Section 89 does not apply to an order for possession made by the High Court, and an application for an adjournment of a possession order must be refused. The word ‘Court’ must be construed to refer to the County Court only: ‘possession of a dwelling house under a rental purchase agreement is a matter which prima facie would be a county court matter and I suspect is not a matter the High Court has ever had to consider.’ and ‘I confess to finding the point puzzling. I started, as I observed, with a disposition to sense that the ordinary jurisdiction cannot have been intended to be so radically altered and cut down so as to restrict every court in this country, including the other part of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, in its jurisdiction to limit orders for possession. I have no help from the text books which simply assume that the matter is a county court matter. I can, I think, take some help from the chapter heading to Part IV of the statute, and in the end, more by way of a bold leap in the dark than by way of reasoned proposition, I assert that ‘a court’ in section 89 means a county court.’
Harman J
[1989] 1 WLR 24, Independent 25-Jul-1988
Housing Act 1980 89
England and Wales
Cited by:
per incuriam – Hackney v Side By Side (Kids) Ltd QBD 14-Jul-2003
The defendant sought a stay of a warrant for possession. It had submitted to an order for possession by consent in return for a promise of alternative accomodation. They sought a stay under section 89, saying that the claimant had not complied with . .
Cited – Boyland and Son Ltd v Rand CA 20-Dec-2006
The defendant travellers occupied land belonging to the claimants. A possession order had been obtained, and the defendants now sought a reasonable time to be allowed to leave.
Held: The law had not changed, and section 89 could not be used to . .
not preferred – Admiral Taverns (Cygnet Ltd) v Daly and Another CA 25-Nov-2008
The landlord appealed against a stay made on its suspended possession order by the High Court, saying that only the county court had such jurisdiction.
Held: ‘court’ in the section must mean any court. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.185745
