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...
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...
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...
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...
Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust Limited v Richens (2020) EWHC 685 (Ch) An appeal of judgment in a possession claim where the status of the occupant was in issue. Mr Richens occupied VAHT’s property. The property had been owned by Aylesbury BC, at...
There is more detail on the stay of possession proceedings that will replace Practice Direction 51Z on 25 June 2020. But first there is an amendment to PD 51Z. The amendment came out today, 11 June 2020 and is effective immediately. Here is the...
SSWP V WT and Redcar and Cleveland BC (HB) (2019) UKUT 372 (AAC) Very late to this one (I missed it) but a brief note on a doomed attempt in the Upper Tribunal to challenge The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Hockley & Anor (2019)...
Late on Friday afternoon, Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, tweeted https://twitter.com/robertjenrick/status/1268937937300922368?s=21 (Update - more on the announcement here) I understand the details are as follows. PD 51Z will be...
London Borough of Hackney v Okoro (2020) EWCA Civ 681 An appeal to the Court of Appeal on the issue of whether appeals of possession orders (or indeed appeals from Part 55 possession proceedings generally) are caught by the Practice Direction 51Z...
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Commons Select Committee has published an interim report on protecting rough sleepers and renters through the Coronavirus pandemic. The key recommendations are: i) on rough sleeping and homelessness,...
Arkin v Marshall (2020) EWCA Civ 620 This is the Court of Appeal judgment in the appellant's challenge to the lawfulness, extent and effect of the stay of Part 55 possession proceedings until 25 June 2020 under Practice Direction 51Z. The short...
According to this Inside Housing report of a Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee meeting today (4 May), the Housing Minister Robert Jenrick announced prospective measures to avoid a deluge of eviction proceedings at the...