Student stories

As part of Sussex University’s Housing Law Clinic, we work with clients from across Sussex and the South East of England who present a wide range of housing-related issues. Although tenants benefit from statutory protections, strengthened further by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, these rights can prove ineffective where individuals lack the resources, knowledge or confidence needed to enforce them.

The housing disputes we encountered at a local level – we receive over 90 enquiries per semester – reveal that the national housing emergency is also a crisis of unequal access to justice, increasingly shaped by factors such as digital literacy, technology and the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in legal and administrative processes.

Common housing issues faced by the community

Disrepair and health hazards

A significant number of cases seen by the Housing Law Clinic involve disrepair and serious health hazards within rented accommodation. These often stem from landlords or freeholders failing to meet their legal obligations to carry out timely and adequate repairs. A clear power imbalance exists between tenants and property owners, where tenants’ concerns are frequently dismissed until they are backed by a legal authority. With the Law Clinic’s support, tenants are better able to assert their rights, using legal advice to prompt action and hold landlords accountable where informal requests have failed.

Antisocial behaviour

The Housing Law Clinic regularly assists tenants who are seeking help in relation to antisocial behaviour by neighbours or other residents, often in social housing. Tenants are repeatedly reporting these issues to their local council. A serious concern arises where councils fail to treat reports of antisocial behaviour with appropriate urgency or seriousness. Over time, this pattern of inaction can leave tenants trapped in unsafe or distressed living conditions, undermining the protective role local authorities are intended to play.

Effective action by local authorities

Tenants would benefit from effective compliance and enforcement action by local authorities. Delays and inconsistent communication, for example, can result in tenants’ rights not being properly recognised, leading to unnecessary disputes and prolonged housing issues. These failures can create avoidable stress, demonstrating how access to competent administration is often as crucial as access to housing itself.

Access to justice and the value of legal clinics

For many housing clients, free legal advice is their only real line of defence. Law clinics play a vital role in empowering tenants to challenge unlawful practices, particularly where landlords or public authorities fail to act until legal pressure is applied.

In our experience, many clients are referred through organisations such as Citizens Advice, highlighting how advice services rely on one another to support vulnerable tenants. However, the growing dependence on University law clinics to resolve housing disputes raises concerns about the effectiveness of public regulatory enforcement and whether pro bono services are being used to fill gaps that should be addressed by adequately resourced housing authorities.

The role and limitations of technology

Housing rights may exist on paper, but often technology determines whether they can be enforced. For some tenants, AI tools and online resources simplify complex legal language and processes. For others, particularly those experiencing digital poverty or low digital literacy, the shift towards online legal information creates a gap in society, magnifying digital exclusion.

Overreliance on AI-generated legal information risks misinformation, false confidence, and delayed professional advice. It could be argued that the increased availability online improves access to justice for the wider community. However, our Clinic experience suggests that this accessibility is unevenly distributed and often benefits those already better positioned to advocate for themselves. We also found that AI tools may create a false impression of legal rights and complicate understandings.

Summing up

Our experience in the Sussex Housing Law Clinic shows that the housing crisis is not simply a shortage of homes, but a shortage of access to legal advice, accountability, and meaningful support. Issues faced by individual tenants reflect wider national failures in how housing rights are enforced and protected – local cases help to illustrate the broader picture. Addressing the housing emergency will require more than legislative reform alone in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. It also demands investment in accessible advice services and safeguards to ensure that digital progress does not leave the most vulnerable behind.

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