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× Housing advice for under-25s

Eviction

Landlords must follow legal procedures to evict tenants. The procedure used depends on the type of tenancy you have and may involve court action. The pages below explain the eviction procedure for the most common types of tenancy.

You can also find out what to do if your landlord doesn’t follow the right procedure, illegally evicts or harasses you.

If you own your own home and your lender is trying to evict you for mortgage arrears, visit our section on mortgage repossession.

If you are being evicted for rent or mortgage arrears you may be eligible for the Breathing space scheme which gives you time to get some specialist debt advice.

The sooner you seek advice the better.

For urgent advice please call our expert housing advice helpline on 08000 495 495

or, for non-urgent enquiries please use our email advice service. An adviser will aim to reply to emails within five working days.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Emergency laws were introduced in Wales to deal with evictions during the pandemic.

Between 29 September 2020 and 24 March 2022, most tenants in Wales were entitled to 6 months’ notice before their landlord could start court action to evict them. This included assured shorthold tenants, assured tenants and secure council tenants.

The emergency laws ended on the 24 March 2022. This means, if you receive a notice after the 24 March 2022, the amount of notice you are entitled to depends on the type of tenancy you have. For example, if you have an assured shorthold tenancy and your landlord is serving a ‘section 21’ (or ‘no fault’) notice, the notice will need to be 2 months in length.

What if my landlord has already started court proceedings to evict me?

If you have received possession papers or a notice of eviction from the county court use our step-by-step guide below to find out what will happen next:

Step-by-step guide to possession proceedings during Covid19

Some new stages in the possession process were introduced during the coronavirus pandemic. These included:

Reactivation Notices: if your landlord started court proceedings before 3 August 2020 the case was probably put on hold for a time. If your landlord wanted to re-start the case they had to send a Reactivation Notice to you and the court, giving information about the impact coronavirus had on you and your family. After the 1 December 2021 there will no longer be a need for a Reactivation Notice.

Review Date:up until 1 November 2021 the court had to set a Review Date 4 weeks before a possession hearing, so that the judge could review the papers and see if an agreement could be reached before a court hearing took place. Review Dates are no longer required but some courts might decide to continue with them. If you receive notice of a Review Date speak to an adviser as soon as you can. You might be able to get legal help on the day.

Bailiff eviction: bailiffs in Wales were banned from carrying out evictions during the pandemic. This ban ended on the 30 June 2021. From that date bailiffs have been able to carry out evictions regardless of the reason for eviction.

Always get advice if possession proceedings have started against you. It might not be too late to stop or delay any eviction.

If you are under 25 and are worried about eviction, take a look at our Eviction advice page, put together just for young people.

Preventing eviction

If you are facing eviction, you might be able to take action to change the situation.

Private tenants

Private landlords don’t always need a reason to evict you but they usually have to follow special legal procedures.

Housing association tenants

If you are threatened with eviction by a Housing Association, speak to an adviser immediately. Whatever type of tenancy you have, a Housing Association should only evict its tenants as a last resort.

Council tenants

The procedure the council must follow to evict a tenant depends on the type of tenancy you have. If you are threatened with eviction for any reason, speak to an adviser immediately.

Court action

This section explains what happens if you are renting your home and your landlord applies for a court order to evict you.

Harassment and illegal eviction

Harassment or illegal eviction by a private landlord is a criminal offence. There are many different types of harassment and there are steps you can take to stop it.

Mobile homes

If you rent a mobile home or you own a mobile home, and rent a pitch to station it on, you might have some protection against being evicted.

We are sorry that we cannot provide this information in Welsh, however if you would like to speak to an adviser in Welsh please contact 08000 495 495.

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This page was last updated on: March 30, 2022

Shelter Cymru acknowledges the support of Shelter in allowing us to adapt their content. The information contained on this site is updated and maintained by Shelter Cymru and only gives general guidance on the law in Wales. It should not be regarded or relied upon as a complete or authoritative statement of the law.

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