Which Kit?
Home | About | Which kit | A: CCJ for rent arrears | B: Accelerated Procedure | C: Rent Repossession
Which kit?
The following Q&A are designed to help you decide which Landlord-Law kit you should use. Follow the links to see the answers. Note that at present we only have kits available for landlords :
Landlords:
- Do you want to recover possession from your tenant?
- Is your tenant in arrears of rent?
- Do you want to recover possession for some other reason than rent arrears?
- Is there a tenancy agreement?
- Is the tenancy a common law one (i.e. do you live in the same property, or is the tenant a limited company, or is the rent over £100,000 per annum)?
- Has the tenant been living in the property since before 15 January 1989?
- Do you want to evict someone who is not a tenant?
- Do you want to use the courts Possession Claims Online service (“PCOL”)?
- Do you live outside England and Wales?
- Tessa's general advice to landlords seeking possession
Tenants:
- Has your landlord failed to protect your deposit under one of the statutory schemes?
- Has your landlord failed to refund your deposit?
- Has your landlord failed to keep your property in proper repair?
Finally:
All kits are available to Landlord Law +Plus members as part of their membership entitlement. The kit for obtaining a CCJ for rent arrears, kit A is also available to landlord standard members.
Landlords:
Do you want to recover possession from your tenant?
You will need either kit B (which gives instructions for possession claims using the special 'accelerated procedure' based on section 21 notices) or kit B (which is for rent arrears claims or section 21 claims where the accelerated procedure cannot be used). But only if your tenant has an assured shorthold tenancy (kit B), or (kit C) an assured or an assured shorthold tenancy. Landlord-Law members can find out what sort of tenancy they have by following the Tenancy Trail. To find out more about assured shorthold tenancies (and when they occur) Landlords members can read the article >> here.
Note: the section 21 notices referred to in these Q&A are those described in section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, which is the act which regulates most standard tenancies today.
Is your tenant in arrears of rent?
If the arrears are more than two months or eight weeks worth (i.e. if the rent is £500 per month the arrears are at least £1,000) then you can use kit C to recover possession of the property (assuming the tenancy is an assured or an assured shorthold one) together with a money judgement for the rent arrears. If the tenancy is an assured shorthold tenancy then you can also use kit B to obtain possession, as this sort of claim does not have to give a reason. However if you have not served a section 21 notice already this will have to be done first, which will delay the issue of proceedings by at least two months (and sometimes much longer).
Otherwise you can use kit A to get a money judgement for the rent due at the time you issue the claim. Kit A is also appropriate if you do not want to obtain possession for example because the current rent is being paid by Housing Benefit but the tenant has not cleared the pre-existing arrears and you want to get a CCJ (county court judgement), or where tenants have vacated leaving rent arrears due. It can also be used to get a money judgement/CCJ for rent arrears where you are claiming possession using kit B.
Do you want to recover possession for some other reason than rent arrears?
If you have served a section 21 notice or are able to serve a section 21 notice and wait for the notice period (which must be at least 2 months) to expire, use kit B (or kit C if you are not able to use the accelerated procedure). If neither kit B or kit C can be used, we do not have a kit for you at present.
You can only use kit B (and the accelerated possession procedure) for claims for possession under section 21 if a tenancy agreement was given to the tenant at the start of the tenancy. If this was not done, then you can still use the section 21 ground for possession, but you should use kit C.
Is the tenancy a common law one (i.e. do you live in the same property, or is the tenant a limited company, or is the rent over £100,000 per annum)?
We do not yet have a kit for possession which you can use I am afraid. The procedure you will need to use is similar to that set out in kit C, however the notice to be served in advance is different and the court forms will need to be completed slightly differently. Unless you are very familiar with court work, you are advised to take legal advice before going any further. Landlord Law members can read about common law tenancies in the section >> here (landlord members page).
Has the tenant been living in the property since before 15 January 1989?
If so, the tenancy is probably protected under the Rent Act 1988 and it will be very difficult (and sometimes impossible) to obtain possession. You should take legal advice before going any further. For more information about protected tenancies under the Rent Act 1977 landlord Landlord Law members can read our article >> here.
Do you want to evict someone who is not a tenant?
If this person is a lodger in your own home, a possession order is not necessary. Please visit our Lodger Landlord website for more information.
