People getting evicted -can't pay

[Iamnotloobrushphobic]

I'm sat here watching can't pay we'll take it away and every time I watch this I get really annoyed that people can be evicted on the spot with no prior notice if the landlord gets an order from the high court.
Some of the people in previous episodes haven't even been in rent arrears, it has simply been the landlords wanting their property back for numerous reasons.
I have been a landlord and had quite possibly the worst tenants ever - they stopped paying rent and threatened to burn down the property but I couldn't put the children on the street with zero notification that it would be happening that day.
How do people live with themselves knowing that they have sent high court enforcement agents to people's homes and given them just an hour to pack and leave? I can actually understand it in cases where the tenants just don't want to pay / are deliberately damaging the property (even though I would still struggle to go it myself) but many of those being evicted haven't done anything wrong (some have).

Right, according to the law gazette the high court do not need to give the tenant notice if the date they will be evicted
www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/benchmarks/residential-possession-speedy-eviction/5039581.fullarticle

According to that article the tenants who are being evicted as the result of a high court possession order won't necessarily be expecting the 'bailiffs' on that given day as they will be unaware that a possession order has been granted from the high court. So whilst the tenant might have been aware of the county court proceedings which require notification to be given of the eviction date they wont have that same info if it has gone through the high court and they will still be waiting on a date from the county court.

its not just about taking back houses, its about chasing debts to companies too and evicting business people.

A lot of the time the women are on their own with children and they call the boyfriend to help out when the baliffs arrive, but the boyfriend dosent help find them a place to live or pay their rent. Its hard on councils they are expected to help everyone with little resources. There are so many single people who need help. Nobody seems to do it the old way now. No idea what the answer is!

As soon as the business people realise they are going to take goods they pay up just trying it on. Its not a job I would like thing you have to be a certain type of person and as they say keep calm they seem to handle the evictions well and the police always seem to turn up to help.

How much notice should tenants be given. When ballifs come round the landlord has reached the end of a very long road.

It is a long drawn out process getting an eviction and I can't see how tenants can't know. If you are fighting an eviction then it's up to the tenant to turn up in court and put forward their case. They will be sent a summons by recorded delivery so will know that they know they are at risk of eviction.

Evicting children is horrible, but it's the parents fault not the landlord. I have to admit that I was glad that the three year old son of my nightmare tenants was taken into care by social services before I evicted the parents. I didn't need to use ballifs because the boy's mother was carted off to prison for stabbing her boyfriend and the boyfriend did a runner.

I had to go to court because the woman in prison refused to sign the form to allow mutual surrender of tenancy. The eviction was granted by the judge in about 2 minutes as tenants had no representatives.

You can't get an eviction on a whim.

If tenants were told precisely the day the ballifs were coming they would barricade themselves in and possibly get their mates to help. Sending in ballifs is a bit like going to war. You need the element of surprise when you launch an attack to conquer your property.

Tenants get shit loads of notice. It doesn't just happen overnight and whoops someones trying to evict you out of a property you have failed to pay for for months on end.

A landlord cannot apply for eviction without certain conditions being met i.e. Rent 2 months in arrears and they have to issue the right notices. The tenant is summoned to court with a letter delivered by recorded delivery. There is a court case and the tenant has the opportunity to argue their case. If the judge agrees to evict the tenants a leaving date is set two months after the court judgement. If the tenants have not left by then the landlord then had to reapply to the court to send in the ballif.

I feel that tenants who ignore county court judgements telling them to leave should face criminal charges. Maybe they should be made to do community service. A county court judgement should be obeyed.

Councils should rehouse tenants once a county court judgement has been made. Tenants should not be required to wait for ballifs to turf them out.

feel that tenants who ignore county court judgements telling them to leave should face criminal charges. Maybe they should be made to do community service. A county court judgement should be obeyed.

Quite often it is the council that tell them not to move out. If the tenant moves out before the date given on a repossession order they will not be entitled to any emergency accommodation from the council as the council deems them to be intentionally homeless. Most people will look for somewhere else to live if they know the landlord wants them out but if they are unable to find anywhere to live then they have no choice but to stay put until the date given on a repossession order. In cases where the landlord has gone to the high court the tenant will not get the high court repossession order until the day that the enforcement agents turn up on their doorstep to evict them (as explained in my law gazette link above) so what do you expect the tenant to do?
No sane person is going to move out knowing that they have nowhere for their children to sleep and that the council won't give them emergency accommodation because they left the property before being forced to leave.

I have less sympathy for people who could pay their rent but choose not to do so but many cases involve benefit cock ups and redundancy and landlords wanting to sell. Not everyone on the programme is behind with their rent.

Y'all should watch Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords.
It shows both sides of the coin, some tenants are a real nightmare and just refuse to pay rent, leaving the landlord £1000s in debt and, like the last episode, the landlord had to sleep on a friend's ofa because she couldn't afford to house herself.
Equally, some landlords are terrible and let the properties out in shocking condition.

" In cases where the landlord has gone to the high court the tenant will not get the high court repossession order until the day that the enforcement agents turn up on their doorstep to evict them (as explained in my law gazette link above) so what do you expect the tenant to do? "

I don't think you have a clue how evictions work. The tenant has the opportunity to attend court. If they are evicted then they are given a letter saying that the court judgement means they have to leave by x date. The ballifs are only called in if they have disobeyed the court order. It is an absolute last resort.

