Which possession proceedings?

Possession proceedings against common law tenants

Most landlords are familiar with the section 8 and section 21 procedures for evicting tenants – however, these cannot be used for ‘common law’ or unregulated tenancies.

The reason for this is that they only apply to tenancies which are regulated by the Housing Act 1988, in particular, assured shorthold tenancies.  However, the Housing Act 1988 does not apply to common law tenancies.

The eviction procedure is however fairly straightforward (provided the fixed term has ended), and involves serving an old style Notice to Quit and then bringing proceedings based on that.

It is also fairly straightforward to evict tenants during the fixed term on the basis of rent arrears.  If you want to evict for any other reason, you should either wait until the fixed term has ended or, if this is impossible, get legal advice.

If you want to save costs and act in person, the straightforward procedures for evicting after the fixed term has ended and for rent arrears are described in detail in our DIY Eviction Guide.

Members will find the relevant links below.

If the fixed term has ended

Your tenancy should now be a periodic tenancy.  You first need to end this by serving an old style Notice to Quit.

Provided your notice is correct there should not then be any problem in getting your possession order.  However, if the tenant has a claim against you, for example for compensation for disrepair, this may complicate things.

Members will find our possession notices, and guidance on their use here.

After the notice has been served you will find the procedure for evicting common law tenancies in the Eviction Guide  here.

If the fixed term has not ended

Check first to see if there is a break clause in your tenancy agreement.  If there is, members can click here for our FAQ. Then once the tenancy has ended, proceedings can be brought.

If there is no break clause, then you will only be able to evict the tenant if there are serious rent arrears.  You do not need to serve any possession notice, as you will be able to ‘forfeit’ the lease.

You can do this using our Eviction Guide or you can use solicitors, for example Landlord Action.

Forfeiture is not straightforward, and again, there could be problems if the tenant has a claim against you.

Fees

You will find the fees for our recommended solicitors on or via their information pages..  Our Eviction Guide is free to Business Level members.