Government Guidance Page
The Anatomy of a Possession Claim
There are four stages to bringing a claim for possession. Unless your tenant moves out voluntarily, you need to go through all four stages. All are essential.
1. Analysis
This is probably the most important stage. Get it wrong and you are in trouble! Your eviction claim will take months longer than it should (if you are lucky) and will almost certainly be a lot more expensive.
Landlord Law Resources:
- The Tenancy Trail (to find out what type of tenancy you have)
- The tenancy deposit compliance checker (if you took a deposit)
- The Which Possession Proceedings Guide
- The Rent Arrears Action Plan
- Eviction FAQ
- The Forum
2. Notices
In almost all situations you need to serve some sort of warning notice on your tenant before you start your eviction claim.
However this must be the right notice for the type of tenancy and eviction claim being used and must be correctly drafted and give the correct notice period.
Landlord Law Resources:
3. Court Proceedings for Possession
You can only evict a tenant if you have a court order for possession.Landlord Law Resources
4. Bailiffs
Even after you get your order for possession – you can’t actually get possession of your property if they refuse to move out, until you have made a bailiffs appointment and they have formally evicted the tenants.
Landlord Law Resources
Note that you can also use the High Court Enforcement Officers but the process is more expensive and you need leave of the court. If you want to use the High Court service we suggest you use solicitors.
These are all member only services. Items 3 and 4 are for Business Level members only.
The Landlord Law Recommended Solicitors
Although many landlords have successfully brought a claim for eviction through the courts on their own, it is not as straightforward as many think and a mistake can set your claim back for many months – and you may need to start again from the beginning (in which case you could be vulnerable to an order that you pay your tenants’ legal fees).
We, therefore, have a list of recommended solicitors who are experienced in this work and who can be instructed online via the special Landlord Law (members only) forms for fixed fees.
Non-Members
If you are not a Landlord Law member you can find out more and join online via the button below:
