Landlord legals: What are the rules around evicting a tenant in England?

Evicting a tenant is not necessarily easy or straightforward – particularly if they refuse to leave the property by the date stated in a section 21 or section 8 notice. There is a specific legal process that must be followed in order to get a possession order from a court and if you get any part of it wrong or you haven’t complied with certain legal responsibilities, you may have to start the process again from scratch and may even be unable to evict the tenant altogether. 

The rules for evicting tenants have changed since our last update on this important topic. So, what are the key things you need to know about legally evicting a tenant?

Serving a Section 21 notice

Landlords can evict a tenant without having to state a reason by giving two months’ notice via a section 21 eviction notice. Since the Renters (Reform) Bill was introduced in Parliament in May, some landlords have contacted us to find out whether they can still issue an S21 - and the answer is yes, until the Bill has become law, which is unlikely to be for at least 18-24 months.

It’s important to be aware that there are various circumstances under which a S21 notice would not be valid. So, if you want to evict a tenant that hasn’t breached any of the terms in their AST – or you want to use a S21 for another reason – make sure you have done the following:  

• Protected the tenant’s deposit as required
• Provided the tenant with information relating to the deposit scheme and other ‘prescribed information’, which includes:
  • The correct version of the Government’s ‘How to rent’ guide
  • A copy of the current Gas Safety certificate (renewed annually)
  • A copy of the property’s Energy Performance Certificate (valid for 10 years)
• Not charged the tenant any fees that are prohibited under the Tenant Fees Act
• If the tenant requested repairs to be made and you were issued with a relevant notice by the council, you must have carried out the required works – otherwise, you can’t issue a S21 within six months of the notice

You must give the tenant notice in writing:

• By using the government’s form 6a or a letter with all the same information on it
• Ensuring that the expiry date of the notice is not within the first 6 months of a tenancy or any fixed term

When to use a Section 8 notice to evict a tenant

A section 8 notice is used when there is a specific reason for the eviction of a tenant, e.g. your tenant is in serious rent arrears or you wish to move into the property yourself. The notice period varies from two weeks to two months, depending on the reason for the eviction.

For some grounds – including the serious rent arrears ground 8 - you can serve notice and bring proceedings to evict the tenant before the fixed term has ended, as long as the Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) allows for this. 

You must use the government’s Form 3 and state the ground(s) on which you are evicting the tenant. These may be:

1. Mandatory (grounds 1-8), meaning that if the ground is proved, the Judge has no option but to grant a possession order
2. Discretionary (grounds 9-17), meaning the Judge can exercise discretion over whether or not to grant the landlord a possession order, even if the ground has been proved to exist

It’s advisable to use an eviction specialist

This is because of the very specific legal process that has to be followed in order to gain possession. It’s really not worth trying to handle it yourself and risking getting it wrong, as that could delay the eviction of tenants by many months.

There are lots of companies out there that offer an eviction service, but many aren’t qualified and don’t carry proper insurance. So before you instruct anyone, make sure they are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and ideally offer a fixed-fee service.

It’s important to note that letting agents are not authorised to conduct legal eviction proceedings on your behalf, as this is a reserved activity for solicitors and breaching it is a criminal offence – yet still, one of the top reasons why Courts reject possession claims is because the paperwork has been signed by a letting agent.

Of course, you’ll have to pay an eviction specialist for their service, and if your tenants successfully defend your possession claim in court, you could be ordered to pay their legal costs, so the whole process could prove expensive. But if you’ve taken out our rent protection and legal expenses insurance, you’ll get up to £50,000 of cover for the legal cost of regaining possession of your property.

For more information on notice periods and evictions in the different countries of the UK, see our separate article, and you can access the government’s guide on the possession process in England via the GOV.UK website.

If you have any other queries or think you might need to evict a tenant, just get in touch with your local Your Move branch – we’re always here to help.