Natalie Thorpe

Natalie is a solicitor in the social welfare department carrying out a range of housing and community care work. She joined TV Edwards as a paralegal in December 2020 and upon completion of her period of recognised training, qualified as a solicitor in September 2023.

As a trainee, Natalie completed the majority of her training in the Social Welfare team working on Housing and Court of Protection matters under the supervision of Katie Brown and Monica Kreel. She also gained experience of public and private Family Children matters whilst working in the family team.

Natalie has significant experience of acting for clients with vulnerabilities and in urgent matters.

Before joining TV Edwards, Natalie specialised in homelessness matters at a West London law firm. Natalie continued to grow her experience by assisting clients with challenging gatekeeping practices and adverse decisions made by local authorities in homelessness applications.

In one case shortly after joining TV Edwards, the Council had decided that a client who suffered with various mental health conditions did not have a priority need for housing assistance. As a result, the client was asked to leave the temporary housing which the Council had provided her with. The client instructed us the evening before the accommodation was due to end. Natalie worked with the client after hours to establish the facts and successfully persuaded the Council to extend the temporary housing the following day.

Natalie’s training has meant that she has expanded her expertise to include representing tenants in possession proceedings, and advising and assisting on succession and sub-letting matters.  Natalie also has experience of assisting occupiers with poor housing condition claims.

As a trainee, Natalie acted for a client where a private landlord insisted on proceeding with a possession hearing even though the client had cleared her rent arrears. Natalie successfully negotiated with the landlord for the case to be paused for as long as the client continued to pay her rent. Without coming to that arrangement, there was a risk that a Possession Order might have been made against the client because she had a poor history of paying her rent.

As a qualified solicitor, Natalie continues to utilise her negotiation skills and knowledge of the law to keep cases out of court. If an agreement cannot be reached outside of court and there is no time to find a barrister, Natalie can confidently use her advocacy skills to represent the client.

Despite not having a background in family law, during her period of training with the family team, Natalie was successful in appling for a Prohibited Steps Order to stop the child’s father from having unauthorised contact with the child. The application was submitted and placed before a Judge for a hearing on the same day. Due to the short notice, Natalie had to represent the client at the hearing. The Judge listened to and was persuaded by Natalie’s arguments for why the order should be granted. Therefore the client’s application was successful and the child was protected from his father’s actions.

Memberships

• Junior Housing Law Practitioners Association
• Young Legal Aid Lawyers

Recommendations

Courteous, professional and caring. A very caring, professional service, who always have my best interests at heart and who will fight your corner every step of the way! Correspondence is thoroughly detailed, and my solicitor was always available to talk on the phone whenever I called, and replied to emails promptly. I was always kept up to date with new developments in my case, which they defended successfully. Courteous, professional and caring.

I was immediately put at ease from the first telephone conversation with Leslie Jaji (Housing) and his assistant Natalie Thorpe….Leslie and Natalie have always been directly available on the phone to discuss any developments which has been an immense benefit and greatly appreciated during a global pandemic.

I’m speechless they’re great and very helpful.