Am I liable for court costs if I left before possession order

squizz11

steampowered said:

macman said:

If I understand correctly, you didn't supply a forwarding address, so the LL served to your last known address, which is all they are required to do. No grounds there for a set-aside.

The Civil Procedure Rules say that "where a claimant has reason to believe that the address of the defendant referred to in entries 1, 2 or 3 in the table in paragraph (2) is an address at which the defendant no longer resides or carries on business, the claimant must take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of the defendant’s current residence or place of business".

If the LL served proceedings on the previous address knowing that the Defendant was not resident there, and cannot prove that they made every attempt to contact the Defendant and find out the correct address, that is not valid service and is absolutely grounds for a set aside.

Claimants can't just serve proceedings where you know someone won't get them on a technicality and expect to get away with it!

Obviously not guaranteed and you have to apply for it, but grounds nevertheless.

And even if proceedings were validly served, courts still regularly grant set asides.

I actually did supply a forwarding address,  they asked for one where notices could be sent at the beginning of the tenancy.   I gave them a neighbours address as I see her 3 times a week.
if I contact the court it tells them I recieved the letter,   doesn't that invalidate the wrong address claim?  I got it via royal mail holding my post whilst changing address

saajan_12

penners324 said:

Sounds like you respond to court saying the possession order was frivolous as you'd moved out as per your correspondence to the landlord.

That doesn't mean the application was frivolous, as the OP may have been in occupation at that time, with no confirmed move out date. The court costs are incurred at the stage of application. The possession order itself is likely irrelevant if the tenancy has been ended. 

steampowered said:

macman said:

If I understand correctly, you didn't supply a forwarding address, so the LL served to your last known address, which is all they are required to do. No grounds there for a set-aside.

The Civil Procedure Rules say that "where a claimant has reason to believe that the address of the defendant referred to in entries 1, 2 or 3 in the table in paragraph (2) is an address at which the defendant no longer resides or carries on business, the claimant must take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of the defendant’s current residence or place of business".

If the LL served proceedings on the previous address knowing that the Defendant was not resident there, and cannot prove that they made every attempt to contact the Defendant and find out the correct address, that is not valid service and is absolutely grounds for a set aside.

Claimants can't just serve proceedings where you know someone won't get them on a technicality and expect to get away with it!

Obviously not guaranteed and you have to apply for it, but grounds nevertheless.

And even if proceedings were validly served, courts still regularly grant set asides.

That's still a big IF.. the initial possession order application would have been made when the OP was still resident, so the rental property address is reasonable. Its not clear when things progressed and who should have updated this. 

Second question is what would the set aside achieve.. even if the possession order was stalled, the OP is already out. The question affecting OP is whether the initial filing fee was valid and claimable, which may not be affected. 

Gycraig

464 sounds about fair tbh. Why is he trying to keep the deposit though ?.

just tell him to take the 464 out of your deposit and move on with your life honestly it’s not worth the stress you will go through to probably not get anywhere in the end. 

Dispute the deposit with the scheme they back the tenant the vast majority of the time unless you have wrecked the house ? 

squizz11

saajan_12 said:

penners324 said:

Sounds like you respond to court saying the possession order was frivolous as you'd moved out as per your correspondence to the landlord.

That doesn't mean the application was frivolous, as the OP may have been in occupation at that time, with no confirmed move out date. The court costs are incurred at the stage of application. The possession order itself is likely irrelevant if the tenancy has been ended. 

steampowered said:

macman said:

If I understand correctly, you didn't supply a forwarding address, so the LL served to your last known address, which is all they are required to do. No grounds there for a set-aside.

The Civil Procedure Rules say that "where a claimant has reason to believe that the address of the defendant referred to in entries 1, 2 or 3 in the table in paragraph (2) is an address at which the defendant no longer resides or carries on business, the claimant must take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of the defendant’s current residence or place of business".

If the LL served proceedings on the previous address knowing that the Defendant was not resident there, and cannot prove that they made every attempt to contact the Defendant and find out the correct address, that is not valid service and is absolutely grounds for a set aside.

Claimants can't just serve proceedings where you know someone won't get them on a technicality and expect to get away with it!

Obviously not guaranteed and you have to apply for it, but grounds nevertheless.

And even if proceedings were validly served, courts still regularly grant set asides.

That's still a big IF.. the initial possession order application would have been made when the OP was still resident, so the rental property address is reasonable. Its not clear when things progressed and who should have updated this. 

Second question is what would the set aside achieve.. even if the possession order was stalled, the OP is already out. The question affecting OP is whether the initial filing fee was valid and claimable, which may not be affected. 

I know he legally had a right to do it,   but he also knew there were no houses coming on to the market,   and I found somewhere 2 weeks after the eviction notice was up, I've had to move miles away and my costs have been huge due to rent costs going up massively in a very short space of time.   if he told me he was going to do that,   I would have asked for a little extra time.   its been a tough year losing my husband the way I did and 2 evictions in that year has taken its toll,   feels like a load of knives twisted in my back for good measure.    I even offered to pay his extra interest for more time,   my extra costs so far are £6000, £4000 extra in rent for the year plus my moving costs.   

B