eviction

[lilchef4982]

my borthe recieved a phonecall from his landlord stating that they were in court at the end of the month to go for an eviction order. However my brother has never been served an eviction order, although the land lord claims to have a signed copy..is there anyway of getting a copy of this supposedly signed evition notice to take to a solicitors?

many thanks

[Upforit]

Realise that the law is very complicated and that I am not legally trained, and therefore accept no responsibility for action taken on advice given here. I would suppose that if your brother goes to court and states his case, that he has never received an eviction order, the landlord would be required to provide proof that such order was served. That is why bailiffs are used. They are independent, have no interest in the case and serve the order by hand. As for obtaining a signed copy of the order, my opinion is no, since the order does not legally exist. Your brother should take legal advice. If he cannot afford this then there are many organisations, such as the citizen�s advice bureau or even Shelter who would advise and help

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

There are two different documents involved here.

For a landlord to terminate your brother's tenancy, the first stage is that he should have served a 'notice to quit'. This is simply a formal letter from him, to your brother, stating when the tenancy will come to an end. (If the tenancy is a 'rolling' one, the landlord would normally have to give the required notice but not state a reason. Otherwise, in order to terminate a tenancy before it would normally come to an end, the landlord would have to give a reason).

Since the 'notice to quit' is a simple letter from the landlord, the only person who will have a copy of it is the landlord. So, unless he's prepared to provide a copy of it, you can't get hold of one directly, however . . .

If your brother has ignored a notice to quit, the second stage is that the landlord would 'apply for possession' to the County Court. If this happens, the court will write to your brother. The documents which the court sends should outline the landlord's case, so this should effectively reproduce the contents of the notice to quit. It's these court documents which your brother should take to a solicitor.

It's not unusual that a court will first set a date, then write to the tenant. So, if the landlord was present when the date was set, he could well know about it before your brother receives anything in writing.

[Buenchico]

Quote:
"The court may set a hearing date before it writes to inform you that your landlord has started court action. If so the time, date and location of the hearing will be on the front of the court papers you receive. It should normally be at least 28 days after you receive the court papers but no longer than eight weeks after your landlord originally applied to the court"

That quote is taken from the website of the housing charity, Shelter:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-41 19.cfm
While that page explains what a tenant should do upon receipt of the court papers, the whole process would probably make much more sense, both to you and to your brother, if you started from the beginning:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-41 28.cfm

Chris