The Court Service has published guidance setting out that the proper route for bringing claims under the Tenancy Deposit Provisions of the Housing Act 2004 is via Part 8 of the Civil Procedure Rules.
Key points to note are:
- these claims are automatically allocated to the multi-track which means that legal costs are recoverable irrespective of the size of the claim;
- the claim must be commenced on a form N208 and not the standard N1 claim form;
- the claim cannot be commenced using the moneyclaim online service;
- the Claimant is required to serve a witness statement with their claim form setting out their evidence;
- the Defendant is required to serve a witness statement with its aknowledgment of service setting out its evidence;
- failure to serve witness statements at the appropriate times will preclude reliance onm evidence save by permission of the Court
A great many claims are currently not being commenced correctly and are not having the appropriate procedure followed. While it is unlikely that a claim will be struck-out for following the improper procedure, a defendant may be precluded from giving evidence and there may be costs implications for both parties if the correct procedures are not followed.
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[…] rules are soon to be amended to state that all claims must be started using Part 8 procedure. this blog post explains a bit more. Claims will be automatically allocated to multi track (not small claims) […]