ABSTRACT
The county court has an inherent equitable jurisdiction to grant relief from forfeiture either on application during possession proceedings or on a free-standing claim. Virtually all possession claims are heard in the county court by district Judges. The county court possesses a wide range of weapons in its armoury for the disgruntled litigant to avail himself. The following are examples of orders which a property manager might seek when enforcing covenants: declarations; injunctions; decrees of specific performance; and leave to bring a forfeiture claim for breach of repairing covenant under the Leasehold Property Act 1938. From the enforcement point of view, the greatest relevance of the county court is in terms of debt recovery. Since the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 the county court has had a system of allocating cases to one of three tracks. They are small claims track, fast track and multi-track.
