Are more landlords switching to High Court enforcement?

Are more landlords switching to High Court enforcement?

9:43 AM, 2nd February 2017, About 7 years ago 2

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The July to September 2016 landlord possessions data from the Ministry of Justice continues to show an extremely long delay for the enforcement of possessions orders by County Court Bailiffs (CCBs).

The average time from claim to repossession in this quarter was 42.5 weeks, 1.2 weeks longer than the same period in 2013.

The time from possession order to actual repossession by a CCB is 32.2 weeks.

Most landlords cannot afford to wait this long, which is why they are increasingly turning to High Court Enforcement Officers (HCEOs) to evict residential tenants under a High Court writ of possession.

The Ministry of Justice does not publish any data on how many landlord possessions are carried out by an HCEO, but looking at this latest data, I think we may be seeing a switch from CCB to HCEO.

Possession actions have decreased since the same quarter 2015 – in fact there has been a year-on-year decrease since 2013 – with the following data published:
– 34,414 landlord possession claims – down 11%
– 26,157 orders for possession – down 10%
– 18,450 warrants of possession – down 8%
– 9,689 repossessions by county court bailiffs – down 14%

So CCB repossessions are down 14% compare to the same quarter 2015 and 11% compared to the previous quarter 2016 (seasonally adjusted). Yet landlord possession orders were only down 10% and 5% respectively.

Is it possible that, not only are possession orders down, but also that CCBs are enforcing a smaller percentage because increasing numbers of landlords are instructing HCEOs to evict their tenants?

Contact The Sheriffs Office


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Comments

Gary Dully

17:22 PM, 4th February 2017, About 7 years ago

Possession orders are down, primarily I would suggest, because Landlords that don't know how to evict are decreasing in numbers, tenants are being vetted better first, management is improving and rent some are becoming more affordable.

Oh no, I've just remembered what it is now,

The court fees have sky rocketed and tenants are being squeezed out of tenancies by smarter tactics from landlords, than going down the nightmare of the court proceedings and enforcement money factory for the government and bailiff services.

In addition the tenants on benefits, many of which fall into arrears and become evicted, are being squeezed out of the Private Rented Sector and after APRIL 6th, won't get a sniff at anything but the worse that the PRS has to offer via rogue landlords, thanks to Section 24.

Gareth Wilson

18:46 PM, 5th February 2017, About 7 years ago

The County Court System is a cesspit of laziness, evidence mishandling and rude, obnoxious, ignoramous judges, who are often devoid of all concept of public service and actively empower the guilty defendants of civil cases to full-blown criminality, through their combined inability to enforce and brazen contempt (usually expressed by default in hearings prior to any consultation of the evidence) for members of the tax paying public for daring to seek legal redress in the first place.

It is therefore imperative that all claims are upgraded to the high court stream as soon as possible to be enforced by HCEOs with a basic sense of customer service, manners and incentive to do their actual job.

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