Report comment

anon 23rd April@2:00pm

Your post is rather well timed.

A colleague of mine saw a client just last Wednesday, from St Helens. The client had got advice from "a mate" on how to do a possession order.

Like you say, simple innit, just fill in the forms, serve them, trot off down to court.

Possession order granted, apply for eviction.

That's what my client did.

Then wait for eviction. Easy. Why pay a lawyer to do that? Saved £1,500! (in fact my firm will do possession orders for less than half of that, but that's off topic).

Then get a letter from a very large North West legal aid firm. They're apparently going to "set the possession order aside" and invite us to consent. Nah, why do that? The tenant never paid the rent - simple.

12 months later, the order has been set aside and we are at a trial on a counterclaim for breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment. Clients lose. And their possession order is set aside, because the notice seeking possession was firstly not valid (as it expired on the wrong day) and secondly not served long enough before the claim was issued.

My clients get a costs bill against them of £16,000.

They don't pay - why should they. It isn't fair. INstead they complain to the Legal Ombudsman and write to their MP.

The big firm ignore this. They obtain a charging order and now an order for sale.

My client then comes to us for advice (after all the court hearings have been concluded). The wife's mother might be able to remortgage her home on an equity release and pay £10,000. So we offered that in settlement.

They have come back, this morning, and said that the debt is secured and is £16,000 and the costs of enforcement are over £25,000. The minimum they will take is £42,000, otherwise my clients will lose their home under the Order for Sale which has already been granted.

But hey! They saved £700 by getting advice from "a mate", and it's a simple procedure, innit!