COVID-19: Court hearing section 8 vacated

[syrbag]

A court hearing planned for 23 March for rent arrears vacated, tenant 5 months without paying rent, rent paid 2 months in advance. tenant not picking calls and not taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation. anyone in a similar situation and what is the best way to proceed?


'This order is made by the court of its own initiative because of the current COVID-19 Public Health Emergency,
and having regard to the guidance given by Public Health England and Her Majesty’s Government.
IT IS ORDERED THAT:
1. The hearing currently listed on 23 March is vacated.
2. The parties are to consider whether they can reach an agreement. If they can, they should agree the terms of an order and submit a copy signed by all parties for the court’s approval as soon as possible and in any event within 15 April 2020 days of the service of this order upon them. There will be no application fee charged for any consent order made as a consequence of this direction.
3. The proceedings will be re-listed on first available date on or after 19th June 2020 – Date to be fixed by the court.
4. This order has been made without a hearing and any affected by it may apply to the court to vary it or set it aside by sending a notice of application to the Court and other parties within 7 days of service of the Order upon them.'

[jpkeates]

All possession hearings have been suspended for three months.
The idea that you might resolve the situation informally in the meantime is just wishful thinking I guess.

[Stew]

Given that not much can be done court wise re eviction this tenant's issues clearly had nothing to do with Covid could the landlord at least raise a money claims via the online service?

Assuming that the tenant does not have a valid concern with you as a landlord and the eviction would have been granted normally I would personally want to make sure the tenant understands the arrears they are building up would not be forgiven and by staying in the property they are just making the situation worse. I'm not sure people understand the impacts of not paying debts back. Ultimately the tenant cannot get a credit card a mobile phone buy a washing machine on HP it also impacts some employments. They will also get less and less choice regarding lettings in future as more and more landlords ignore people with CCJ's.

Alternatively depending on how much money they owe you could offer to cancel the liability in return for them leaving now but that depends how desperate you are to get back into the house.

I would take a different view if I believed the tenant has significant issues re disability or mental health etc then I would try and provide whatever help I could to get them to a better position and ignore the missing rent....but I would take a very unsympathetic view for someone that just wanted to stay in a property and not pay rent because they felt like it....

All the above is just my personal view and please get a professional view before doing anything that might impact your current application.

All the best Stew.