Giles Peaker's corner

Most of the capital’s finest minds on housing law cluster in some of the city’s most salubrious surroundings. The City, say, or the warren of chambers around Gray’s Inn Road.

But today Inside Housing has travelled south, through the bustle of Elephant and Castle to the Walworth Road. On the top floor of a Tardis-like office, accessed through a buzzer door in a tired reception, is Giles Peaker’s realm.

The messy space, poorly lit by a small window, is where the Anthony Gold Solicitors’ partner and arguably the most respected blogger on housing law thinks, plots and critiques.

Given his reputation, one feels there should be busts of housing law reformers above the Victorian-style fireplace in Mr Peaker’s office.

‘As a housing lawyer you need two things: a housing law encyclopaedia and an internet connection to keep up with Nearly legal’

Justin Bates of Arden Chambers

But it is apparent after only a few moments of speaking to the down-to-earth solicitor that this would be far too ostentatious. Instead there are files, papers and boxes strewn everywhere – the room is overflowing with them.

Mr Peaker pleads that it is only this messy because he has had a busy week, but the weariness around his eyes suggests it has been a long time since he has had a quiet one.

Inside Housing has come to meet the man behind Nearly Legal: the blog that receives 45,000 to 50,000 hits a month and has become a must-read for housing lawyers and the wider housing sector.

As barrister Justin Bates of Arden Chambers says, ‘As a housing lawyer you need two things: a housing law encyclopaedia and an internet connection to keep up with Nearly Legal.’

Art history

The 49-year-old started out his professional life quite differently: as an art history lecturer at Leeds University. But after 13 years specialising in 20th-century Avant-Gardism and eventually becoming head of art history at Derby University, he had ‘the world’s dullest midlife crisis’ and switched to law.

Seeking a break from writing theoretical papers for philosophy journals, at 39, Mr Peaker wanted to deal with ‘real issues’. He saw law as the ideal combination of intellectual stimulation and the practical application.

He ended up in housing law by chance, after getting a paralegal job with housing firm Lindsay & Jockelson in 2005. It was taken over by his current firm the following year.

He counts himself lucky to have fallen into a field he finds so fascinating.

‘Housing law is frequently disputed and there are continual changes, which makes it interesting,’ he says with the relaxed smile of a person who feels most comfortable when there is questioning to be done.

Knowledge base

It is hard to find anyone who has a bad word to say about Mr Peaker. Chambers and the Legal 500 describe him as having ‘an encyclopaedic knowledge of housing law’.

A tenant, who does not want to be named, was recently represented by Mr Peaker in a case against a London council. Years of neglected repair work left the client with dry rot and a home that needed to be ‘gutted’. The client says his ‘huge understanding’ of the law was massively comforting,’ the tenant says.

‘I got the impression he loves what he does and, from my perspective, he does it very well.

‘You would have to get up very early in the morning to put something past him - he’s very astute with what he’s doing.’

Mr Peaker’s boss, Andrew Brookes, describes him as having an ‘inexhaustible passion for social housing and for housing law’.

‘I wasn’t sure what the firm’s reaction would be. At that time you could count the number of legal bloggers on one hand, so I was nervous.’

Giles Peaker, partner, Anthony Gold

Mr Peaker mainly represents tenants, but is not a ‘purist’, and does occasionally work for landlords. He treats it as a way to keep his skills sharp.

‘It’s a lot easier to know how to approach a case if you know how the other side will argue,’ he explains. ‘I would run the risk of restricting my thinking if I always only represented the one side.

‘I prefer the tenant work, as I mainly cover homelessness, possession and disrepair. In these situations it’s easier to see your immediate impact and the benefit to the client.’

However, since the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders act 2012, he says the work he can do for the most vulnerable people who visit his office has been reduced.

The act has limited the availability of legal aid in housing cases, but Mr Peaker is still able to cover homelessness, possession, disrepair cases and mortgage possession cases.

Yet he says it is ‘chilling’ that ‘perfectly valid and strong claims are not being taken [up]’.

There are clearly many factors about the legal aid act that frustrate him. These include turning down interesting cases and leaving vulnerable tenants in the lurch.

However, the financial effect on lawyers and his livelihood is just as much of a concern. Winning sympathy for lawyers may be harder than for most groups. But if anyone can make the case, it is the ‘most impressive solicitor working in the field today’, as he is branded by housing barrister Justin Bates.

Identity crisis

If Mr Peaker’s fee income were to come under serious threat, he could always cash in on the numerous advertising offers made for Nearly Legal.

Despite averaging 45,000-50,000 page views a month, it remains free of advertising and there are no plans to monetise it because Mr Peaker does not want to compromise on its editorial content.

‘I prefer the tenant work, as I mainly cover homelessness, possession and disrepair. In these situations it’s easier to see your immediate impact and the benefit to the client’

Giles Peaker, partner, Anthony Gold

Since he began it anonymously as a paralegal in 2006, Nearly Legal has become one of the places to go for lawyers, advisers and people in the sector to keep up-to-date with the ‘insanely complicated’ housing law.
Although sometimes highly technical, Mr Peaker cemented his reputation with an unlikely ingredient for housing law: humour.

Writing in August about the Department for Communities and Local Government’s attempt to wow Buzzfeed readers, Mr Peaker described it as ‘the output of a person who does not understand the concept of jokes being chained in front of ICanHazCheezburger, being told this is what funny looks like and to get on with it’.

Peer review

‘I don’t believe there’s anywhere better that you can keep up with what’s going on in this field and keep informed about what other people are thinking about current developments,’ Mr Bates of Arden Chambers says.

Despite its status now, the blog would have remained anonymous had it not been for a curious barrister who figured out its author’s identity in 2008.

‘I remained completely anonymous until I qualified and would have continued that way indefinitely had I not been on the brink of being outed,’ recalls Mr Peaker.

‘I wasn’t sure what the firm’s reaction would be. At that time you could count the number of legal bloggers on one hand, so I was nervous.

‘The barrister had been posting comments on the blog that strongly hinted that he knew who I was, so it felt like only a matter of time before others caught on,’ Mr Peaker says.

The legal housing world seemed surprised about his true identity. Especially his boss.

Mr Brookes says: ‘He had managed to stay quiet, even when I was extolling the virtues of the blog in team meetings.’

Reflecting on the effect of ‘coming out’ on his career, particularly the jump from paralegal to partner in seven years, Mr Peaker clearly feels uncomfortable as he breaks eye contact to say that it has been massively helpful in helping establish his reputation.

After putting out a call for help in 2008, Mr Peaker now has a team of nine solicitors and barristers blogging for him, each in varying degrees of ‘outness’.

Eight years after founding it, he still writes two to three blogs a week and claims there is never a shortage of material, only of shortage of time.

‘At the moment there isn’t much spare time, which is becoming increasingly more of an issue,’ Mr Peaker says, looking past me to the stacks of files awaiting his attention.

‘As well as my responsibilities as partner and Nearly Legal, I’m also the chair of the Housing Law Practitioners Association and have just signed up for another 18 months from October. Something’s going to have give at some point, but it most certainly won’t be the blog.’

It may be hard work, but it is also enjoyable.

‘There is never a dull moment and not many good nights’ sleep,’ he says.