County Court Fee Increases

A proposal to raise the County Court and PCOL court fees for any claim for possession of land by £75 each is out for consultation. The Government estimates this will generate an additional £17 million in income and is driven by the need to make the courts self financing.

This proposal would cover all types of possession claims such as those based on rent arrears, ASB/breach of tenancy cases as well as squatter/unlawful occupier claims.

More details on the proposals and how to reply are found on page 28 of the Enhanced Court Fees document.  The six week consultation period started on 16 January and runs until 27 February 2015.

You can email replies to mojfeespolicy@justice.gsi.gov.uk.

There is also a proposal  to increase the fee for general applications from £50 to £100 for without notice applications and from £155 to £255 for on notice contested applications.  It appears the Government proposes not to increase the fee for applications to extend or vary an injunction to protect someone from harassment or violence (see para 112) which would be relevant to ASB cases.

Court fee increases for money only claims

Court fees for money only claims are definitely increasing following an earlier consultation (probably coming into force from April 2015). See para 65 of the above document for details. The Government has decided to introduce:

•  an enhanced fee to issue money claims which will be 5% of the value of the claim;
• set a maximum fee of £10,000 for the issue of proceedings for claims with a value of £200,000 or more.

The money claim fees might reduce the number of claims for compensation brought against social landlords, however fee exemptions for persons in receipt of welfare benefits still apply.

Landlords are urged to note the potential impact on their budgeting and to reply to the consultation before the above deadline.

Please contact Helen Tucker on 0121 212 7459 | helen.tucker@anthonycollins.com

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