Good afternoon, I have worked in the lettings industry for 30 years and dealt with hundreds of evictions on behalf of landlords, preparing and serving Section 21 and Section 8 notices and preparing paperwork for court. The notices are always signed by myself, the office manager of the company I work for, and I always send the court paperwork to the landlords for signing before submitting to the court, however, I have been advised that many judges are now not accepting section21 notices signed by the letting agent, unless it is a Director and Company Secretary signing (which would be difficult as neither of them are involved on a daily basis). I also wrote to the court on behalf of a landlord recently to ask something in relation to the proceedings and have received a reply from the court stating “Letting agents do not have rights to conduct litigation” Can you please therefore advise as to how I deal with possession in future, do I need to advise landlords to instruct solicitors to act for them?
Question
Applying to Court for Possession — Accelerated Procedure (England)
Accelerated possession
Answer
View your previously asked questions. (Will only show questions from August 2020)
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1 Comment
It’s actually an offence for any person (other than the claimant) to “conduct litigation” which includes completing forms unless they are authorised and regulated (solicitors, barristers etc.)
An agent can serve notices but that’s where an agents authority stops. Everything beyond must be completed by the landlord themselves or by someone regulated and authorised.
In respect of an agent who is a company signing the notices, it all started with this deposit case and there has now been one following the same principles in a section 21 notice. I’ve tried to find the recent case but can’t just find it right now. The principles are identical though. It’s unclear whether it’s correct at the moment as non of the cases are binding. Best to get the landlord to sign them to avoid any problems.