Our grateful thanks to Jo Underwood of Shelter for spotting this.
The N11B Defence form to a section 21 possession claim via form N5B – both released April 2020 – doesn’t add up. Quite literally.
Question 2 of the N11B asks
Do you agree the date, in section 3 of the claim form, when the claimant says the tenancy began?
But section 3 of the N5B says:
Are you (the claimant) asking for an order that the defendant pay the costs of this claim?
Question 3 of the N11B asks
Do you agree with what is said in section 4 of the claim form? Yes
No – say why you disagree with any of the statements made:
But section 4 of the N5B asks
What is the address of the property you are claim possession of? (sic)
Which I suppose might be disagreed with, but not ‘any of the statements made’.
Question 5 of the N11B asks
Do you agree with the rest of what is said in section 5 of the claim form about the s.21 Notice?
Section 5 of the claim form says
Is the property
a dwelling house
part of a dwelling house
So not about the s.21 notice at all.
Question 6 of the defence form asks:
Do you agree that what is said in section 6 of the claim form about licensing of the property is correct?
But section 6 of the claim form says
On what date was the property let to the Defendant by way of a written tenancy agreement?
Licensing is actually at section 11 and 11a of the claim form.
And so on, and on, and on.
This is a serious problem. Neither of the forms – the claim form or the defence form – are straightforward, let alone for use by litigants in person. But the defence form becomes almost unintelligible if the defendant tenant has to search through the claim form for the section that they guess the defence form might be referring to, without any certainty that they’ve got it right.
This needs sorting, and quickly, given the prospect of a lot of section 21 claims in the near future…