It was the Friday afternoon on the date that the old rules were due to expire, so naturally, as is now utterly traditional, new rules appeared without notice or fanfare.

CPR Practice Direction 55C was updated this afternoon, 29 January 2021, on what was to be the last date for filing a Reactivation Notice before any remaining possession claims were stayed indefinitely (subject to application by form N244, and that application not being one involving relief from sanctions).

As far a I can see, the two changes to PD 55C are:

i) The date for restarting a possession claim that was subject to the stay before 3 August 2020, or restarting a claim in which case management directions had been made before 20 September 2020, by filing a reactivation notice is extended to 30 April 2021. After that date, the claim will automatically stayed (assuming the date isn’t changed again).

ii) the period of validity for PD 55C itself is extended from 28 March 2021 to 30 July 2021.

Why this couldn’t have been done sooner than the last moment, I do not understand. Likewise, the lack of announcement. But at least compaed to some Friday evening changes we’ve had, this is relatively small.

It is also worth noting, if you didn’t already know, that form N244 was itself updated on 20 January 2021 to incorporate the new form of the statement of truth, even if the gov.uk page itself swears the last update was August 2018.