Christian is an associate in our Housing and Public Law and Human Rights teams.
Christian often acts for large residents’ groups in claims against developers, freeholders, and landlords. He has particular expertise in fire safety claims against developers and freeholders requiring the replacement of unsafe cladding, insulation, and cavity barriers, and requiring significant payments of damages.
Christian has a strong public law practice representing individuals, campaign groups, and charities, with particular expertise in homelessness, community care cases for social services users, and welfare benefits. He represented clients in the Supreme Court in both 2017 and 2018.
Christian has over two decades’ experience in acting for clients at all court levels. He often acts for vulnerable clients, including those without capacity to litigate. He is frequently instructed by the Official Solicitor.
He continues to advise and represent clients across all residential landlord and tenant matters, including disrepair, unlawful eviction, possession, harassment, and all tenancy related disputes.
Christian is co-chair of the Law Society Housing Law Committee.
Experience
Christian’s significant areas of work include:
Landlord and tenant
- Crown Estate Commissioners v (1) Governors of the Peabody Trust (2) Margaret Poplak [2011] EWHC 1467 – Established the status of Rent Act tenants following large scale transfer of their homes
- Advised several ‘short-life’ residents’ associations and successfully defended possessions claims by Lambeth Council
- Successful challenge to lawfulness of housing co-op’s re-possession policy
Public law – homelessness
- Poshteh v Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea [2017] UKSC 36 – Appeal relating to Article 6 ECHR and the extent of local authority duties under Part VII of Housing Act 1996. The court’s decision widened the threshold for intervention in local authority decisions
Public Law – Welfare Benefits
- DA and DS v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2019] UKSC 21 – Acted for the intervenor, Just Fair, regarding the ambit of Art 8 ECHR and the application Art 14 and the ‘best interests of the child’ doctrine
Recent directory and client quotes
Chambers and Partners UK 2025
- Christian is listed as a “Associate to Watch” in Social Housing: Tenant.
Legal 500 2025
- Christian is listed as a “Leading Associate” in Social Housing: Tenant.
Chambers and Partners 2024
- Christian was ranked as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in Social Housing: Tenant.
- “Christian Hansen is very good, very thorough.”
- “Always a pleasure to work with. He is completely organised and knows where a case is going.”
Legal 500 2024
- Christian was featured as a ‘Leading Individual’ in the Social Housing: Tenant.
- “Christian Hansen and Paul Ridge are great solicitors.”
- “Devoted to their clients’ cause, they ceaselessly fight the clients corner and are creative in their approaches.”
Education and career
- Christian graduated with a degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester in 1997
- He then completed the GDL in 1998, the LPC in 1999, and qualified as a solicitor in 2002
- He has been an LSC/LAA supervisor of housing cases since 2006
- Christian was Head of the Housing team at another London law firm from 2011 – 2018
- He joined Bindmans LLP in September 2018
