Now the Ministry of Justice has announced plans to increase court fees again, by another £75 per claim, for the second year running. This being £325 for a Section 8 claim online and £355 for a paper based claim for Section 21.
Only recently we recommended to the Government that the Section 21 process should be an online process like Section 8. The Justin Minister, Shailesh Vara,says increasing court fees will never be popular or welcome, but more money is needed to be invested in the court services.
Here is what our Head of Legal at Landlord Action, Julie Herbert, has to say: "We feel that last year’s court fee rises were not justified, let alone the plan to increase these even further. From dealing with hundreds of cases at any one time, we are forever chasing courts for updates on possession orders, Notice of Issues or bailiff appointments.
By the courts’ own admission, cases are getting overlooked, administrative errors are being made and there are simply not enough bailiffs to support the number of cases, leading to long delays. We cannot see the extra fees being paid by landlords since the last increase in April 2014 having any affect with the court administration, so struggle to see how another increase can be justified so soon.”
We employ someone full time at Landlord Action just to call the courts and chase up cases.We will be writing a submission opposing the rises. The consultation by the Ministry of Justice ends on the 27th February, it can be found here. Please assist us in fighting against the rise and file your own submission, there’s still time to defeat this.
