25th
Aug 2020
IMPORTANT UPDATE to Section 21 Evictions
- No new applications until after 20th September 2020
- All applications previosuly submitted shall be stayed [stopped] and NOT reactivated unless the claiment sends a Reactivation request to the courts also send a copy of such to the defendaent [Tenants] - There is no template document - PIMS Helpline shall produce a bespoke re activation request - this service is free and only for members.
- The Government have been exceptionally under handed - Whilst the emergency eviction proceedure revision (CPR 55 Part C) states there shall be no revision of court forms they removed the eviction forms (section 21 Eviction Accelerated Possession Form N5B) from the court service website on the 11 August - This means no court forms can be completed and potentially all previously completed forms may have to be re-submitted to comply with the revised form. As is no body knows, a question of wait and see.
- We all understand the difficult times we as a society face, we understand the pressures some Tenants are facing, but Landlords are also people with families and financial pressures - please lets not lose prospective there are two parties who could be suffering.
The government has dealt private landlords another ‘slap in the face’ as new court rules state that any landlords who have delayed possession claims launched before the pandemic, will now have to reactivate their Section 21 notices if they wish to proceed.
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The new set of rules will be enforced a day prior to the courts being opened to possession claims on August 24th (with immediate affect now 20th Sept 2020), is the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) (Coronavirus) Rules 2020, which introduces a ‘temporary Practice Direction’ (PD55C) that:
- All claimants wishing to continue with their possessions claims which were submitted, pre-Covid-19, have to now submit a ‘reactivation notice’ in writing to both the court and the defending tenant, otherwise the case will stay dormant.
- Claimants must also include in the possession claim, if it includes rental arrears, any knowledge of the tenant being affected by the pandemic and any dependants.
- The PD55C also puts on hold the ‘usual’ target of eight weeks between submitting a claim form and the hearing.
- The rules also requests claimants to provide full arrears information with dates etc, to provide a thorough background in advance of the hearing.
PD55C is due to expire on the 28 March 2021 however, no immediate amendments will be made to existing possession proceedings forms, meaning landlords will have to devise their own means of compliance.
The advices are both non-statutory meaning landlords are not required to follow the guidelines but they do provide a broad set of principles that may be useful. Both sets of advice state that landlords must give their tenants a three month notice if they wish to start their possession proceedings, when saying: “We strongly advise landlords not to commence or continue possession proceedings during this challenging time without a very good reason to do so. It is essential that we work together during these unprecedented times to keep each other safe”.
A trade body is positive about the new rules and guidelines as it could lead to more landlords and tenants thinking about coming to an agreement through mediation.
A spokesperson said: “Ultimately, this confirms much of what we already knew.
“When the courts re-open there will be a backlog, cases will take longer than usual to progress, and it will be even more important than ever to follow procedures to the letter.
“That said there are a few outstanding questions. Although landlords will be required to provide any information they have about their tenant’s experience of coronavirus, there is no indication of how the courts will use the information.
“Also there is no detail about how, or in what form a reactivation notice should be served. We are working to answer both of these points with the ministries of justice and housing respectively.
“On the positive side, it is further confirmation that possession cases will resume after 23 August offering a faint reassurance to those landlords who have been struggling with long-term arrears since March”.
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