Bailiffs About to Awake

County Court bailiffs and High Court enforcement agents in England and Wales awake from their slumber next Monday 24 August 2020. They have been paralysed - thanks to coronavirus legislation and court directions - from seizing goods from debtors' homes where money is due under a court judgment and from evicting tenants and mortgage borrowers under court possession orders. Landlords and mortgage lenders have also been paralysed from pressing ahead with possession cases where no order has yet been obtained.  This paralysis end on 24 August 2020.

But various procedural hoops must first be gone through. Bailiffs and enforcement agents after seizure of goods are required to give the debtor at least seven days' prior notice of their intention to visit - unless, that is, the  court has waived or reduced the period of the notice on the basis that the debtor might otherwise take their goods to the other end of the world.

Where a possession order has already been made, the bailiff or enforcement agent is to give at least 14 days' proper written notice by way of a new form of the date and time on which they will be calling to evict. In some tenancy cases - it depends on the type of tenancy and the basis on which the possession oder was obtained - the tenant may be able to apply to the court for the bailiff or enforcement agent to be kept out by a suspension of their authority so long as the arrears are cleared at a specified rate on top of the rent being paid as and when it falls due. The likelihood is that the court will only have power to suspend where it is a social tenancy- council or housing association - and possession has not been order on a mandatory ground which prevents the court from granting longer than 42 days from the court order for the tenant to go. The court has much wider powers to suspend in mortgage possession cases.

And where a possession case was already started but then paralysed, the landlord or mortgage lender will have to send the court a reactivation notice so as to obtain a hearing date for the case. The court will generally give at least 21 days' notice of the hearing date.

In tenancy cases where the landlord has given notice to the tenant requiring possession, the period of any notice given or or after 26 March 2020 (and up to 30 September 2020)  was temporarily extended to three months (anything from 14 days or two months before). If short notice has been given the landlord should serve a fresh notice (after 30 September 2020 it can be for the 'old' period  which applied unless there is further legislation on the point). 

COVID-19: INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Changes are being made to the list of exempt countries and territories from which passengers arriving in England are not required to self-isolate on arrival. The instrument removes Andorra, the Bahamas and Belgium from that list and adds Brunei and Malaysia. For more, have a look at

  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/841/memorandum/contents

COVID-19: MASK WEARING EXTENDED IN ENGLAND

From tomorrow 08 August 2020 the wearing of face coverings is extended in England to indoor places of worship, crematoria and burial ground chapels, museums, galleries, cinemas, public libraries, public spaces in hotels (such as lobby areas) and community centres. For the whole 

story, have a look at 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/839/pdfs/uksiem_20200839_en.pdf

What IS a face covering?

The face covering legislation coming into force in England tomorrow 24 July 2020 tells us exactly what is required. It is 'a covering of any type which covers a person’s nose and mouth.' So there.

For more, see  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/791/contents/made

Court Fee Cuts (E&W): WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A range of court fee cuts in England and Wales will be effective on 03 August 2020 and so if you want to save some dosh, WAIT!!!!!! until then, provided it is not going to prejudice your position, to issue the reduced fee application. Alas, the fees for starting civil or family proceedings remain untouched.

Here's my pick of the reduced fees and remember that 'Help with fees' still applies so that you may be eligible for a free ride.

civil proceedings

• application for a witness summons - down from £50 to £21
• application to vary a judgment (for example, to be able to pay by instalments) or to suspend enforcement including to suspend a warrant for possession- down from £50 to £14
• request for a certificate of satisfaction in relation to an entry at the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines - down from £15 to £14 

family proceedings

• application for a third party debt order - down form £100 to £77
• application for a charging order - down from £100 to £38
• application for a judgment summons - down from £100 to £73
• application for an attachment of earnings order - down from £100 to £34
• request for bailiff service (sometimes no fee) - down from £110 to £45

BUT NOTE THAT IN CIVIL AS OPPOSED TO FAMILY PROCEEDINGS, THE EXISTING FEES FOR STARTING ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS WILL STAND.

probate fees

Not quite what you would call 'court' fees but some cuts coming in under the same legislation-

• entering a caveat at the Probate Registry (to prevent issue of probate or letters of administration and good for six months) - down from £20 to £3
• applying for a standing search (so that you are notified that probate or letters of administration have been granted and you get a copy of the document and good for periods of six months at a time)- down from £10 to £3

If you want to check out the recent legislation to thank it, then have a butchers at the Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2020 SI 2020/720

And if you want millions of legal tips (slight exaggeration) buy my book Breaking Law and give me a break.

COVID-19: TAX PAYMENT DELAY OK: UK

Are you due to make a second self-assessment payment on account of income tax for the 2019/20 tax year by 31 July 2020? Are you finding it difficult or impossible to make that payment due to the impact of coronavirus? Worry not. HMRC has announced that you may defer payment and show 'em your money by 31 January 2021. If you do, there will be no interest charged or penalties imposed as a result of the delayed payment. You do not need to ask HMRC for permission to defer or even tell them that you are deferring. Just don't pay!

COVID-19: A BREATHER FOR COMPANIES & DIRECTORS: GB

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 is alive. Here's what it does for Great Britain.

• A creditor's ability to ask the court to wind up a company which owes them money is likely to be paralysed up to 30 September 2020 - and that date can be extended. Winding up can now only be sought and will only be ordered by the court if the creditor can show that coronavirus has not had a financial effect on the company or the company's indebtedness to the creditor would have arisen even if coronavirus had not had a financial effect on the company. 
• The potential liability of a company director for wrongful trading (for example, continuing to trade and take customers' money when it was known or should have been known that the company was insolvent) is suspended for what the director did or omitted to do during the period O1 March 2020 to 30 September 2020 and, again, this period is extendable.