This month we have been contracted by a landlord of a residential property, who had already obtained a County Court Judgement for the possession of his property against the tenant who failed to pay rent for six months. As this was initially a straightforward matter, we recommended that the landlord transfer to the High Court and thereafter obtain a Writ of Possession, which would allow the landlord to instruct us to evict the tenant.
Once obtained, we advised the tenant that she was due to be evicted under the High Court Writ of Possession. On the morning of the possession, the tenant attended the local County Court and applied for a Stay of the Possession Order. This was granted on the grounds that the Section 21 Notice of Possession had not been served in line with proper procedures, and a further court hearing was granted four days later, allowing the tenant a further five days in the property.
As one would expect, the client was less than happy with this, so we requested that he bring in his entire file of the proceedings so that we may attend at the hearing on his behalf and defend the case on his behalf. Having read the case file, it was clear that proper procedures had not been carried out, there was an issue about when the Sec 21 was handed to the client, no Witness statement had been prepared or lodged with the Court. When asking the client why he had not carried out certain requirements within the possession proceedings, he replied “I wanted to save money and I saw no point in instructing professionals when I could do it.”
Increasing costs
It is all well and good to try and save money, but as the file was not completed properly and certain statements had not been produced as and when required, this case has now cost the landlord a additional 6-8 weeks of unpaid rent, as the tenant will not be evicted within that time, along with which it will now cost the client an extra £1500 to defend what could have been a very straightforward matter, had he sought advice before trying to do the job himself.
The moral of this story is if your house is flooded you call a plumber, an expert in their field, after all when you try to fix it you may cause further issues and additional costs. The same applies to tenancy issues, you can try to do the job yourself, but it is highly likely that you will end up spending more money than you were originally intending to as the experts will have to come in and start the process again.
If you are a landlord and require assistance with evicting tenants from your properties, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our team of professional and certificated bailiffs can help you avoid lengthy court processes and ongoing costs by advising you on the appropriate way to evict troublesome tenants. Speak to a member of our team today by calling 0345 366 0000.
