A VULNERABLE north London housing association tenant facing a no-fault eviction represented herself in court after being unable to find a way to get affordable legal representation – a situation faced by many low-income people navigating the legal system.

Diana alleges her landlord, Peter Bedford Housing Association, has mishandled her anti-social behaviour reports in a way that amounts to discrimination. The charity focuses on providing homes to vulnerable adults.

“I am pursuing legal action against Peter Bedford Housing Association because repeated pleas for help were ignored while anti-social behaviour continued to affect my health, peace and ability to feel safe in my own home,” Diana told the Tribune.

“It is my experience that PBHA has responded negatively to my complaints rather than addressing the concerns I raised,” she continued.

“The treatment I have experienced has permanently damaged my trust in housing providers and in the systems intended to protect vulnerable tenants.”

A previous bid for an injunction related to ASB that Diana made in 2024 was dismissed, and another claim against PBHA under negligence is currently going through the system. PBHA made local and national headlines earlier this year after 69 of its tenants – many of whom had lived in their homes for decades – were told they were being evicted.

The charity leased the flats in question from the UK’s largest housing association, Clarion, which decided to end the agreement.

During the preliminary hearing on November 2 at Mayor’s and City of London Court, Diana represented herself while PBHA instructed a lawyer to act on their behalf. The judge granted Diana five weeks to amend her particulars of claim and said she strongly urged the tenant to get independent legal advice to bring a stronger legal claim.

But Diana said she had exhausted every avenue to get legal aid. Vulnerable people being left to navigate the legal system alone and unsupported is not unusual due to a greatly reduced legal aid service.

“Having to face court proceedings alone has compounded this distress,” Diana said.

“The numerous organisations I approached appeared either unwilling or unable to help, seemingly because they were overwhelmed by cases similar to mine or lacked the capacity to assist with my housing concerns,” she added.

“Without legal representation, I have been forced to navigate the legal process entirely on my own, which has caused further emotional damage and deepened my loss of faith in the systems that are supposed to protect vulnerable and elderly tenants.”

Betty Shuttleworth, a junior public law barrister at Landmark Chambers, said that access to legal representation for low-income people has narrowed significantly in the past few decades and said the application process can be “exhausting” and “demoralising”.

“It’s a broken sector,” she told the Tribune. “To be totally frank, it doesn’t function, and it doesn’t support the people at the heart of it, unfortunately.”

People can access government funding if they cannot afford to pay solicitors and barristers themselves, but a law called Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 “slashed” the scope of issues covered by the funding.

Regarding housing and homelessness issues, disrepair is still covered under legal aid, but only where there is a serious risk of harm to health or safety. Ms Shuttleworth also explained that there is a disparity between the technical and real-world availability of legal aid.

There are many areas of the country that are legal aid “deserts” where professionals are in such short supply that people seeking representation may not even get a call back.

“Anecdotally, I had a case recently where the client at the heart of it had contacted 16 legal aid firms regarding the suitability of her utterly horrific temporary accommodation, and they’d all turned her away. They just didn’t have the capacity to do it.

“And I think that is an issue that also particularly impacts upon vulnerable people.

“Often to even get an initial phone call with these firms, you have to fill out quite long online forms and give quite a lot of detail about your case that if you are someone who is illiterate, or you would struggle to articulate what was happening, it can be really difficult to present the case in an attractive manner that would encourage a legal aid provider to take it on and take the risk with it.”

A spokesperson for PBHA said: “At PBHA, our whole purpose is to support people with disabilities and additional needs.

“Our services are tenant-led and tailored to each person. We always take the views of tenants seriously and do our best to remedy disputes. As an organisation which supports residents’ rights, we recognise that each individual has a right to legal recourse.”