A housing lawyer has told of a desperate situation when a householder turned up at court in order to avoid losing his home – despite being clearly very ill, possibly with coronavirus.
Simon Mullings was on housing court possession duty when the final client came in to see him during the afternoon, in a small windowless office.
He said: “It very quickly became clear that they were extremely unwell. They were sweating profusely, complained of hot flushes and a sore throat and were clearly very distressed.
“They explained their partner was at home, also very unwell. They had placed their documents on the desk.”
The client’s dilemma was that they were facing imminent eviction, but had been directed to take to court evidence of previous medical problems. Had they not attended court, “there is no doubt their eviction would have proceeded”.
The client was, says Mullings, “distraught and mortified” at having to come to court being ill, but not know what else to do. Mullings agrees: “I don’t see they could do anything else.”
The case was heard, without the client having to be present. A second case was also heard that afternoon, with Mullings at the back of the court but uncomfortably aware of whisperings and stares. He is now self-isolating at home and calling for urgent action to take account of such cases.
Meanwhile, rental eviction specialist Landlord Action has received its first court adjournment after the Government banned evictions of tenants during the crisis.
The case, for a Section 8 eviction, has been adjourned until June by Blackpool County Court – despite the fact that the Government has yet to introduce its emergency legislation.
The court judgement cites the public health emergency caused by the pandemic.
Landlord Action founder Paul Shamplina said: “It wouldn’t surprise me if the court soon shut down for a period of time. We are in unknown territory.”
He advised that if landlords are experiencing adjournments, they need to provide the court order to their lender so that they can apply for their mortgage payments to be suspended.
There will be tenants who swing the lead during this crisis, but we has an industry have to do our bit and get landlords and tenants on board. Communication is the key at this stage. So far in a few days we have had 7 tenants affected by the downturn and all of the landlords have been amazing.
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It seems highly likely the national media and government will not bring such acts of kindness to the attention of the public how your landlords have acted. The media only focus on doom gloom.
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As with all cases it would be helpful to know the background, i.e. why possession was sort in the first place, instead of relying on a headline grabbing newspaper article.
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