Court to halt bailiff evictions

Central London County Court, which is based at the Royal Courts of Justice, has recently announced that it has suspended all County Court Bailiff appointments for the foreseeable future. Therefore if your possession claim falls within the jurisdiction of this court, at the moment you cannot get a county court bailiff to carry out your eviction. An official spokesperson for the HMCTS advised ‘The safety of all bailiffs is of paramount importance. We are sourcing bespoke Personal Protective Equipment to ensure that all evictions can go ahead safely and securely’

Possession proceedings have to be issued in the court local to the property, so Landlords do not have the options of issuing those proceedings elsewhere.

It would appear at the moment, that the only option to Landlords, will be to seek permission to transfer up the proceedings to the High Court, to allow them to instruct the High Court Bailiff to carry out the eviction, this will be an additional expense for Landlords.

We would advise Landlords, to attempt to seek permission for the transfer up when they seek their possession order, if the permission is not obtained at this stage an application will need to be made to the court.