Property and Social Housing
Educated at Jesus College, Oxford University, Amy is the Head of Housing at 12CP Barristers.
Housing & Anti-Social Behaviour
The most significant aspect of Amy’s practice is social housing and she has many years of experience advising on, and appearing in Court in the whole range of Landlord and Tenant issues including possession and demotion claims, anti-social behaviour injunctions and committals, closure orders and disrepair matters. Amy is often engaged in highly complex possession claims involving unlawful subletting, sustained anti-social behaviour and where alleged discrimination under the Equality Act is raised as a defence. She is expert at handling vulnerable and difficult witnesses, whether in examination in chief or cross-examination, with or without intermediaries and interpreters and frequently receives judicial and client praise for her approach to vulnerable witnesses.
As a consequence of Amy’s in-depth knowledge she is often able to provide very swift advice on the direction a proposed or existing claim should take, whether by telephone, email or formal advice, especially where novel points of law arise.
Amy has extensive practice in reviewing and drafting standard Housing documents including complex Tenancy Agreements, excluded and non-excluded Licences, Property Guardian licences and policies. She is regularly instructed to review, amend and draft suites of agreements for large organisations. For example she recently completed a review and redraft of specialised licence agreements to be used nationwide by a commissionee of the Ministry of Justice. When drafting, Amy pays particular attention to making such agreements understandable to the average tenant and as ‘future proof’ as possible, taking into account known and likely changes in housing law.
She advises and appears in other matters concerning local authority housing, including the right to buy and statutory homelessness reviews and any consequential judicial reviews or appeals.
Amy has extensive experience in drafting, advising upon and appearing in Anti-social Behaviour Injunction hearings and committals, including youth injunctions in the Youth Court and she often appears in these for both Housing Associations and Local Authorities securing committals to prison and the surrender of tenancies in lieu of a custodial sentence.
Amy regularly trains local authority and housing association employees in all manner of social housing matters.
Residential & Commercial Landlord & Tenant
Amy is regularly instructed by Local Authorities, corporate organisations and private individuals in the wider spectrum of Landlord & Tenant work.
She is experienced in an array of matters including those under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and on the interpretation and enforcement of leasehold covenants.