2nd
Jan 2015
Government cuts are causing landlords mounting costs and stress to due courts being affected by the measures, which are unable to cope with increasing numbers of possession claims being filed. Landlords are losing thousands of pounds in unpaid rent and potential income as well as having to "foot" the bill for increased legal costs.
Possession claims are rising by 15% year on year and because the courts and bailiffs are now under resourced in manpower, they are unable to deal with the increase. Ridiculously some courts are delaying the process even longer by insisting that bailiffs can only work in pairs.
The most common occurrence that landlords are now experiencing is if both a possession and bailiff order has been given by the court, then in many cases those tenants are able to place a last minute application, stating that they do not have a further property to move into.
The judge then has to consider whether a further hearing is required and has the power to throw out the application, dependant on the information that has already been given. Many of these applications are not received by the judge as instead, a further hearing date is established.
The landlord is then forced to wait further to be able to rent out the property and receive an income stream and attempt to make up losses, they will also incur higher legal fees. In many cases the applications are just a "staying tactic" and puts an extra timescale of two to three months onto the delayed process.
Richard Merrick of PIMS says: "At times the law can protect the "rent criminals" and honest law abiding citizens suffer losses of thousands of pounds. Be prepared for the annual January "cull" and when agreeing new tenancies always carry out the necessary credit checks.
" All PIMS members receive a number of free credit checks, which in the long term will help save legal costs and revenues."
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