With court eviction proceeding delays of up to a year in parts of the country, agents are being encouraged to make their voices heard on possible reforms.

The High Court Enforcement Officers Association (HCEOA) – backed by Propertymark and the National Residential Landlords Association – wants agents to share their experiences of deadline problems with the courts. 

The High Court Enforcement Officers Association is calling for the courts to make it easier to transfer possession claims to the High Court, where enforcement is usually faster.

The association is conducting a survey to get ‘real world comments’ on the challenges and delays faced around the country to add weight to the argument. 

The data and evidence collected will be shared with the Government to show the scale of the problem agents and landlords are facing and to demonstrate how they are being unfairly affected by delays in the County Court system. 

Announcing the campaign NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “There are landlords across the country who have waited months to have an eviction order granted by a judge who will be forced to wait several more months for an eviction date from over-worked and under-resourced County Court bailiffs. All this time landlords are losing money through lost rent which is no fault of their own. It is an unfair, unacceptable situation for all of these individuals.” 

The call to action comes just weeks after landlords struggling to get their properties back because of delays in the County Court system  were urged to enforce their judgments through the High Court. 

If you haven’t yet applied to the County Court for a Possession Order, you can apply for leave to ‘transfer up’ to use the High Court for enforcement at the same time as applying for the Possession Order.  You can do this by adding a ‘Transfer Up’ application to your draft Possession Order. 

The HCEOA claims that in some parts of the country, this could save you months, compared to waiting for an eviction date from a County Court bailiff or having to make a separate application to transfer enforcement to the High Court at a later stage. 

You can take part in the  landlords and property agents survey here.