Our Janine Griffiths has again successfully obtained an Order for Possession on behalf of a Landlord following a contested Court Hearing.
The Tenants of the property had failed to make any payment of rent for several months and had previously been served with Notice requiring Possession by the Landlord’s Letting Agents. Unfortunately, as is common in cases of this nature, the Notices served upon the Landlord’s behalf had not been properly drafted and, when the matter reached Court, the Landlord was unable to rely upon the same.
In the circumstances, he instructed our Janine Griffiths to act upon his behalf in order to secure possession of the property.
The substantial rent arrears involved in this matter had caused significant financial difficulty for the Landlord and his family, who had found themselves in the position of paying a large monthly mortgage payment in respect of the property whilst receiving no payment at all from the Tenants. Janine Griffiths therefore took the appropriate steps to serve a Notice requiring possession of the property under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988. She also served a Notice requiring possession under Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. This gave the Landlord some security in that, even if the present arrears were paid off, he could still regain possession of the property in accordance with the Section 21 Notice.
No response having been received from the Tenants the necessary Court proceedings for Possession were prepared and the Court listed the matter for a Possession Hearing which took place a little over two months following the date of service of the Notices.
As a result of the Hearing, the Order for Possession was granted to the Landlord and the Tenants were given two weeks within which to leave the property.
The Landlord was extremely pleased with the result obtained by Janine Griffiths at the Hearing, which included not only an Order for Possession but Judgment for the Landlord in respect of the total arrears of rent, plus his costs of the Possession proceedings.
Janine Griffiths stated that she was delighted to have been able to help this Landlord who had found himself in financial difficulty as a result of the Tenants total disregard of the need to pay rent. Janine said, “this case was of particular significance for me given that the Landlord here was just a family man trying to assist his family by investing in a property to rent out. The Tenants ignored all of our correspondence and documentation and, despite their attendance at the Hearing, were unable to explain their failure to make any rent payment which caused my client significant difficulty over a period of several months. It is of course unfortunate that the Letting Agents, whilst doing their best to assist the Landlord, were unclear of the legalities involved in preparation of the appropriate Notices, which meant that our client suffered financial hardship for several more months than he would otherwise have had to sustain”.