Order for possession

bacchuscook

If someone can share some ideas or experience it would really be appreciated.

I received an Order for possession
(accelerated procedure)
(assured shorthold tenancy)

I received this yesterday, Saturday 26 March.

The date of the letter/order is 23 March

On the 17th March District Judge XXX

1- The defendant (myself) give the claimant possession of xyz property on or before 31 March.
2- The defendant pay bla bla bla bla

Note: This order was made without hearing. Within 14 days of its being served, either party may apply for it to be set aside or varied.


My query is that I just received this on saturday and now got 4 days left to move.... My plan was to move next sunday or the one after (3 or 10 april)

I was expecting it and all, but I thought it was going to be that the 14 days were from the date of receiving the order, give and take a couple of days for post, but not that the decision gets taken on the 17th, letter issued on 23rd ( basically I was not aware all that time that a decision was reached !!!) and then couple of days mail and suddenly left with only 4-5 days out of the 14 days.

Any advice on how to proceed so that I can stay until 3 or 10 april ???

ofcourse if I manage to move first, I will no questions asked, but should no alternative be presented, I will need to stay until the 3rd or 10th of april.
Can only move on a sunday basically....

Thanks everyone

DVardysShadow

To save going down the road of getting answers to half your problem and then you revealing something which moves the goal posts dramatically, would you be so kind as to tell us a little more about how this situation has arisen and why you did not go to court to defend?

bacchuscook

To cut a long story short, the new LL took over from the old LL, issued an S21, and I got the court paper but I called legal aid and told me I was to late to submit a defense, especially that I do not want to challange the eviction. It is just that we got conflicting advice about the legality of the S21, which now it appears to be fully ok and within the law. So no issue there.

I thought and understood that you would only defend if you are challanging the eviction which I am not, I am just waiting for the last date I can stay before moving and thought that I would get 14 days and practically all I got is about 4-5 days.

Is it normal to issue and eviction order and then wait a week before issueing the paper work and then include that time within the 14 days ???

DVardysShadow

I think you have been rather naive. It seems that you had a game plan to ignore the S21 and er... that's it. So when the court papers came you did not defend your position. At that point you could have made a proposal to move out on a certain date and on the whole, with some rudimentary justification, I think you would have had your date upheld.

Your main option now is to apply to the court to have the order varied to a date to suit you. When you do this, I think your justification has to be a lot stronger than it would have been previously - and the time scale will be a lot shorter than you might have managed to get earlier. This is because you appear to have ignored the proceedings altogether - and judges tend not to like being ignored.

G_M

When the new LL issued the S21 you must have received at least 2 months notice - quite possibly more. Then there has been the court hearing, which won't have been instantaneous.

So you have sat back and done nothing about your situation for, what 3? 4? months?

And now you are surprised when you are "suddenly left with only 4-5 days "?

Words fail me.

So does advice I'm afraid. Time to move.

PasturesNew

Give the LL a bell and say "Look mate .... any chance of the 10th?" If you sound genuine/able and reasonable he might go "yeah, all right then".

Or... start packing, you're out on Thursday.

bacchuscook

Thanks everyone, I think, I will be packing, got a storage facility lined up, will just move my stuff and wait until my new place is ready.

And I will call the legal aid I spoke to, tomorrow, and see if they got any other advice.

Pasternew: I got a call from the new LL sec during the week, and she asked if I have found a new place, I said I can only move on a sunday so it should be next sunday if not then one after if, the new place is not ready within this week; and she said ok ( as in she took note of that and she will pass it to the legal department) I just thought it was a normal call while waiting for the court decision and date.

I just did not expect that the decision can be taken by the court and they keep it for a week before sending it out and they count that time as part of the 14 days !!!!!!!!!

As for the others, I do understand your doubts, the reason for the ignoring of the S21 and the court papers was always the conflicting legal advice we got, me and my neighbours(we have been here for over 10 years each, last one moved out today) we all got conflicting info, from S21 having to be issued at a certain date, to "no" it just needs a certain time to have passed. To no need to defend, to others having their solicitor guiding them and they shared very basic info with the rest.

Anyhow, Thank you for those who had usefull advice to give and for the rest who shared their opinion. It helps to see how things can appear to others.