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Commercial and Residential Property Eviction

What do I need?

In order to evict any persons from a property you will first require an order for possession from either the County Court or the High Court.

Enforcing a Possession Order

A Possession Order (the Order for Possession) is obtained from the County Court or in some circumstances the High Court to evict persons from a property, premises or land.

If you don’t feel confident in doing this then seek professional legal advice. It can easily go wrong and cost you more in the end.

If you don’t know a solicitor, we have a specialist panel of solicitors, some operating on a fixed fee basis. Please feel free to contact us and we will provide details of one near to you.

Once an Order for Possession is obtained you will more than likely need to enforce this as people will not normally leave voluntarily.

When a claimant gets an Order for Possession from the County Court it only entitles them to use County Court bailiffs to enforce the order.

County Court bailiffs work for the local county court. They are inundated with work and under resourced. This makes using them very slow and frustrating for the claimant. If you want to go down this route be prepared for a long wait. To use them contact the court that issued your order for possession.

At times, particularly in London and the south east, there can be a waiting list of 13/20 weeks. Since the pandemic this can be up to 8 months and may be longer.

Should I use the County Court Bailiff or Transfer up to the High Court for a High Court Officer to enforce?

This is usually a personal choice. It should be noted however the county court bailiffs will not usually tackle any very difficult or complex jobs as they do not have the expertise or resources. The first thing we advise you to do is to telephone the County Court that is dealing with your case. You should ask how long the delay will be before the County Court bailiff enforces the warrant of possession. If this acceptable and less than 6 weeks, then this will usually be quicker. The exception to this is where you already have permission to transfer up. If you already have permission to transfer up to the High Court, then usually the court take around 2 weeks to transfer up a Possession Order to a Writ of Possession. Of course, we have no control over the speed of the court and always operate at the mercy of the court.

Cost

The cost of this service is usually fixed at £1381 including Vat (subject to our terms and conditions). This includes the solicitor’s fees for uncontested applications, administration costs, transfer up and Court fees, serving the required notice which must be done by the bailiff and the eviction itself.

Fees and refunds

We require payment up front, which is none refundable, even if the occupier leaves before the eviction takes place. The only time we will refund any part of the fees, is if permission to transfer up is refused. Although permission is usually granted, the Court can refuse to issue permission. In these cases, we cannot be held responsible for permission being refused. The application will have incurred charges, but a partial refund of £690 will be made.

Update June 2023

London Evictions hit Standstill due to County Court Bailiff Safety Concerns

As Covid becomes a thing of the past, wait times to evict tenants looked to be declining, however, this is all set to change for the worse.

London landlords face increased wait times to evict tenants from residential properties due to bailiff operations being suspended indefinitely. A mass email sent from London’s biggest court, the Central London Court, has warned of the suspension of bailiff appointments for the “foreseeable future”.

One bailiff (as reported by LandlordZone) has reported an 80% reduction in caseload, as court bailiffs are being required to use the appropriate PPE to carry out evictions, which they are currently without.

This means even longer wait times for landlords in the London and Southeast areas, which traditionally already have high wait times for those landlords wishing to carry out an eviction.

It is now understood that the problem may be spreading to other parts of the UK, with County Court Bailiffs “downing tools” over safety concerns and a lack of proper equipment.

How can High Court Enforcement Officers help?

While central London court bailiff appointments have been suspended, this does not make eviction impossible. Quality Bailiffs offer an all-inclusive package to evict tenants from a residential property by applying to the High Court for a Writ of Possession including getting the permission.

With the Section 21 soon to be abolished, all landlords will have to resort to a section 8 notice, where they will have to prove ‘grounds for eviction’, a process that will have to go through their local county court. Once an Order of Possession had been obtained and the landlord has got permission to transfer up, Landlords have the option of applying to the High Court, a transfer process that usually takes between four to six weeks. The tenants will then be served a 14 day eviction notice. If they do not leave within this time, an Enforcement Agent will visit the property on the 15th day to evict the tenant.

Enforcing a Writ of Possession

Usually the quickest alternative to get your property back is to use Section 42 of the County Courts Act 1984. This allows for the fast transfer up of the case from the County Court to the High Court for enforcement by a High Court Enforcement Officer under a Writ of Possession.

Private Enforcement Agents (Bailiffs) working under the authority of our High Court Enforcement Officer are then able to enforce the writ quickly.

A new procedure from 23 August 2020 has simplified the procedure. Once you have obtained permission of the court to transfer up we can assist with the transfer process.

Quality Bailiffs via our High Court Enforcement Officer can enforce all writs of possession against Residential and Business tenants, Squatters, Activists and Protestors.

For further information please telephone our advisors now for a quote, before completing the instruction form. Each eviction is unique and has different circumstances which affects the cost of the eviction.

Attending the Eviction

We would normally require you or your representative to attend and sign the writ to confirm you have been given vacant possession.

For safety reasons the attending person must stay a short distance away, and not take any part in the possession.

Limits on fixed fee

With all options, if there are any litigation or defendant applications, these must be dealt with by yourselves or you will have to pay the legal firm at their hourly rate to deal with it. This fixed fee is not applicable to squatters, HMO’s or where serious resistance is encountered. These situations will all require additional resources which we will agree with you before the action is commenced. The fees cover the first 2 hours on site by a bailiff which in 99% of evictions is all this normally takes. Any further time is £90 plus vat per man per hour.

Locksmith

The only other cost would be for the locksmith that the claimant must provide. Please note this must be a properly qualified locksmith.

Instruct Quality Bailiffs

Please telephone the office to discuss the fee options and agree a price to proceed.