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Advice on tenant eviction - next part of procedure

Started by JMP, June 03, 2024, 02:41:45 PM

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JMP

Hello,

I'm looking for advice on what happens next with a tenant eviction.

So far a Section 21 has been served and has expired.  I filed an accelerated possession order with the court.  A notice of issue was sent to the tenant, that expired with no defence filed.  I have notified the court of this two weeks ago.  From the documentation it appears I am waiting for a judge to make a ruling as to whether I can get the property back.  Do I now just wait for the court to post notification to me about a ruling?

Thanks for any advice

jpkeates

Yes.
Courts are amazingly slow all over the country.
Don't hold your breath.

JMP

Thanks for the reply.  I was going to ask if there's a time anyone can give from their own experience.  All courts are different though and  it sounds like it's a waiting game.  The procedure up until now has been quick and straightforward.

jpkeates

The government produces figures for the country. The median average times are: Claims to possession order 8.1 weeks.
Then for a warrant, 8 more weeks.
Then to bailiffs is another 8 weeks.

These are medians, so the middle point of all claims rather than a mean average.

David

The Courts are overloaded like never before, new systems, less people and utter chaos after the backlog from the pandemic still not caught up.

That being said this is an accelerated procedure and the Court will be looking for low hanging fruit that it can get determined.

Council advise Tenants to wait until they are evicted as standard procedure because even if someone hangs the cost of that on them, it is a way of reducing their Housing Duty.

If the Tenant did not file a defence and nobody has made any filing on incapacity then I would expect the Court to issue an immediate order for possession, the order will take two weeks to get typed up if you are lucky, then perhaps another two weeks for Royal Mail to deliver.  You will be able to instruct Bailiffs on receipt of that order, you can call the Court to get an idea of their lead time, typically six weeks but can be twelve weeks in London and other big cities.

You could have asked the Court to authorise the case being escalated to the High Court for the eviction, you can still do that but you have to pay for an application, nothing gets done without an application and fee.

Believe me that your case is low hanging fruit, they are trying to deal with these cases without a hearing, so if the Tenant has not returned the acknowledgement of service or files a defence then the Judge will assume no hearing wanted, no defence and costs to be kept to a minimum at £355 for the Court Fee you already paid.

Occasionally if a Tenant is being treated for a proper diagnosed mental health condition then their Consultant may make a note to the Court about their capacity but that is rare.

Under S8 a Judge is going to consider your lack of income as a factor but under S21 it is just whether your S21 had any defects which would void it and you would have to start again.  The Council has a duty to prevent homelessness so if they were informed and asked for help they would usually at least have tried to verify the validity of the S21 or referred the Tenant to a law centre. 

Assuming you did not screw up the paperwork then it should happen within the timescales above. 

Quote from: JMP on June 03, 2024, 02:41:45 PMHello,

I'm looking for advice on what happens next with a tenant eviction.

So far a Section 21 has been served and has expired.  I filed an accelerated possession order with the court.  A notice of issue was sent to the tenant, that expired with no defence filed.  I have notified the court of this two weeks ago.  From the documentation it appears I am waiting for a judge to make a ruling as to whether I can get the property back.  Do I now just wait for the court to post notification to me about a ruling?

Thanks for any advice