The Act New section 47H – Arrestment to found jurisdiction in action against demise charterer Part 15 - Action for Removing from Heritable Property
808.This Part sets out a new procedure which is to be followed when ejecting (otherwise known as removing or evicting) a person from heritable property. It does not change the legal grounds on which a person may be removed from heritable property. Instead, it applies general rules for the process of removing.
809.“Removing” has a general meaning which covers any surrender of heritable property, for example, the surrender of a lease (domestic or commercial) by a tenant. It also has a more specific meaning of an action by which a heritable proprietor, such as a landlord, seeks to recover possession of his or her property from a tenant. The conclusion of such an action is the granting of a “warrant of ejection” by the court by virtue of which occupants of the property can be evicted by judicial officers.
810.“Ejection” is the term used for an action where an owner or possessor of heritable property seeks to recover possession from an occupant of the property who has no legal right or title to occupy the property – for example, a squatter.
811.The law has developed in a piecemeal fashion over many years, leading to (for example) different rules for “removing” an occupier who has or had a right to be in heritable property (e.g. a leased office or a dwellinghouse on mortgage default) and for “ejecting” an occupier who has never had a right to be there (such as a squatter).
812.This area of law covers a variety of types of removings, for example, those related to public sector tenancies, private tenancies, commercial tenancies, agricultural tenancies, debt enforcement and squatters. Much of the law is set down in statute and the terminology used in various statutes has given rise to confusion about the procedures which may be invoked for the purpose of obtaining authority to eject someone from land. This part sets out new, general procedures to apply consistently to all types of removings.