17th
Jan 2016
The Managing Director of a body of residential letting agents David Cox has sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove, strongly urging him to allow HCEOs (High Court Enforcement Officers) to impose County Court Possession Orders; this should be carried out without landlords having to make further requests to the Courts.
At present the Possession Orders are issued by the County Court which are then carried out by County Court Bailiffs (CCBs), HCEOs can only be involved in the enforcement process if given the go ahead by the court.
Many landlords are being forced to quicken the process by taking possession orders to the High Court and asking for HCEO enforcement, which is decided upon by County Court Judges.
Some cases are turned away and one of the problems is that there seems to be differing rules in many areas throughout the UK when giving the permission for HCEOs involvement. Delays inevitably cost landlords thousands of pounds in lost income.
In a high number of cases, CCBs have such a large workload that they cannot execute Warrants of Possession in an acceptable timescale; this results in landlords having to wait several months before they can retrieve their property.
If enforcement is granted by the High Court it means that HCEOs can exercise the writ and evict the tenants within a matter of days of the landlord receiving a Writ of Possession.
HCEOs can also at the time when obtaining vacant possession of a property issue orders for payment or seizure of goods, to the value of the tenant’s debt.
David Cox is asking Michael Gove to consider that Jurisdiction Orders should be changed to give landlords the freedom of choice in resolving problems, and the route to take which best suits them for evictions and their enforcement.
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