Nicola Muir works within the Property Litigation team when they act for Landlords of Assured Shorthold Tenancies. This involves recovering possession of the property and/or rental arrears by issuing notices to the tenant and, where necessary, proceeding through county court actions.
The Property Recoveries Department that Chris Annetts worked in deals with tenancy possession proceedings on behalf of landlords. If the landlord’s tenants have not vacated after they have been given sufficient notice, Chris obtained Court Orders granting possession of the property.
The process starts whereby either Chris or the landlord’s managing agents issue a “Notice Seeking Possession” specifying the date the tenants must vacate, and then on expiry of that notice Chris issued a Claim at Court for the Judge to grant a Possession Order.
One such matter Chris worked on required him to seek an order for the tenant to pay the rent back as well as possession, and therefore the Court had to be set the matter down for a hearing. The usual preparation was carried out for the hearing such as drafting a Witness Statement from the landlord, calculating the rent arrears, serving the tenant with the hearing date and proving that the landlord is the owner of the property. Proof of ownership involves printing a copy of the land registry title.
Unfortunately in this particular case the land registry title did not show that the landlord was the owner, which would have caused a problem at the hearing because although the landlord’s name is clearly on the tenancy agreement, if Chris could not prove ownership then the Judge was likely to adjourn the hearing. This would have incurred further costs to the client and therefore Chris was keen to resolve the matter at the hearing that had already been set.
Having taken our client’s instructions Chris was informed that the property was left to him in his mother’s will and had not yet been amended at the land registry. The objective was therefore to make the Court fully aware that the landlord had been left the property in the will. This was explained in the landlord’s witness statement and Chris forwarded a copy of the will to the Court which clearly displayed that the property had been left in his name.
At the hearing the Judge was fully informed as to why the property had not yet been transferred into the landlord’s name on the land registry, and he granted the order for possession together with a money judgment for the rent arrears.