A law firm had to draft fresh housing possession proceedings on behalf of its landlord client - who also had to pay another £355 court fee - due to county court delays, the Gazette has been told.

Data collected by national firm JMW highlights significant regional court variations for applications and enquiries. 

JMW said it decided to collect data after noticing one of its paralegals was spending all day on the phone to courts trying to get case updates. The firm jotted down turnover time for enquiries, applications and hearings, as well as time spent waiting for court staff to answer the phone.

According to the data, turnover times for applications ranged from two days for a case at Durham to 67 days for a case at Brentford. Time spent waiting for court staff to answer the phone ranged from a few minutes at Wigan, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Leeds, Darlington, Southampton, Durham, Lincoln and York to around an hour or more at several other courts.

JMW partner David Smith, who specialises in residential property rights and agency, told the Gazette that some of the possession notices his team serves are time sensitive.

In one case, the firm issued the claim and sent it to the court on 6 September 2022 by email so the court received it on the same day. However, the claim was not issued until 19 October 2022.

David Smith

JMW partner David Smith

‘As the section 21 notice had been served on the tenant on 8 April 2022, this took us past the six months in which we were able to issue proceedings. As a result, our client was out of time and we had to start again, issue a fresh section 21 notice and draft fresh proceedings,’ Smith said.

A spokesperson for HM Courts & Tribunals Service said: ‘The wait times for possession hearings have improved significantly over the last 12 months – with over 95% of courts now listing first possession hearings in eight weeks. We are investing hundreds of millions to drive these improvements further across the country, including modernising court processes and hiring more judges so that cases are heard more quickly.’

HMCTS said it acknowledged that there are some regional variations in the processing of claims and responding to enquiries, but is working hard to increase resources and make processes more efficient. 

 

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