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Trespassing on 51Z
We stopped pressed last time on the exclusion from the possession claim and possession enforcement stay of trespass cases (see ‘Civil way’, NLJ 24 April 2010, p20). There are trespass cases and trespass cases. Currently, however, there is no stay distinction between the hardcore squatter on the one hand and the licensee on the other hand who is converted into a squatter when they stay put at the expiration of notice terminating their right to occupy. The latter would include, for example, the service occupier whose employment has ceased and the wife of a serviceman whose right to occupy married quarters has come to an end with the dissolution of the marriage.
The PD that has become the 120th update and which amends CPR PD 51Z clarifies that, as we had suggested, the stay does not preclude the issue of a claim which will then stand stayed. The further clarification is that parties to stayed possession proceedings can make applications for case management directions where those directions are agreed. Agreed orders will be considered ‘on paper’.
