Landlord delayed evicting tenant due to HM Courts & Tribunals Service error

What happened

Ms V sent her application to start proceedings to evict her tenant, who had stopped paying rent, to the wrong court. HMCTS should have checked the application when it received it to make sure it was within the jurisdiction of the court. It failed to do so and as a result, a hearing date was set. When the case was heard by the judge, he struck the application out because it had been issued in the wrong court. Ms V had to resubmit her application to the correct court, delaying the start of the proceedings by seven weeks.

What we found

Although Ms V suffered a delay in evicting her tenant as a result of HMCTS's maladministration, she did not suffer a financial injustice. We saw no evidence to suggest that, had the tenant been evicted sooner, she would have paid the rent arrears she owed Ms V. Nor was Ms V in a position to re-let the property for some time, and this was not linked to HMCTS's delay.

Putting it right

HMCTS apologised to Ms V for the delay and paid her £250 to compensate her for this.