Home office: Manchester
Matthew advises registered providers of social housing on all areas of housing management including matters involving anti-social behaviour, alleged breach of Equality Act and disability discrimination, succession, unlawful occupation, poor property condition, access issues and housing conditions claims.
Matthew is a Senior Associate in Clarke Willmott’s Housing Management team in Manchester.
Having qualified as a solicitor in 2016, Matthew chose to specialise in housing law in 2018 whereupon he has acted exclusively for registered providers of social housing in a broad range of housing matters.
Matthew has derived experience from prior roles both in private practice and in-house within the social housing sector. Matthew was most recently lead housing management solicitor in an in-house legal team for a large registered provider of social housing. Within this role, Matthew advised upon a wide spectrum of housing matters including cases involving anti-social behaviour, disability, applications for succession, rental arrears, deterioration of property condition, access issues and alleged disrepair.
Having obtained experience both in-house and within private practice, Matthew has an invaluable insight and understanding of the pressures and demands experienced by clients and can provide in-depth and commercially sensitive advice which identifies the objectives of clients and seeks to ensure those are secured.
How Matthew can help you
Matthew specialises in all areas of housing management including:
- Anti-social behaviour injunctions and possessions
- Accelerated possession claims
- Breach of tenancy injunctions and possessions including issues with property condition and access
- Succession and unlawful occupation matters
- Defences and challenges brought pursuant to the Equality Act and public law principles
- Committal applications for breach of injunction
- Housing conditions claims
- Environmental Protection Act prosecutions
- General tenancy management
Matthew has broad experience of representing clients at Court, conducting advocacy before District and Circuit Judges, and is frequently successful in securing injunctions and possession orders which advance the objectives of clients. Matthew prides himself in providing simple, understandable and commercially sensible advice which seeks to secure the best outcome for clients in all matters.
Experience
- ASB injunction – Matthew has previously been successful in obtaining injunction clauses excluding tenants and non-tenants from properties as a result of serious anti-social behaviour. On a number of occasions, Matthew has been successful in obtaining such exclusion clauses without notice to tenants and non-tenants.
- Possession – Matthew successfully represented a client in possession proceedings against a tenant diagnosed with complex medical conditions, successfully defending a counterclaim brought for breach of Equality Act and securing a possession order at trial.
- Committal – Matthew previously represented a client in committal proceedings involving multiple, repeat breaches of exclusion order, successfully inviting the Court to remand the Defendant into custody as a result of those breaches and securing a suspended custodial sentence at trial.