Otherwise you may be able to use our squatters kit. You can read more about this on our separate web-site Evicting Squatters. The squatters kit is principally designed for evicting trespassers/squatters but can also be used (in some circumstances) for guests and lodgers who stay on after tenants have left. The procedure described in this kit can also be used for evicting other licensees (e.g. people renting accommodation on boats), but the kit is not specifically designed for this.
The Squatters kit can also be used to evict travellers camping on land (such as woodland, other open spaces or car parks) without permission.
Do you want to use the courts Possession Claims Online service (“PCOL”)?
Although the Landlord-Law kits are not specifically written for landlords wanting to use the online claims submission procedure, the kits will still be very useful for you if you decide to use this. The only difference between claiming possession via the PCOL service and submitting the claim by post is that the forms are completed in a different way. However the information which needs to go in the forms will not change, the law does not change, and mistakes can still happen.
Even if you feel entirely happy about completing the application forms online, you may still need to go to court and prove your case. This can be tricky and kit C will be of great help to you in preparing for the hearing and guiding you through the various problems which can occur at court.
Do you live outside England and Wales?
You can use the kits, but you will need to have a correspondence address in England or Wales. Be aware that for kit C (and also the squatters kit) you will need to attend a court hearing, for kit A you will have to attend a court hearing if the defendant files a defence, and for kit B you may have to attend a hearing if a defence is filed or the Judge wants to question you about your claim. In most cases it will probably be better for you to instruct local solicitors to act on your behalf.
Tessa's general advice to landlords seeking possession
If you can, use kit B as it is more straightforward, does not normally involve a court hearing, and if the claim is properly founded and you have not made any mistakes in the paperwork, there is normally no defence available to the tenant. This is also the best type of procedure to use to evict tenants who are behaving badly. However for serious rent arrears cases it may not be appropriate to wait until the expiry of a section 21 notice, so kit C should be used.
The court procedure described in kit C is the same as that used for other types of possession claim such as eviction of common law tenants. However the kit is not specifically designed for these types of claims, which will be relying on different legal grounds. For people who are familiar with bringing court claims though, kit C may be helpful so long as you obtain some legal advice as well, in particular on the notices to be served and on completing the court forms. For unusual or complex cases or where you are fairly sure the tenants will defend, it is wise to get some legal advice before issuing proceedings. Remember you may have to pay your tenants legal costs if you lose!
Tenants:
Has your landlord failed to protect your deposit under one of the statutory schemes?
If you are an assured shorthold tenant and you either paid your landlord/agent a damage deposit after 6 April 2007 or you paid a deposit before this and your tenancy agreement was renewed after 6 April 2007, your deposit must be protected under one of the government authorised tenancy deposit protection schemes. If this is not done you can go to court and claim compensation. We do not have a kit at present.
Landlord Law members can find out what sort of tenancy you have by following our Tenancy Trail, and you should do this before taking any action, if you are not sure.
Has your landlord failed to refund your deposit?
AST Tenants seeking the return of deposits paid after the introduction of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme on 6 April 2007 (or for deposits paid before this, where their tenancy was renewed after this date), for example if you have a dispute regarding deductions from the deposit, should use the free arbitration service provided by the tenancy deposit scheme used by your landlord.
Has your landlord failed to keep your property in proper repair?
We do not have a kit for you, but you will find the tenants information on repair issues very helpful. You may be able to find a solicitor who will be prepared to act for you on a no win no fee basis (try our referral service).
For other claims against your landlord, you should first seek legal advice (see general advice below).
Finally:
Bringing a county court claim is a serious matter. It is best to read as much as possible before you start, even if you are thinking of using a solicitor. There is a lot of information on the Landlord Law site which will help you.
You should also read very carefully the information about the different types of procedure to make sure you are using the right one. Remember also that if you use the wrong procedure or make a mistake in your claim, you will probably lose the case, which in some cases may mean that you are ordered to pay your opponents legal costs.
Landlord Law members can ask questions and discuss this on the members discussion forum and in the comments area on the kit home pages.
For straightforward claims you should have no problem acting in person using the kits. However if there is anything unusual about your case it is best to obtain individual legal advice before you start. This can be from a legal charity such as the Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter, a Law Centre, the Landlord-Law advice service, or from a local solicitor (many of whom offer an initial free or fixed fee interview).
Landlord Law members can also ask straightforward questions on the members dicussion forum (alhtough this is not the right place for complex problems), and use the >> Which Possession Proceedings trail.
