14th
Dec 2020
Courts have now introduced yet another procedure into the eviction process in the form of Review Hearings to decide which cases should be prioritised for affected landlords.
The new hearings will carried out over the phone to decide whether cases should be submitted at a later date to a substantive hearing.
However these will only take place if landlords provide a Review Bundle which must include the claims form, the reasons for the claim, the defence, as well as two year rent statements and a running total of rental arrears, plus the daily rate of rent and interest accrued, information on their previous attempts to recover arrears, the tenancy agreement and the effect Covid 19 has had on the landlord.
Landlords must also provide information on whether the pandemic has affected the tenants and an Order from court.
The Review Bundle has to be filed at court electronically and a copy must be sent to the tenants 14 days prior to the Review Hearing, failure to do so could mean that cases will be struck out.
A trade body has slammed the extra workload, cost and time that has been thrown onto landlords and a spokesperson said: “We understand that this stage has been introduced to alleviate the current backlog of cases and assist the courts in prioritising the most urgent cases. However, it is adding a further delay for landlords, which in turn means additional costs.
“Whether a landlord’s case proceeds as priority to a Substantive Hearing will be determined by the evidence submitted prior to the hearing so there is no margin for error.
“We are doing everything we can to minimise this delay for landlords but it is unexpected additional work. We then have to replicate the work again for a Substantive Hearing, which is set for some time after the Review Hearing and requires attendance and representation.”
However there may be one positive which could be that a settlement may be agreed upon without having to wait for a Court hearing; the company has had some success against all expectations on a small number of hearings when being given a possession order, rather than having to wait for a court hearing.
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