Sally M
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We issued a section 21 to our tenants in August last year, complied with all the requirements and since our tenants did not comply went on submit a N5B which was served on 5/12/20. We requested an accelerated possession order on 11/01/20 and have today received a notice that the case will proceed to a substantive hearing. The reasons given are that a) there are two claimants on the original form and only one on the tenancy agreement - I've checked and this is true, because we are a married couple with the same surname and the flat is in both our names, I missed the detail that only my husband had been asked to sign the tenancy agreement. b) Why documents have been returned to the court.
It looks like we have made mistake somewhere in the paperwork, but the tenants have now stopped paying rent and we urgently need to sell the property and cannot do so without vacant possession. The hearing date is 24/08/21.
I would like to find out what the problem is and rectify it if possible to avoid the hearing. I am worried that we will wait two months, be told its an admin error and have to start the process - which has so far taken 12 months again.
Can you advise if this is possible and whether we can do it ourselves, or if we should ask a lawyer to write to the court requesting what we have missed and what we need to do. If we wait for the hearing, even if our case is granted, we will have to wait at least 6 weeks until the tenants have to leave, which takes us into October.
Also, should we have legal representation at the hearing? We have discussed helping to find the tenants alternative accomodation, but they are waiting for the council to provide them with housing, as they cannot now afford either our rent, or the rent of an equivalent property in the area.
What should we do?
