UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

I served a section 21 on a tenant in January.  That noticed expired this month.  I have now emailed an n5b form to the court with all of the relevant documentation.  This was only sent two days ago and I appreciate all courts are different and no one can know this for sure but how long should I wait for a reply?  I've had nothing so far.  I also appreciate two days is not much time at all but I don't know how long I should expect to wait.  Do the courts always reply?  I did get an automated message saying they have a backlog at the moment particularly if documents have been sent.  They did answer when I sent them a couple of questions relating to the n5b form.  If I don't hear by the end of the week is it worth printing off a copy of all the documents and posting them to the court?

Thanks in advance for any advice. 

It might take weeks to get a response at all. They'll get in touch to collect payment. Don't think in terms of days, think months.

The median time between a claim being recorded by the courts (weeks after being sent) to eviction by bailiffs is about 6 months. That's a median, so there are as many taking longer than that as shorter (many of the longer ones are in London and other cities).

Thanks JP I appreciate the quick response.  I just wanted some reassurance this will be with the court somewhere and it will get dealt with even if it is months down the line. 

Realistically I'm guessing I could be looking at 6-12 months before the tenant leaves.

Unfortunately I've got another question on this.  I emailed all of the documents to the court and they had to go in two emails as altogether they were too big to go in one email.  I'm now thinking I should have posted them as I could have got an acknowledgement through recorded delivery that they had received the documents.  If I post them now is that going to cause confusion as there will be two cases created or will I have created two cases anyway by sending two emails?  I could just sit tight and wait for them to reply to my email.  I have tried phoning the court but the voice message at the start basically says unless you have an issue don't call us.

Sorry for the panic I'm trying to work out what to do for the best here.

Well, you do have an issue, so call.

I'd never serve legal documents by email, so I have no experience of this, but two emails sounds like a problem waiting to happen.