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Before starting court action to evict you from your secure council tenancy, the council must follow rules set out in a special pre-action protocol.
Before starting court action
Before your landlord takes steps to evict you for rent arrears, they should contact you to talk about:
You should try to come to an agreement with your landlord about paying any arrears. Make sure anything you agree is affordable.
If necessary, your landlord should help you with any applications for housing benefit, universal credit housing costs or a discretionary housing payment. Your landlord should not start eviction proceedings if:
If you are getting other benefits, your landlord should help you apply to have your arrears paid directly from those benefits.
Your landlord should send you a quarterly rent statement saying how much rent is due. The statement should set out all the payments received, whether these were paid by you, housing benefit or a discretionary housing payment. It should also have a clear running total of the arrears.
For a joint tenancy, each of the tenants should be contacted separately to make sure that everyone is aware of the problem.
After giving you a notice
After giving you a notice your landlord should continue to make attempts to contact you to discuss your arrears. They must do this before beginning court proceedings.
Your landlord should hold off on court action if you agree to pay your current rent and a reasonable amount towards your arrears and you stick to this arrangement.
Once court action has started
Once your landlord has started court action, at least 10 days before the court hearing, your landlord should:
If you have difficulty reading or understanding information, your landlord should try to make sure that you understand the information you are being given about eviction. They can do this, for example, by explaining it to you in more detail or providing an interpreter.
Ask for help if you have difficulty reading or understanding the information.
If you are particularly vulnerable (for example elderly, disabled, or suffering from mental illness) or you are under 18 years old, your landlord may need to:
Before starting any court proceedings under a mandatory ground (for example, because you have been convicted of a serious criminal offence or breached an anti-social behaviour order), your landlord should:
If your landlord decides to continue with court proceedings they should explain how they have considered your personal circumstances and provide written reasons why they have decided to continue.
Your landlord may have to explain to the court how they have followed the protocol.
If they have not done everything they should, the court can:
Get advice if you think your landlord has not followed the pre-action protocol.
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This page was last updated on: June 24, 2021
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.