Category: 
January 9 2008Possession Court Hearing
The possession court hearing for my first eviction was scheduled for today at 12pm. I put my suit on and took the following evidence:
Tennancy agreement
Rent received statement
Section 8 notice
Court Possession Hearing letters
I ended up being 8mins late due to traffic and I thought I was going to miss my appointment so whilst driving was cursing all the slow drivers on the way! I even had to park my car on double yellows outside the County Court as I didn’t want to miss my appointment. Luckily the hearing was late as the judge was still in session so I got to move my car into a nearby carpark.
Bad Tenant
When I sat down in the waiting room I could see my tenant but did not make eye contact with them. I felt quite bad as this is finally the day a judge will hopefully ask them to leave. I had to tell myself again, its the tenent that has done me over by not paying me money that they owe me, they owe me money a lot of money. They owe me money and have made no effort to repay any of it. They have been living in MY HOUSE for free, whilst i am paying the mortgage.
After 35min in the waiting room me and my tenent where finally called to see the judge. The court room was surprisingly simple, clean and slightly clinical in feeling. The judge was very friendly and reminded me somewhat of a primary school teacher with big smiles and a very warm personality. He didn’t strike me as a judge dread type of character at all. I felt very comfortable in the courtroom.
My tenant was being represented by the duty solicitor who was very inpersonal and to the point, but i guess that is her job. The judge had not actually had a chance to look over the case files and mentioned that he didn’t have them with him. He asked the duty solicitor to explain the situation which she did. The tenant hadn’t paid rent since May 2007 and had no payment proposal to pay the rent of the arrears. the tenant had been to see the council housing and will go back later today. The judge told us that he had no choice then but to grant possession to me in 14 days. With this information on paper the tenant then would stand a good chance of getting alternative accomodation with the council. The judge also told me that the tenant now has a judgement against them for the arrears (£3600+) but I would need to make seperate arrangements to recover that debt. I doubt I’ll see any of that money again.
I had a little word with my tenant outside of the courtroom and they were still adamant that they would pay me back my money. I arranged to meet them at the property in 14 days to see them out and told them that we can then take it from there. I’m slightly doubious that they will leave that easily.
I’ll report here what happens.
You can read my earlier posts on my first eviction here and here
There are 12 comments
Hunny, he’ll get whats coming to him, just think karma. Just reading about it makes me angry, I can’t believe theres people like this. They just think they can get away with it.
Interesting stuff. I just had a read through your blog for all the news on this tenancy battle. I don’t even see how she had a case in court. Promises like ‘I’ll pay you the money’ won’t even stand in court. She signed an agreement whenever it was to say she’d pay you at specified times. YOU if anything have been super lenient with her, so she should have been thrown out a long time ago.
Would a bank say ‘ok, just pay us when you can’? I think not. They’d have reposessed her house if it was her mortgage!
14 days time, take ‘the boys’ round to clear her stuff out of out YOUR house.
thanks for the support Locksley. I know I have been too soft on her, but I also wanted to do it all by the books so I had to go to court. The fact that its a lady with kids made me a little bit too lenient I think.
I’ve learnt my lesson through this and will be VERY tough on tenants who are even slightly late.
Something needs to be done to protect the tenants right. I am a a lawyer and I really believe that the law its self needs to be change.
Tenant Solicitor,
Sorry but I think you are an idiot.
The tenant gets an appointed duty solicitor at court, you should know this. What needs to be done to protect the tenants rights which are not already in place?
This person has not paid me rent since May 2007 and owes me approx £3600. Why do they still need their rights protecting. I’m doing everything by the book to get them out so that a paying tenant can take their place.
“This person has not paid me rent since May 2007 and owes me approx £3600″
Get those idiots out. If you are forcing them out for no reason, then yes they need protection. But in this case, they are in the wrong.
exactly my point. i’ve been far too soft on them already.
need to remember this is a business i run not a charity.
Hey Dave,
It’s pretty incredible, but this website is extremely similar to mine.
Anyways, I also had to evict a tenant because she wasn’t paying rent. The most annoying aspect was that she was receiving social benefit cheques to pay her rent. Where did the cheques go? I’ll never know, but it sure as hell wasn’t in my pocket.
Fortunately I had rental insurance, so I was covered (minus some admin fees). Also, she moved out when I threatened her with legal action, so I didn’t have to go through the court process.
Good to hear that you won your case, even though it was a no-brainer.
Good luck with your property ventures.
hey PF,
we do seem to share a common interest with property investment, dont we? I’ve got another update for my eviction thread, it has definitely been a learning curve for me.
i like your site your design skills are obviously much better than mine and you’ve done so much more with your site. i was thinking of starting my own forum soon.
good luck wih it all, i’m sure i’ll be visiting your site again soon.
I don’t envy your position, but I hope things work out as painlessly as possible.
It must be difficult to give someone the boot. No one with a heart wants to do that! But as you say, this person owes you heaps of money and in a sense is living off your hard-earned.
As I develop my own business (still a one man band at the moment) I am becoming more and more sympathetic with people such as yourself (landlords, employers, etc).
A similar situation would be the boss of a business being unable to sack an incompetent employee. It always amazes me why people would want to keep a job they’re not good at, and where they’re not wanted. But in many countries the law is skewed in their favour, and the long suffering boss just has to cop it.
Crazy!
its been a pain in a butt and a leaning experience. If anybody wants to do this hands on property course it will set you back 4k and some sleepless nights
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