As a landlord in dispute with your tenant you may well be tempted to avoid the delay and cost of litigation by taking your own eviction or enforcement action.
Bad idea. No matter how good your overall case may be (or how good you may think it is), taking the law into your own hands automatically puts you in the wrong.
Let’s look at how that works, firstly the theory of it and then with reference to a practical example recently decided by the High Court.
The tenant’s right to immediate return of possession
Our law requires that you approach a court for assistance; self-help is not an option. So if you remove the tenant’s access to the leased premises without a court order, you face having to immediately restore possession to the tenant via a “spoliation order”.
The important thing is that at this stage the court has no interest in how strong or weak your actual case against the tenant is. That you can fight about in a full court action down the line. All that counts now is how you dispossessed the tenant, not whether you are the owner nor whether you have any legal right to possession.
So to succeed in obtaining a spoliation order, all the tenant has to prove is –
Let’s move on to the practical example of the shopping centre tenant …
The internet café and the self-help landlord
Landlords – the self-help option automatically puts you in the wrong. Rather go the legal route!
This article is a general information sheet and should not be used or relied on as legal or other professional advice. No liability can be accepted for any errors or omissions nor for any loss or damage arising from reliance upon any information herein. Always contact your legal adviser for specific and detailed advice. Errors and omissions excepted (E&OE)