New Court form for Warrant Requests following suspended possession orders

Following on from our recent article regarding the case of Cardiff City Council v Lee (Flowers), the Court Service has released a new Request to Issue a Warrant for Possession form which is to be used where a possession order has been suspended on terms requiring the payment of rent and arrears. This form is an N325A and can be found on the HMCTS court finder system here.

The decision in Cardiff City Council v Lee (Flowers) made it clear that permission is required before issuing a Warrant for Possession where a possession order has been suspended on terms. As a result landlords have been applying for permission using N244 applications and this, in our experience has resulted in delay in issuing the Warrant.

The new N325A requires the landlord to certify that the suspended order has been breached and needs to be accompanied by a rent statement to prove the breach. No guidance has been issued by the Court Service as to whether this new form, certifying the breach and providing evidence of the same in the form of a rent statement is sufficient to obtain the necessary permission from the Court and it would seem, for now at least, that landlords should continue to apply for permission, using the N244 application form, which may be accompanied by the new N325A. Hopefully the procedure will become clearer in time, but for now landlords should continue to seek permission, which is leading to delay and increased costs, particularly as landlords cannot seek permission via the PCOL website as there is no ability to upload documents in support such as a rent statement.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact the writers.