Possession Order- Forthwith upon service

[jack2uk]

Hi All, I have been going through the courts to gain possession of a room in a house from a non paying tennant, i had my court hearing yesterday and the defendant did not show up (he tried to adjourn hearing but his application was refused as he did not file a defence) anyway the judge gave me possession order and have received an "order for Possession Forthwith upon service of this order upon the defendant" does this mean i can start immediately to apply to the court for a baliff ? if so how long does this procedure take? Will the defendant be able to appeal and do you think he has any chance of success? any help appreciated.

[marmaris30]

Now that you have the Possession Order, the tenant has 14 days to leave of their own accord, so hopefully they will. They could potentially apply to stay the order but they won't get that without a defence, especially if they don't demonstrate that 'exceptional hardship' would occur if evicted within the normal timescale. After 14 days, you can instruct the bailiffs and wait for them (could be a few weeks) to get on with it, although you or an agent would need to be present. Of course, DO NOT be tempted to carry out the eviction yourself or they could hang on forever.

[jack2uk]

Hi Thanks for your reply. The Possession order says "ForthWith upon service of this order upon him" so am i right in saying that this is an immediate Possesion Order? it does not say 14 days and at the court hearing i did ask for Immediate possession order due to the outstanding arrears (12+ months)

[marmaris30]

My apologies, with a Forthwith order, yes you can apply for a Warrant of Execution immediately. You will still have to wait a bit after that though, and the tenant could still intervene if they have grounds to do so, but after 12 months, it doesn't seem likely that they would!

[jack2uk]

Thanks for that, yes i will apply for Baliffs this week. If he had grounds he would have appeared in court, he claims he was ill..... he would have to prove this surely with a doctors note or something.He is persistant and i can't see him giving up too easily but the judge was happy that the Section 21 was served correctly and in plenty of time elapsed before going to court. so hopefully it should be over soon. thanks

[jack2uk]

is it normal for a judge to award an immediate possession order when the defendant does not turn up to the hearing? i thought the judge told me at the hearing it would be 7 days? any thoughts on this appreciated.

[Snorkerz]

For a section 21 (no fault) order you are right that the time given to the tenant is usually 14-42 days. Therefore, I suspect that the tenant may be looked on kindly if they were to apply for a stay of execution. However, that doesn't stop you applying based on the order you have.

 

Don't be suprised if there is a wait of 4-6 weeks for the bailiffs (more in SE). If you need a quicker (but more expensive) solution, see here (not an advert) http://tenancyanswers.ucoz.com/index/bailiffs/0-59