Families facing no-win no-fee legal bills lobby MPs

Homeowners who were left with huge legal bills when a law firm they had signed up with collapsed have lobbied Westminster MPs for help.

They had taken no-win no-fee claims over cavity wall insulation that they said had caused mould and damp in their homes.

But the Lancashire homeowners received demands for up to £40,000 after Sheffield-based SSB Law went bust.

Debra Sofia Magdalene from Burnley, said many had no means of paying.

"There are many, many people who don't have a voice and are on their own," she said,.

She added that "the first thing [some of the claimants] knew about it was when bailiffs were at their door".

"It's like the most vulnerable in society have been targeted.

"We've got people in their eighties, people who are retired," she said, adding that legislation was needed to protect the homeowners from the costs and to put right the problems caused by the failed cavity wall insulation.

The insulation was installed under a government scheme.

The BBC has been told 1,500 people across the north of England and Wales could be affected.

Compensation claims were taken on by SSB Law, which, homeowners said, assured them they would not have to pay if the cases failed.

But huge bills landed on their doorsteps from the insulation firms' insurance companies when the law firm collapsed.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is continuing to investigate what it says is a "complex" case.

The prime minister has pledged to look into the collapse of the law firm.

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