The Housing Minister has confirmed that the ban on residential evictions in England will continue until 21st February in England. Restrictions in Wales follow largely in the wake of England’s legislative approach.
To be perfectly honest we find the 4 nation approach on a rock the size of the UK unnecessarily confusing and unhelpful. The pandemic has highlighted this time and time again as the UK public try and keep up with announcements from the Prime Minister, senior scientific and medical advisors, and then how the data ends up as policy in their part of the UK.
A renter in Scotland deserves the same treatment as a renter in England, and the same cuts across all the “nations” within the UK.
Government funding must find its way to these folk, as must the ease to register with a GP to be on the list for vaccination. As we have seen time and time again the virus is no respecter of status or geography. What we feel sure everyone can agree on is that a person sleeping rough must receive access to all the services needed to stop transmission and keep them safe.
In relation to the ban on evictions must be right, but an end must be coming in sight as vaccination figures escalate. We are not there yet but its a hope that 6 months was a pipe dream.
So as the reality sets in how the heck are the courts and the county court bailiff departments going to process the enforcement of warrants of control and possession?
Firstly let’s hope that warrants of control over £5000 are not sitting in a pile in a county court because unless that judgment is regulated, it CANNOT be enforced by a county court bailiff.
Next, if a warrant of possession is sitting waiting for enforcement, we would encourage District Judges to accept and be pro-active about moving these warrants to the High Court. The District Judge has the discretion to allow enforcement of these warrants to be moved to the High Court. We ask that if the landlords make
out a case of hardship or other genuine need to transfer a case to the High Court then permission is given.
Finally, as the time ticks round to evictions becoming available we encourage claimants to get their claims into a place where they can transfer them to the High Court for enforcement. We can say from our own knowledge of the enforcement industry that there are hundreds of enforcement agents who want to help. Yes of course they want they work, but it can’t be right to deny access to justice for claimants who have patiently waited for the COVID crisis to come to some sort of closure.