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A government consultation is currently under way to look into whether eviction fees for county court possession should be increased by £75 per claim. If the scheme does not meet much in the way of disagreement, then the government will raise an £15 million by putting this into effect.
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At the moment, landlords have to pay £250 if they file papers online to repossess their property, and £280 if they file the papers at court. If the Ministry of Justice raises the fees, landlords will be expected to pay £355 and £325 respectively. Of course a landlord can request that the tenant covers the costs if the court finds in the landlord’s favour, but more often than not, the tenant can’t afford to pay. And besides, until a judgement is made, the landlord has to pay the costs up front anyway.
Previous Cost of Fees
Prior to April 2014, repossession fees were between £100 and £175 for online and paper claims respectively. In April 2014, the government put the fees up to £280 and £250. This means the rate of fee increase is far higher than the cost of inflation.
Government Statement on Fee Increases
According to a spokesman from the ministry: “In recent years, government policy has been to set fees on the basis of full cost recovery: that is, the use of fee income to recover the full cost of the court system, minus the cost of fee waivers. However, until now, the courts have been operating at less than full cost recovery, which has diverted resources from other areas of operations.”
