The current possession process involves many requirements that landlords must follow in order to firstly, serve a valid notice seeking possession and secondly, obtain a possession order.
This blog deals with the steps that landlords can take ahead of serving a notice seeking possession to ensure that the notice is valid, any claim for possession is successful and what to be aware of:
1. Make sure you have all your tenancy documents in order. Many landlords do not retain historical documents such as previous tenancy agreements or annual gas certificates. To be successful with a claim for possession, landlords must provide copies of all the required documents from the first time that specific tenant(s) occupied the property.
The documents that should be collated are copies of all tenancy agreements, copies of all the annual gas safety certificates, the energy performance certificate, the electrical installation condition report, the deposit certificate, the deposit prescribed information and the Government how to rent guide.
2. Ensure that the documents have been correctly served before serving any notice seeking possession. If your tenancy agreement does not contain a specific clause to authorise the tenancy documents to be served electronically i.e., by email, all documents must be served in hard copy. These can be served via first class post or hand delivery and evidence of service should be retained.
3. Aside from the above required documents, landlords should also keep a comprehensive repair log that details any repairs that have been reported to the landlord and/or their agent, what work has been done to remedy the issue and when the repair was resolved. All landlords should also keep a rent log to show when the rent is due, what was paid/not paid, and an accumulative total of arrears (if applicable).
4. Check if you have landlords legal expense insurance. Most landlords insurance providers now offer legal expense insurance to assist landlords with seeking possession of their property. If a landlord does have insurance in place for this, your insurer may fund your claim for possession on your behalf.
5. Be prepared for the process to take time. We understand that seeking possession of your property is usually for a specific reason which is typically pressing. However, the possession process is not a quick fix regardless of which route to possession is taken i.e., no fault eviction or fault eviction. At Stephensons, we aim to process your claim for possession as quickly as possible however, courts nationally currently have a back log of possession work, and many elements of the process are delayed longer than usual.
Should you need advice on how to serve tenancy documents, queries about any missing documents you may have or to instruct us to assist you with issuing possession proceedings, please contact our residential landlord specialists on 0161 696 6170.
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