Possession Claim On Line (PCOL)- help re procedure

[rizwany84]

Pcol

Hi

I just submitted a PCOL (31-12-2009). As soon as I paid I received a date and time for the hearing (08-02-2010). Possession is claimed under Ground 8, 10 and 11 of Schedule 2 Housing Act 1988 as amended by Housing Act 1996.

1. Apart from the date and time of the hearing does the defendant have to do anything, or fill in any paperwork?

2. Do I have to submit any paperwork before the hearing or do anything else?

Many thanks in advance.

[Poppy35]

nope they get given the opportunity to file a defence before the date and copies of this will get sent to you.

Take ALL your paperwork with you to court includings copies of AST, letters, deposit protection, gas certs etc - i always take the whole file then if the DJ asks for something I have it to hand.

[excalibur]

2. Do I have to submit any paperwork before the hearing or do anything else?

The way I did it a few month ago, as advised by some LLZ members, was sending Court and tenants a 'bundle' pack with a witness statement that documents the steps that led to the claim, copies of all relevant paperwork inc. AST, statement of rental account, letters/email to and from tenant etc., S8 notice & proof of posting/notice of service; all clearly labelled as exhibit 1,2.... etc., as referred to in the witness statement.

Just make sure, if you do so, to file the pack in time , and also serve tenants their own copies of everything (at least two working days before the hearing)


Good luck with it all!

[Moderator1]

Several threads on the same topic have been merged here.

[axil23]

2. Put "Rent arrears. Total accumulated £x at (date). Possession is claimed under Ground 8, 10 and/or 11 of Schedule 2 Housing Act 1988 as amended by Housing Act 1996. Arrears represent x months. Also, persistent delay in rent payments. (I nearly lost a case for a client when the solicitor for the tenant pointed out that this was not mentioned in the claim).

Hi all - I have just come across this site. Did 2 PCOL's last week and in part 2 I just put in "Total accumulated arrears: £ 1840.00 ,Reason For Possession: Rent of £1,840 remains unpaid and therefore the
defendant is in excess of two months or eight weeks in arrears." as that is what I was advised by a friend who did a PCOL and successfully got possession.

So your advise is that it needs to be the exact same legal term as used by Lawyers? What should I do? Can I amend this somehow? The hearing is June first week.

[jeffrey]

There is no prescribed form of wording in describing the unpaid rent- but AVOID the word 'arrears' as it's wholly inapplicable to a case in which rent is payable weekly/fortnightly/monthly.

[axil23]

Ok. I can avoid it in the future. You think that this could cause problems for my current two claims?

[jeffrey]

It might, due to the wording of ground 8.
See post #51 on http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums...eference/page2

[axil23]

What do you suggest? Is there a way I can modify the PCOL claim? Like I mentioned the court date is in 3 weeks.

[jeffrey]

I do not handle litigation, so I do not know. I suppose that you could ask the Court staff.

[axil23]

I do not handle litigation, so I do not know. I suppose that you could ask the Court staff.

Will do and update here. Thanks