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Lodgers in rent arrears – eviction without a court hearing

A lodger is someone who rents a room in a landlord’s home and shares rooms with the landlord in the same property. If you are not sure whether you are a lodger, use the tenancy checker below.

• Tenancy checker - Shelter Opens new window

If you are a lodger, your landlord doesn’t have to send you a letter telling you to leave – they can just tell you to go. However, your landlord must give you enough notice (otherwise known as a ‘reasonable period of time’) before you have to leave.

After this, the landlord can change the locks on rooms you have rented even if you have left your belongings there. However, the landlord must make arrangements to give your belongings back to you.

If you haven’t been given enough time – what to do

If you are a lodger and don’t think you have been given enough warning to leave, contact your local council’s housing officer. Your council may take action if a landlord has evicted you illegally. If court action is taken, the judge will decide if the time given was ‘reasonable’. Follow the links below to get contact details for your local council and find out what they may do if you have problems with your landlord.

• Find your local council

Social housing landlords – extra steps before court action

If you live in council or housing association housing, your landlord must follow extra steps before taking you to court over rent arrears. Your landlord must:

• try to talk to you about the arrears as early as possible
• give you detailed information about the arrears
• offer help, if you need it, to make a housing benefit claim
• agree to delay the start of a court case if you make a reasonable offer to pay off your rent arrears

These extra steps are known as the ‘pre-action protocol’. Find out everything you need to know about the protocol, including alternatives to court action, by following the link below.

• Pre-action protocol for possession claims for rent arrears: Ministry of Justice Opens new window

Private and social housing tenants – notice from your landlord

If you are a tenant with rent arrears in private or social housing, your landlord must tell you in writing to leave. A landlord should send or deliver a ‘notice to quit’ or a ‘Notice Requiring Possession’ if they want you to go.

If you get a notice to quit, you should get legal and debt advice as soon as possible. You can get a solicitor or legal adviser from Community Legal Advice.

See 'Rent arrears - help and advice' to get contact details for organisations providing debt advice.

• Find a legal adviser - Community Legal Advice Opens new window

• Rent arrears – help and advice (money, tax and benefits section)

Time given before you have to leave

The amount of time you have before you must leave is set out in the notice and will depend on what kind of tenancy you have.

Continue talking to your landlord

Continue talking to your landlord to try to come to an agreement even if they have sent you a notice to quit. If you come to an agreement and make payments, you won’t lose your home.

Make plans for somewhere else to live

At the same time, make plans so that you have somewhere else to live if you lose your home. You should:

• contact your local council, which has a responsibility to try to help you if you are homeless
  
• speak to an adviser
  
• look for other accommodation you can afford
  

• Find your local council

• Rent arrears - help and advice (money, tax and benefits section)

Private tenants – your tenancy agreement and court action

Private landlords don’t have to follow a set number of steps before starting court action. However, your tenancy may contain conditions that the landlord needs to follow before taking you to court.

For example, some tenancy agreements have a condition that the landlord must offer you another place to live if they are asking you to leave your present home. Check your tenancy agreement, or get advice if you are unsure by following the link below.

• Rent arrears – help and advice

Private tenants – eviction without a court hearing

If you have an ‘assured shorthold tenancy’ or a ‘statutory periodic tenancy’, you can be evicted without a court hearing.

If your landlord gives you notice to quit, they can apply for what is called a ‘fast-track process’ for eviction. If the court decides that you were given the correct kind of notice to quit, they must give a possession order that will tell you to leave your home.

Video: rent arrears - local authorities, housing trusts and registered social landlords

Watch a video explaining what to do if you are a council or housing association tenant in rent arrears.

• Video: rent arrears - local authorities, housing trusts and registered social landlords

Preparing to go to court for rent arrears

If your landlord is taking you to court for rent arrears, make sure you are prepared and you attend the hearing.

• Preparing to go to court for rent arrears

What you can do about rent arrears – find out more

• Going to court for rent arrears - what happens on the day

• Rent arrears - what the judge can decide

• Rent arrears - what happens after a hearing and what you should do

• Appealing against a judge's decision on rent arrears

Useful contacts

• Home and community useful contacts

• A-Z of local councils

• Communities and Local Government Opens new window