Eviction of Tenants.

Eviction of tenants from rental properties is at an all time high with almost 40,000 Evictions in the last year; rising rents and low wages has caused a problem with a number of tenants, along with the bedroom tax, and lower housing benefits.

As a landlord you must follow a process to begin an eviction. The process will depend on the type of tenancy agreement you have with the tenant. Normally this would be an Assured Short hold Tenancy, these can take a few different forms, Fixed Term or Periodic Terms.

For the Fixed Term contract you must give the tenant notice, if the tenant refuses to leave at the end of this notice period you can apply for a possession order and evict the tenant, if the term of the original contract has finished you do not need a reason to evict the tenant.

The process you will need to follow.

- Notice to the tenants

- Apply for a possession order from the courts

- Apply for a warrant for eviction at which point you can appoint the courts bailiffs to remove the tenant.

If you are looking to evict a tenant whose contract has not ended, as a landlord you will need a good reason, these can be non payment of rent or breaking the contract in some way, you can discuss the reason with your solicitor to confirm it is a valid reason.

You must follow the process as above but the procession order will not take effect until the tenants have been in the property for six months, this applies the same for a periodic contract.

If you live with your Tenant, your agreement will fall under excluded tenancies, you only need to give your tenant reasonable notice, at the end of this period you can change the locks and give the belongings back to the tenant, the notice period is a bit of a grey area, if you have a written agreement it will probably say, if you don't, then it depends on when the tenant pays, how long they have been with you etc, we would recommend trying to agree a mutually convenient time.

Serving Notice to Evict.

It is important that you, as the landlord, serve the notice in the correct way, having considered all the rules, for this reason we would recommend you discuss this with your solicitor.

If you have an excluded tenancy agreement you do not have to give notice in writing.

The Bailiffs

The bailiffs will advise you when they will be coming in writing, this will normal only be a day or so, there are circumstances you can stop or delay the bailiffs, as a tenant you will need to apply for a court order and pay a fee.

When the bailiffs turn up they will normal do so with the police and the landlord, their objective is to remove you from the property and return possession to the Landlord, you will be asked to remove your property but if you refuse this will not delay possession as the bailiffs still have the right to remove you and change the locks, you will be able to claim your possessions at an agreed time or your landlord will arrange removal for you , which can result in you paying a fee to do this.
The police are present to ensure that order is kept throughout the process.

We would recommend that, as a landlord or Tenant, you obtain legal advice through this process, your solicitor will also be able to advise of all costs and liabilities.


Handy numbers

Shelter - Helpdesk on 0300 330 1234 from Monday - Friday 9am-5pm.
National Debt line 0808 808 4000
National Landlords Association 020 7840 8900
Residential Landlords Association Ltd Telephone: 0161 962 0010