Army families suing the Ministry of Defence over the squalor of their living quarters are being issued with “bullying” ultimatums to drop their claims or face having their pay docked to cover the MoD’s legal costs, documents obtained by the Guardian suggest.
The government is accused of exploiting fears of further financial pain amid the cost of living crisis to keep compensation cases out of court. Hundreds of military families are understood to be seeking legal redress at a time when the service family accommodation system has been overwhelmed with complaints.
The MoD has not been defending legal claims lodged on the grounds that it has failed to provide safe and well-maintained homes. Instead, government lawyers have sent aggressive letters warning that unless the claims are discontinued, the MoD will seek full costs if a judgment is made in its favour – even where a county court has already given a default judgment in favour of the family. In one letter, a senior lawyer wrote: “If, however, you do not agree to this by the end of Wednesday, 14 September 2022, we shall issue the application and seek the full legal costs of the MoD.” In another, the lawyer warned that costs “can be recovered by deduction from your pay”.
Shadow defence secretary John Healey said: “This is utterly unacceptable. Ministers must call off the MoD’s legal dogs and drop these threats to forces families.” Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chair of the Commons defence select committee, said service personnel and their families deserved a proper standard of accommodation. A whistleblower said the MoD was seeking to “bully” service personnel, but that a growing number were preparing to take legal action. The Guardian also obtained a report of a senior MoD official appealing to bailiffs to leave without seizing property in lieu of payment, saying it “could go all over the news”.
Alfie Usher, a former paratrooper who runs the claims management company Claims Bible, said he had received 400 expressions of interest from service personnel in the last fortnight, expecting 100 to meet the threshold for a claim. He cited cases including black mould, asbestos in kitchens, and heating failures. An MoD spokesperson said: “These cases relate to rented property outside the UK. We will not comment further on it due to ongoing legal proceedings.”
