Gallowglass Enforcement – Evictions

Over the course of COVID-19, evictions were largely given a moratorium. However, according to the government “Courts will carefully prioritise the most egregious cases, such as those involving anti-social behaviour and other crimes” meaning “orders can now be enforced where the landlord has a valid warrant of possession”. However, bailiffs must provide 14 days’ notice of an eviction and have been asked not to carry out an eviction if they are made aware that anyone living in the property has COVID-19 symptoms or is self-isolating. As a result, Gallowglass Security has adapted it’s eviction process to meet these new rules and keep our staff safe from Covid-19.

Here we answer some of your questions to keep you in the know.

How do I correctly make a residential eviction?

At Gallowglass Enforcement we perform residential, commercial and common law evictions. Should you require an eviction, we can help from the point you receive your N26 Order for Possession from the county court. The N26 Order for Possession is required for both residential and some commercial evictions. For common law evictions, i.e., travellers on your land or trespassers in your commercial premises, only a notice will have to be served as a possession order is not necessary. We are able to assist and help with all such eviction queries and needs.

How do Gallowglass Security undertake a residential eviction?

Once we receive your N26 Order for Possession, our team will be able to transfer this to a High Court Writ of Possession under Section 42 of the County Courts Act 1984. Once this writ is received, the tenant is given 14 days to vacate the premises. Please note that Writs of Possession cannot be disputed the same way a County Court Warrant can – there is no leeway for a stay of eviction. Therefore, we have an excellent eviction success rate and endeavour to evict via legislative process ensuring diligence to our client’s immediate need, leaving problem tenants with no recourse for rebuttal.

Undertaking Commercial and Common Law Evictions on private land

Here at Gallowglass, we understand the constant problem of travellers on commercial land and property. The process of a High Court Writ outlined above can often be a lengthy drawn-out process- and the nature of the lifestyle of the traveller leaves room for their constant return after eviction. Therefore, we will exercise rights of self-help to remove these travellers from your land and will instruct bailiffs from Gallowglass to do so on its behalf.  This right, under common law, is set out in Halsbury’s laws of England, Para 1400, volume 45 of Fourth edition.

The turnover time from the serving of such a notice to eviction of travellers is usually less than 36 hours. So should you suffer the blight of returning illegal travellers onto your land, we have a process in place to remove them almost as quickly as they arrive.

Undertaking evictions during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Evictions have become more difficult to perform due to health and safety concerns around the potential of transmission of coronavirus during repossession. Of course, problem tenants and trespassers are aware of this and will use this to try to delay the proceedings. Therefore, at Gallowglass we have the following policies and procedures in place to ensure successful evictions, and prevent unwarranted complaints from the problem tenant. We have taken official government advice as well as our own experience to come up with the following points to reduce these potential issues:

Preventing transmission

• On arrival at a property, our enforcement agents will undertake a dynamic risk assessment. They will remain alert to risk throughout the visit and will act to mitigate these if they identify a risk to their own or another’s safety. Mitigation measures will be put in place throughout the entire visit.
• Our enforcement agents work in pairs. They will operate in fixed teams where possible to minimise contact between different individuals.
• Full PPE will be worn, so any potential problem tenants will not have potential transmission to use as an excuse to evade eviction process.