Times are hard and many tenants are falling into arrears of rent.
This is tough for them but also tough for landlords who have their own expenses and cannot afford to support non paying tenants.
As they are not getting rent, solicitors fees for eviction work may be out of the question and many landlords bring their own repossession claims – often with the help of my Landlord Law DIY Eviction Guide.
But understandably many landlords are worried about the prospect of having to do the hearing themselves.
For most people courts are scary places and dealing with Judges and court hearings unfamiliar territory.
But now there is a solution.
The Landlord Law Repossession Hearing Advocacy Service
At Landlord Law we can now offer members using our Eviction Kit the chance to have a professional court advocate attend at court with them.
The firm we use for this specialises in eviction hearings and they attend and represent clients in a substantial proportion of all standard eviction hearings in this country.
For example they are used by many solicitors and insurance firms. I used them myself when my firm did eviction work and always got great feedback from clients.
If you are a landlord bringing your own claim using our DIY Eviction Guide, they can now represent YOU for a modest charge (£144 incl VAT).
All advocates have undergone a very tough training regime and are well versed in landlord and tenant law and eviction work.
This makes a DIY solution for eviction a very attractive option as the cost is so much less than using solicitors.
For example a standard rent arrears eviction using my Landlord Law DIY guide and the advocacy service will cost just £240 plus the court fee.
For more information >> click here.
Hopefully I will never need this….
How much notice needs to be given to use the advocacy service?
How could a landlord tell if the tenant will bother to turn up to contest the case?
What could a landlord do in a contested hearing, to get another hearing when they can use the advocacy service?
I will check with the company but they may find it difficult to find an available advocate at very short notice. There is also the question of getting the paperwork over to them and the advocate having sufficient time to read it before the hearing.
You can NEVER tell whether a tenant will turn up or not. Unless you have really strong psychic powers …
I would not advise ever adjourning a possession hearing if you can possibly avoid it. The courts are so stretched it will be months before you get anther hearing date and if your tenant is not paying rent you could lose a lot of money.
Note – on my DIY Eviction Guide I give a LOT of information about what happens at court hearings, the pitfalls to avoid, what you need to say to the Judge etc. Many people have got their possession order just with the kit guidance.
However if a landlord is worried and concerned, the advocacy service is now there for them. Considering how much money you can lose if a case is adjourned, I think £144 is a small price to pay.
It is a real shame that court don’t come down harder on people that put forward a defence at the hearing that they did not put forward in documents before the hearing.
There are a lot of problems with eviction procedure. That is one. Unfortunately landlords just have to take steps to deal with it.
I just heard back from the company about last minute bookings and this is what they said:
The day before will be very dangerous as we may be fully booked. Ideally not less than 5 working days and the longer the better.
If it was the day (or even up to three days) before, they would have to phone us first to see if we could do it and book us manually then follow it up immediately with the online booking.