Bailiffs are our last resort

jillconey

I’ve just returned from court. The tenants didn’t attend  as “very short notice”.  Basically the judge clearly wanted to evict today and stated as much but the wording if the breathing space is very badly written and it took over an hour for her and our barrister to untangle and form agreements. It was eventually decided that the money side would have to stay it breathing space but we could evict as we believe they may have left our night. Breathing space states never can be done to the detriment of debtor (laughable).
so baliffs were instructed to evict today and I raced down to house where my sister was waiting. Last time baliffs appeared after 5 mins but after 20 mins I rang court. To be told that breathing space was still in place!  I said not it’s not, please fund the judge or my barrister.  Telephoned my solicitor and she had been told the same so we raced back up to court, we’re I was told by clerk my solicitor would call me to explain but nothing was happening today.  It seems judge was very apologetic but a mistake had been made on order and crossed wires so baliffs couldn’t attend today. Dog handler had been paid for extra hour but had to leave for another booking,
solicitor has the telephone number of baliff manager and have been told they will expedite it. 

I’m absolutely shattered. My head is banging. Today has cost £2212 and that is with barrister reducing her fees due “to these vile people “ and we are no further  forward. 

jillconey

Apologies for bad grammar again. I’ve so any people to update and just want to cry

TimSynths

jillconey said:

Apologies for bad grammar again. I’ve so any people to update and just want to cry

Nothing to apologise for, everyone is rooting for you and your sister.

elsien

So sorry it’s turned out to be such a mess today. Can’t imagine how you must be feeling.

If it’s a mistake on the order, can they not just put that right without you having to go back to court, now that your barrister has already had that debate with the judge? I guess unfortunately you need to wait for the update but it does seem like you are very nearly there at last. 

diystarter7

Sorry  about that OP but I felt something like this would happen jusging by what was in your posts

This does not help you but I urge all LL's to obtain legal and rental cover as there are other
nasty T's out there that will take you for a ride and sadly some LL's lose everything inc their health
Also get a proper, binding AST agreement - this is why we always use a good LA inc leagal cover etc -
we have never needed it as we are fussy who we rent out to but you never know. Having
said that, just like the OP, if T's were in genuine trouble, we would help as much as possible


Just shows what I have always said the law in big favor of the T's

Trust me OP, the next hearing, you will get a result.

deannagone

I don't think the law favours tenants generally.  Unfortunately there are tenants (the 'professional' sort) who know how to use the law as it is in their favour.

Having been a tenant, and not been able to get a LL to stop harrassing me, replace a boiler that was broken more often than it worked, had to replace a mouldy bathroom.. I could say the law is in favour of LL's.  Its not really, its just there are also 'professional' LL's who know how to run rings around tenancy law.

But I have total sympathy with the OP.  I hope the tenants are out soon.  Very soon.  Sorry the mistake the judge made cost yet more money.

Sunsaru

It's nearly over, just hang in there. Sending virtual hugs x

YoungBlueEyes

I've nothing expert or useful to say, but I'm rooting for you and your sister and hope it gets resolved soon. It's a horrendous thing to be going through, and at such a bad time too.

And I hope that the tenants get their just desserts asap!

You can always come on here and rant pure gibberish and people will be here for you. Plenty of us have lost fathers, and plenty of people know the tenant/LL side, so whichever issue is chewing you there'll be someone here who's got you  

EssexHebridean

YoungBlueEyes said:

I've nothing expert or useful to say, but I'm rooting for you and your sister and hope it gets resolved soon. It's a horrendous thing to be going through, and at such a bad time too.

And I hope that the tenants get their just desserts asap!

You can always come on here and rant pure gibberish and people will be here for you. Plenty of us have lost fathers, and plenty of people know the tenant/LL side, so whichever issue is chewing you there'll be someone here who's got you  

This is beautifully put! Another here hoping that karma does its thing as far as the tenants are concerned, too! 

jillconey

Update. So yesterday morning was awful. I didn’t update as didn’t want to jinx it. Solicitor phoned court and baliffs. Baliffs said due to holiday etc can’t come out until 28th March. Solicitor said not good enough. Spoke to judge , who went ballistic apparently. Baliff manager didn’t return calls and then in meeting. Then solicitor in meeting.   

Apparently our barrister was furious and has written a letter of complaint pro bona. She also wrote a long letter for us to send to Stepchage and talked about  “by my calculations the clients have until tomorrow to request a review of the moratorium “. This being today now
im not entirely sure what this means? Retreading it are we the clients or the tenants?  And I didn’t know what moratorium meant but google says “ a legal authorisation to debtors to postpone payment “
so eventually solicitor phoned with date , judge has squashed the notice period to two days , so was set for Monday 13th
But at 4.55 pm my sister received an email that reads “the information you have provided has been considered and a decision has been made not to uphold your request for a review. The debt won’t be removed and our clients breathing space will remain active until 18th”
Both my sister and I have gone into meltdown. Does this mean the baliffs can’t go in on Monday?? Solicitor left office.  Does it mean the tenants had until today to appeal?   Re reading it I think maybe we are the clients (?) and we had until today to lift the money side (?). Am I panicking unnecessarily? I’m not ashamed to say I just don’t understand and I’m worried it’s all fallen apart again. Any one with an understanding of the law ou there ?