Eviction

If you fall behind with your rent, or your landlord believes you or someone else in your household has been acting in an anti-social way, you are at risk of being evicted.

There are things you can do to try and stop the eviction, but you must act quickly.

Always speak to your landlord first. You might be able to come to an agreement about repaying your rent, or perhaps agree a mediation session to sort out any problems you are having with neighbours.

If your rent arrears are a result of a delay in your benefit claim your landlord might be able to help get things sorted for you.

If your housing benefit or universal credit housing costs do not cover all of your rent, you may be able to apply for a discretionary housing payment from the council.

For lots of ideas about what other things you can do to try and avoid being evicted, click here.

Private landlords don’t always need a reason to evict you, but they still have to follow legal rules.

The rules they must follow depend on the type of tenancy you have.

For most tenancies, there are 3 steps that a landlord must take :

1. Notice
2. Court
3. Bailiff

Read more about these steps here.

Whatever type of tenancy you have, and whatever stage an eviction is at, it’s always worth getting advice. You might be able to stop or delay the eviction.

If you rent your home from a community landlord (a housing association or the council) and have a secure occupation contract, you generally have the right to stay in your home unless you break the rules of your occupation contract (this is the new name for ‘tenancy agreement’).

If your landlord thinks you should be evicted they must follow a legal procedure to do so. The procedure they must take depends on the type of occupation contract you have.

For most community landlord contracts, your landlord must take 3 steps to evict you:

1. send you notice to leave
2. apply to the court for a possession order
3. ask the court to send bailiffs to evict you.

Read more about these steps and what your landlord must do before they can evict you here.

If you are facing eviction, it’s important that you get help. You might be able to stop or delay the eviction.

If you have not moved out of your home after a notice has ended, you landlord can apply to the court for a possession order to evict you.

In most cases there will be a court hearing and you will be sent a letter from the court to tell you the date and time of the hearing. It is important that you go to the hearing because you will have more chance of keeping your home.

It is a good idea to aim to get to court at least 30 minutes before the hearing. If you are not there in time the hearing will go ahead without you and you are more likely to be evicted.

If you don’t have a legal adviser then many courts have a duty adviser or solicitor who may be able to give you last-minute advice. This service is called the court duty scheme and it is free of charge.

Find out more about what will happen in court here.

It is unlawful for your landlord to force you from your home without taking the right legal steps.

It is likely you will have been illegally evicted if your landlord:

• makes you leave without notice or a court order
• locks you out of your home.

If this happens to you then you should speak to someone you trust and get in touch with an adviser as soon as you can. You might be able to take your landlord to court and the police should take action against them.

If you have a private landlord you should be able to get help from your local council and from Rent Smart Wales.

Chat to one of our expert advisers for more advice by clicking one of the options below.

Read more about illegal eviction and harassment here.