This article looks at completing the warrant for possession form (bailiff form N325).

Contents

High Court Enforcement Officers

If you have obtained permission to transfer to the High Court when applying for possession and still wish to transfer and use the High Court Enforcement Officer, please continue to follow that guidance.

Some county courts’ bailiffs have long delays due to cuts if you haven’t obtained permission yet. You should contact your local county court, ask to speak to the bailiff and ask for a rough guide on how quickly they can enforce a possession order. If they reply with an estimate longer than around six weeks, you might wish to consider applying to seek permission to transfer enforcement to the High Court. (Anything less than 6 – 8 weeks probably isn’t worth the hassle). Using an HCEO can be expensive – easily £600 – £900.

Please follow this article if you wish to use High Court Enforcement Officers and ignore the remainder of this page. Otherwise, see below for completing the form for the County Court bailiff, which is the recommended option in most cases.

Possession Claim Online (PCOL)

Suppose you used the Possession Claim Online system after section 8 was served on rent arrears grounds only and have obtained a judgment. In that case, the below form is available by logging back into the PCOL system, where you will see an option to request a Warrant of Possession of Land. There will be parts to complete, for which you can still follow the guidance below.

Permission to Issue the Warrant

  • six years or more have elapsed since the date of the judgment or order
  • any change has taken place, whether by death or otherwise, in the parties entitled to enforce the judgment or order or liable to have it enforced against them
  • under the judgment or order, any person is entitled to a remedy subject to the fulfilment of any condition, and it is alleged that the condition has been fulfilled (other than where non-compliance with the terms of suspension of enforcement of the judgement or order is the failure to pay money)
In an example relating to this latter bullet point, the landlord takes their tenant to court after a section 8 notice, relying on grounds 10 and 11, both discretionary grounds. The Judge gives a suspended order, and the tenant must pay £X to pay the rent due per calendar month and contribute towards the arrears. If the tenant fails to fulfil the payment requirement of the suspended order, the landlord can go and request the bailiffs; no court hearing is required. If the breach is non-monetary, the landlord must apply for another court hearing before requesting the bailiffs.

How to complete form N325, Request for Warrant of Possession of Land

Introduction

After obtaining a possession order, the court will have given the tenant a date to leave. If the tenant fails to go on or before this date, a landlord must apply for the bailiff to attend and remove the tenants.

This page deals with completing the appropriate form. The exact form applies whether you sought possession after section 8 or 21 notice service. However, if you served a section 8 notice, the amount to put in the form will typically be higher because, in most cases, the court will also provide an award for rent arrears.

In reality, the bailiff is unlikely to do anything about the arrears, and they will simply obtain possession.

You should also complete the bailiff risk assessment form (see below).

The Form

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