide are safe and, maintained in a way to prevent danger to anyone in or around them. To do that you have to select and manage people to do certain jobs, when I refer to manage them you need to manage the output, the performance, the information they provide and their recommendations. The issue comes hitting very hard when we try to list the regulations, the acts, the guidance and the obligations were faced with daily. How do we map the responsibility with the inevitability that your obligations can be serenely damaged by someone else’s actions. For example: you can remove candles and lighters from tenants because you’re scared they’ll set they house on fire, yet when that happens you’re pulled straight into the court to prove that you did everything you can to prevent it, even though you know you couldn’t. 

Is it not enough that we understand the following: 

• Housing Act
• HHSRS
• Defective Premises
• BS7671 including guidance documents etc
• Gas Installation and Use
• Manufacturer instructions
• Landlord and Tenants Act
• Consumer Protection 
• Health and Safety at Work
• DDA
• Building Regulations
• Financial Regulations
• Hackett reports 1, 2, 3 and however many more there is
• The Housing Regulators documents and guidance
• Housing and Planning
• Control of Asbestos
• PAS79 FRA 
• HMO licensing
• Corporate manslaughter etc (shhhh, we don’t talk about this one)
• Regulatory reform order fire safety
• Water supply
• Private enterprise
• Unfair contract terms etc
• RIDDOR 
• Etc etc etc 

I mean come on……. Ask ten people to read all of them and then ask for their opinion. Pretty sure you’ll get a different one each time.

When I set up TCW back in 2014 ish, I was that person who spent night after night trying to understand what each one meant to me. That statement at the end of my job description where the authority felt it prudent to add “and all other duties we feel appropriate to your role”. I mean what was I responsible for? 

I have had my fair share of court action, Ive seen the result of getting it wrong and not being able to defend myself because WE didn’t do something we probably should have. 

When I defined the product I specifically stated the high level requirement to simply see whats coming in and whats going out. We decided that a comprehensive view of data is essential to ensure the person sitting at the thin end of the stick feels more comfortable that they have as much control as they possible can. This was initially focussed at Electric because thats, well, something I understand more than anything else. But it slowly moved to Gas, Asbestos, Legionella and so on. The product today gives users the ability to put anything on the dashboard and then provide a high level insight for those who only need to know that. But for those who’s job depend on what happens with the content…… we’ve built something specific for you. 

TCW doesn’t ask you to select a field on a document knowing fine well that if that document comes in again tomorrow with no content on it other than that specific field, you’re compliant. You’re not. 

TCW provides a seamless upload and extraction of essential actions and remedial works straight away. You don’t drop your documents in a share file or an FTP and then wait a few days whilst someone checks the document or its ran through OCR a thousand times to get the info almost right. Our technology has one pass and gives you the information straight away….. Because we don’t use OCR. 

When TCW tells you we have a platform that provides the Golden Thread around assurance…. You can’t put that beside someone who can give you something when we can give you everything. 

For example: right now our client base across the United Kingdom are detailing with issues highlighted on appliances, specific circuits and equipment, water temperature issues, asbestos issues flagged in a document but not in the actions column and so on. TCW clients are managing their legal position because they’re doing all they can with all they have…… they’re not ignoring the massive elephant in the corner! 

So our legally defensible position is not getting some information or documents but getting all information and all data needed to accurately inform the organisation to be PROACTIVE to things that really matter. It’s about creating a process that ensures each person at each grade can see what they need to top prevent an accident or a death. We do not have the right to overlook something that clearly say’s “FIX ME IM BROKEN”. This is why we go deep into the information, its why we use companies across the country to provide additional eyes through third party auditing and its why our compliance and engineering teams right now are crying out for something to help them do more and be better. 

There are companies that can give you some of what TCW can. I have spoken to most and offered out engine to help them provide more but I’ve been met with “we do what you do”. I tried. 

This article is timely, next week you’ll see our team push more and more insights your way as to how TCW is helping manage the above. Im extremely proud of our achievements, that I found a way to fix the issues I personally had in Housing and that I continue to give back to this sector either as a chairman of a safety group (sshhh) or an advisor to Compliance, Audit and Assurance boards. 

As always I am open to anyone in any company or organisation who wants to talk about compliance and assurance and how I can help you do better for the sector or how we (@TCW) can help you achieve so much more.

Sincerely

Ryan Dempsey FIET