The stay on possession claims imposed by CPR 55.29 was due to end on Sunday 23 August. In an extraordinary, after the last minute, step, on 20 August 2020 the Lord Chancellor directed the Master of the Rolls and the Civil Procedure Rules Committee to amend...
N5B or not N5B. That is the question.
I have no idea what is going on here, but the accelerated possession proceedings claim form - form N5B - has vanished from the gov.uk website and has been missing since at least 17 August 2020 - at least for England, the one for Wales is still there. You...
Rent arrears and RROs.
Awad v Hooley CHI/21UD/HMG/2020/0003 5 August 2020 (link to PDF) This is a First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) decision on an application for a Rent Repayment Order (RRO), which unusually deals with the issue of the tenant's rent arrears. Ms Awad was the...
Don’t believe the type – N11B Defence form goes wrong
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...
Yet more new CPR – and no eviction without notice coming soon.
In the excitement last Friday about the Rules laid in Parliament introducing PD 55C, I completely overlooked another set of Rules, also laid last Friday. The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2020, in force as of 17 July 2020, makes changes to the CPR...
Reactivation!
After the mystery of the Rules laid last Friday, we now had the text of Practice Direction 55C, which will come into effect on 23 August 2020 at the end of the Part 55.29 stay of possession proceedings. The text can be read here. The key elements are. This...
Mystery directions
In the evening of Friday 17 July, The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) (Coronavirus) Rules 2020 appeared, having apparently been laid earlier that day. These will come into force on 23 August 2020. What the Rules do is amend the Civil Procedure Rules to add...
Discrimination and ‘No DSS’
As we have seen before, Shelter have been supporting discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010 against letting agents who operate a 'No DSS' policy (meaning a refusal to even consider people claiming housing related benefits - who are often employed...
We don’t do that in Wales
Jarvis v Evans & Anor (2020) EWCA Civ 854 The question for the Court of Appeal on this second appeal was does failing to be licensed under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 prevent a landlord from serving any notice seeking possession, or just a section 21...
I want it all.
Vadamalayan v Stewart and others (2020) UKUT 0183 (LC) The Upper Tribunal (Land Chamber) changes the ground rules on rent repayment orders... Ms Stewart and others were tenants of Mr V. The property was an unlicensed HMO and the tenants had applied for an...
The Electrical Safety Dance
On 1 June 2020, we noted here that The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 had a bit of a quirk. The regulations applied to all ‘new specified tenancies’ from 1 July 2020. But a ‘new specified tenancy’ is...
The Trecarrell Conundrum
Trecarrell House Limited v Rouncefield (2020) EWCA Civ 760 It is fair to say this Court of Appeal decision has been widely and keenly awaited. Unfortunately, for reasons I will explain in my comment at the end, I think it leaves us with a lot of...