Claim for Possession is Stayed & the Judgement/Order is Confusing - Advice requested

[PaulBBB]

Hello,

I am gradually working my way through the process of seeking possession of my flat after serving a Section 21 Notice, submitting a claim for possession form (N5B ENG) and making a Request for Possession Order. This week I received a General Form of Judgement or Order letter from the Court. My claim has been before a Judge and the claim is stayed for the following reasons:

1) The claim is stayed until the Claimant files a certificate of service confirming re-service on the Defendant of the claim form together with a notice under CPR PD55C Paragraph 6.2 setting out what knowledge the Claimant has as to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the Defendant and their dependants.

When I originally submitted my claim for and supporting docs, I only sent the Court 1 set of papers and they returned it asking for me to send 3 copies, which I did. On both occasions I send copies of the submission to my tenants. Am I right to think that the certificate of service now requested by the Court relates to providing proof of the second time I posted the claim form and supporting information to the tenants? So I need to complete a form N215 and submit this to the Court? Do I have to send them 3 copies? Do I also send a copy to the tenants separately at the same time?

For the Covid Information Notice, in the apparent absence of any template form to do this, can I just type out a few sentences on a piece of paper on what I know about Covid and my tenants? Do I just send this to the Court or the tenants as well? 3 copies to the Court as well?

2) The Claimant has permission to amend the claim form in order in order to insert the wording required under paragraph 17 i.e. "is there any relevant gas fitting (including any gas appliances or installation paperwork) installed in or serving the property.

My flat is 100% electric with no gas, so I answered "no" on the claim form to the question about presence of gas fittings and moved onto the next set of questions. I do not understand what the Judge thinks I should be amending. Could this part of the judgement be an error? Should I try to get the Court or Judge to clarify this? or write to the Court to confirm I completed the form accurately in relation to no gas fittings and have no amendments to make...and I have to send 3 copies of that letter? And a copy to my tenants?

3) The Claimant shall serve the amended claim form and response pack on the Defendant on or before 15th August 2022 and shall file evidence of service with the court".

As stated already I don't understand what to do if I am being told to amend the claim form, when I have already filled it in completely accurately...so can I write to the court the say this? The "response pack" they want, I presume that is all the other paperwork I have already submitted such as EPC, copy of s21 Notice etc - is that correct? I am supposed to be serving the amend form (+ response pack) on the tenants...and filing evidence of service with the Court. So is that another N215 form I need to complete and add to to the paperwork? And am I required to send multiple copies again, of everything x3 to the Courts?

Sorry for the long post...as you can probably tell, I am finding this confusing and tricky to interpret what the best course of action is. I do not want to risk losing the progress I have made so far as it has taken more than 2 years to get to this point since the original s21 Notice was served just before Covid started.

Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks very much,

PB

[Berlingogirl]

If I were you I’d phone the court. My local court is very helpful. They can’t give you legal advice but can explain the forms.

[patray]

Re the COVID question. I just wrote on a separate sheet of paper that I was not aware of any problems the tenant may have had regarding COVID. Signed it and added it to the claim form.

This question isn't asked on the possession form and can catch you out. I only knew about it as I was lucky enough to have read it online somewhere.

[PaulBBB]

patray,

Thanks for your reply. I am leaning towards doing that and adding it to the supporting paperwork for resubmission to the court (x3) and the tenants...

PB

[PaulBBB]

If I were you I’d phone the court. My local court is very helpful. They can’t give you legal advice but can explain the forms.

Thanks for replying - Sounds like you have a good, helpful Court! I have tried contacting mine but they are so difficult to get in touch with. I have phoned repeatedly in the past to try and clarify something earlier on in the court process and the phone will often cut-off before anyone picks up. Have also e-mailed twice in the past few weeks and no responses received.

Although the Judge's Order was dated 24th June, the letter I received was dated 26th July (but received on 1st August) and I only have until 15th August to take the required actions. I don't have any confidence in getting through on the phone or getting a reply to my e-mail in time to help put together my response and meet the deadline...so trying to pull something together with advice from the Forum for submission next week which I hope is good enough to keep things progressing rather than being judged to be out of time.

PB

[Sunshine newbie]

Hopefully some helpful comments.

I dealt with an eviction service and as such emailing the court didn't work, they just didn't bother to respond. However, if you are patience the courts answer the phones about 55 minutes in! They are very knowledgeable and can be extremely helpful. One point on my APO was picked up over the phone, someone had made a human error. Question 17 - no, go straight to 18 - could be their mistake.

Covid statement "to the best of my knowledge the defendant has not been affected mentally, physically, financially or was indeed shielding as a result of Covid". If you tried to speak to your tenant put that in. If the tenant was unresponsive to communication put that in as well.

[PaulBBB]

Sunshine newbie,

Thanks for reading through and responding. My current thinking is that I need to print off, re-sign and re-date everything I already submitted (claim form and supporting paperwork) and this time add in the Covid Statement as suggested.

Also, to try and deal with the query raised about amending my answer on the claim form about the property not having a gas supply, maybe just adding a note there to say the property is 100% electric would help? This revised claim form and all the supporting docs including new Covid statement will then be sent to the tenants so these are served by 15th August. To be sure of meeting this deadline I think I will not have time to try and speak to someone at the Court. The phone will cut off and say it can't connect after only a few rings usually.

I will send 3x copies of everything again to the court and include an additional certificate of service relating to the sending of the claim form and revised "response pack" with Covid statement.

Hopefully this will be sufficient, or if not I will be told by the Court if I have done something wrong and need to amend again or provide further documents.

PB