Your harassment eviction rights
Private landlords can sometimes pressure you to leave their property, this may be a criminal act.
You have legal rights to protect yourself against any harassment or illegal eviction. If you are threatened with eviction from your home, it is important that you seek advice on your tenancy rights. Your legal rights will depend on the type of tenancy you hold and also on the reason your landlord wants to evict you from your home.
We can take action if your landlord has evicted you illegally.
Harassment
If you are to be evicted from private rented accommodation, you are entitled to some form of written notice before you leave the property. Your landlord may send you a notice to quit or a notice seeking possession. Usually, you will be entitled to remain in the property until the landlord has obtained a possession order from the county court.
If you are threatened with eviction from your home it is important that you seek advice on your tenancy rights. Your legal rights will depend on the type of tenancy you hold and also on the reason your landlord wants to evict you from your home.
Find out what to do if you're at risk of becoming homeless.
Occasionally harassment measures are used to stop you from continuing to live in your home. If you feel you are being harassed, report this to the police.
Harassment can include:
- stopping services, like electricity
- withholding keys (e.g. there are 2 tenants in a property but the landlord will only give 1 key)
- refusing to carry out repairs
- anti-social behaviour by a landlord’s agent (e.g. a friend of the landlord moves in next door and causes problems)
- threats and physical violence
Evictions
Your landlord can evict you for reasons where you have failed to comply with your tenancy:
- you haven’t paid the rent
- you’re engaging in antisocial behaviour
- there’s a ‘break clause’ in your contract (this allows your landlord to take back the property before the end of the fixed term)
- natural end of tenancy term
Your landlord cannot bring your private rented tenancy to an end without following certain rules set out in housing law. What a landlord should do depends on the type of tenancy you have.
Your landlord may be guilty of illegal eviction if you:
- aren’t given the notice to leave the property that your landlord must give you
- find the locks have been changed
- are evicted without a court order
- are asked to leave your property by someone who is not appointed by the court
If a landlord provides you with a notice to quit, it also may not always be valid. If the property is subject to an improvement notice, or your landlord has taken a deposit from you but hasn't lodged it in a deposit protection scheme, a notice could be deemed invalid.
If your landlord is asking you to leave your private rented home, use Shelter's tenancy rights checker to check your type of tenancy and your rights here.
If the court gives your landlord a possession order and you still don’t leave, your landlord must apply for a warrant for eviction. This means bailiffs can remove you from the property. A possession order won’t take effect until you’ve been living in the property for at least 6 months. If you think you’re being harassed or threatened with illegal eviction, or the property you rent is being repossessed, let us know.
Contact us in an emergency
Call us on 0300 300 8098 if you're in an emergency.