It is wrong that councils tell tenants to wait until x date. It is encouraging people to ignore the county court judgement and simply prolonging the inevitable. I feel that tenants and landlords should obey the law of the land and the courts without having to resort to ballifs.

As I said earlier, those who have contempt for the court's judgement should be punished, otherwise the whole thing becomes a joke.

reallytired have you looked into the high court procedure? As detailed in my law gazette link the tenant does not need to be informed about the case going to the high court. The tenant will have had the opportunity to attend the county court and will receive dates etc in advance but that isn't the case if the landlord makes an application in the high court. I posted the law gazette link but there are other sources on the web explaining the same thing.

The real problem here is councils and courts leading tenants to believe that if they don't leave the property on the date the court orders then county court bailiffs will be jnstructed. These bailiffs always take a few weeks at least to show up AND write letting the tenant know the date and time.

Problem is, a motivated landlord who is willing to pay the quite high cost of a high court bailiff might instruct them instead. They don't give notice of their arrival and will just show up unanounced.

While it's not unfair that the tenants are being evicted - there will have been a very long process before they get to this point - no one, but no one, should EVER be forced to leave their home without knowing exactly the day and hour that it's going to happen.

The law should be changed so that HCB's have to give at least 24/48 hours notice. It's ambush otherwise and that cannot be fair.

ReallyTired By staying until bailiffs show up, tenants ARE obeying the law. They have that right and they are exercising it.

If you have a problem with that, I cannot imagine why. I suppose you are of the rather ignorant and unpleasant opinion that rights enshrined in law should not be exercised?

How horrible to talk about "punishing people" who are about to lose their damn HOMES.

Hope it never happens to you. And if it does I hope that people are a bit more compassionate that you're prepared to be, ffs.

2 months is not long to get together deposit and fees for a new place if you live month to month.
Even if you have a better income, if you have a string of bad luck with landlords selling up, it eats your savings away.

Seeyou- we watch that,it really shows the other side of the coin doesn't it?!

They get loads of notice, I'm stunned at how much notice they get,it's not done over night.

I don't believe that it's ever completely unexpected. Tenants ALWAYS know that an eviction is looming and that they will have to get out, it's just that Councils misinform them by telling them it will take weeks rather than being immediate if escalated to the High Court.

I've seen this programme too and most often the situation has dragged on for months if not years and the landlords are at the end of their tether.

The tenants don't always know. I saw one where the owner had not been paying his mortgage - he'd neglected to tell his tenants. Another where there had been sub-letting.

The law should be changed so that HCB's have to give at least 24/48 hours notice. It's ambush otherwise and that cannot be fair.

But that would allow bad tenants to wreck the house before they leave. It seems to me that for most LLs in the series it's a last resort after exhausting all other avenues. One poor woman gave up her job and rented out her house while she went to care for her dying mother. The tenant paid nothing for 10 months and the rent was going to be the LL's only income.

Some deserve all they get, frankly.

There is a difference between being given "loads of notice" and notice that says "You will be evicted from your home on xyz date at xyz time".

If a high court bailiff is instructed the tenant never, ever gets any information on the day and time that they have to leave. Why do people think this is OK?

Rider They've had months to wreck the home if they wanted to.

Some deserve all they get. Sure. But some don't.

Some people are evicted because a LL wants to sell, the council has a duty to house them, and tells them to stay put....so they do....and then they chucked out without knowing exactly when?

That's OK with you? I think your attitude stinks.

In fact, the problem lies with the COuncils, not the bailiffs and the Courts.

If Councils changed their policies to accept the first notice of impending eviction as proof enough to rehouse someone, then all the drama over High Court officers turning up unannounced could be avoided as the tenants would have been out months before. (Although quite why a council should be obliged to rehouse adults who have trashed a property and not paid any rent is another debate).

Yes it's the tenants' home, but the cards are completely stacked against the landlord. It costs them a bloody fortune to get tenants out and then they have to go through courts again to recover unpaid rent. Most landlords aren't living in multi million pound properties, they are just ordinary people letting out their granny's old house.

For the pitchfork wavers.....the laws exist as they do to protect the innocent.

If you want to curtail the laws to spite scumbags then innocent people will be vulnerable. But that's OK....fuck 'em.

David Cameron would be so proud of you.

It doesn't sound like there is a way that would universally be fair to both landlords and tenants. It seems harsh to have no notice of the exact day but it is also harsh on the landlord that the county court action (which will itself have followed a period of notice) has been ignored. There is no need for additional legal punishment for ignoring the county court ruling - the no-notice eviction from the high court is effectively the punishment in itself.

Evictions generally happen for very good reasons eg. criminal activities on the tenants' part. As a LL this is very rare indeed.

I've personally been in a situation where a tenant wouldn't let me in to do work on the place, knowing I was only at home until the day after
he left. Tenant disappeared for a week and a half.

It's incredibly frustrating to lose control of your own property. These people are very sure of 'their rights' -good to see courts standing up for landlords. If they really have an hour's notice that's regrettable, but it seems unlikely.