We are so used to landlords - and the power they have - that they can seem unchallengeable. They make profit from our need for a home, and using the courts and the police, can make us homeless.
While the situation for tenants in the UK is dire - and looks to get worse under COVID-19 - we still have rights under the law and community power to protect us.
This guide is brief primer on what we do and how we win.
For more in-depth guides on different aspects of housing law, click the links below.
Links:
- Section 21
- Rent Arrears
- Landlord Harassment
Who does this guide apply to?
- Private Renters: Y
- Social Housing Renters: Y
- Lodgers: Y
- Squatters: Y
Direct action and mutual aid
Knowing the law is useful, because when landlords don’t follow it you can use it against them. But most of the time the law isn’t on our side, and we can’t rely on it to make sure we’re treated fairly. While it should be seen as the floor for basic human decency, it’s usually a ceiling.
If you’ve rented, you’ve probably talked with other tenants about how to deal with a dodgy landlord and survive a market stacked in their favour. Maybe you’ve even gone with a fellow tenant to speak to your landlord about a problem. These conversations and actions are the basis of solidarity.
Lockdown and social distancing might have changed the way we perform direct action, but we can still support each other. As we move away from meeting in physical space to keep people safe, our tactics need to do the same. Fortunately, we’ve seen evidence that distanced tactics - online, phone, printed materials - are having an increased effect as people spend more time online during the pandemic.
What next?
Courtroom disputes can be expensive, long, stressful and often need specialised skills. Direct action doesn’t. Anyone can do it and win. Rather than relying on judges and lawyers, direct action is based on us organising ourselves and confronting landlords collectively. It could be something straightforward, like lots of us going down as a group to demand our landlord finish repair jobs.
It could mean setting up a tenants’ union — and even all deciding to withhold rent until demands are met (a ‘rent strike’). Defending our rights is just the beginning — when we’re strong we can take the initiative. Examples of direct action include:
- Taking a demand letter to a landlord’s home or work.
- Publicly “outing” their bad behaviour to neighbours and the community.
- Bombarding their telephone or email inbox.
- Occupying your local housing office.
- ...and other creative ways of causing economic disruption to people that profit off your need for a home!
These are just examples. Anything that gives you leverage over your landlord works, particularly by challenging their reputation or hitting them in the pocket. Friends, family and other tenants can give us the support we need to change things.
Contact your nearest SolFed local if you need support in fighting your landlord.
Section 21
Who does this guide apply to?
- Private Renters: Y
- Social Housing Renters: N*
- Lodgers: N
- Squatters: N
*Some Housing Associations use Assured Shorthold Tenancies as an introductory tenancy for the first year, so it’s good to check.
Introduction
We are so used to landlords - and the power they have - that they can seem unchallengeable. They make profit from our need for a home, and using the courts and the police, can make us homeless. While the situation for tenants in the UK is dire - and looks to get worse under COVID-19 - we still have rights under the law and community power to protect us.
This guide deals with Section 21 notices. If you are having trouble with Landlord Harassment or Rent Arrears check out our other guides. For ways to fight back without going through the courts, check our Stuff Your Landlord guide.
Who does it apply to?
If you have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, your landlord could evict you using a Section 21 order.
These are the most common type of tenancy for private renters, and usually last six or twelve months. You might also be on a rolling contract. To find out if you are on an AST go here.
What is Section 21?
It’s called a ‘no fault’ eviction for a reason - it can be used once your tenancy comes to an end even if you’ve been a perfectly good tenant.
If you don’t renew your contract at the end of the defined period (usually six or 12 months) you are moved onto a rolling contract. During this period you only have to give one month’s notice to leave, but your landlord can serve you with a Section 21 Notice to get you out with two months notice.
Landlords have a lot of power in this situation, but there are ways you can fight back.
How does the Coronavirus Act affect this?
A landlord usually needs to give two months notice before they can apply to court for a possession order via Section 21. Any less than this and it is not valid. The Coronavirus Act 2020 has extended this mandatory notice period to three months if the notice is given after 26 March 2020 and before 29 August 2020. From 29 August 2020 to 31 March 2021 a landlord must give six months’ notice. Unless the law changes, it will go back to two months from 1 April 2021.
If a landlord served notice before 29 August they have six months to apply to court, before the notice becomes invalid. After 29 August, they have ten months.
Evictions are currently banned until 21 Feb 2021. This means that it is illegal for a landlord, someone acting on behalf of a landlord, or Bailiffs to remove you from your home. However, your landlord can still service notice, and apply to the courts for a possession order.
The legal ways to fight a Section 21
To start with, these are not legal grounds to fight a Section 21 notice:
- It’s unfair
- I’ve been the perfect tenant
- They’ve been the worst landlord
- I have cleared my arrears
- They are discriminating against me - unless you can prove that the discrimination relates to a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. This is sadly very hard to do.
If you want to fight a Section 21 the legal way, you’ll need to prove one or more of the following:
You have paid a deposit that was not protected by your landlord within 30 days.
There are only three official deposit protection schemes, contact them all to find out if yours is protected:
If your landlord returns the deposit, or the court makes an order for them to do so, they can still serve a Section 21.
If your landlord protected the deposit within 30 days but didn’t give you the prescribed information then they can’t serve a Section 21 notice until they have done so. To find out what the prescribed information is, go here.
Your landlord does not have a license for the property (see ‘Licencing’ below).
Improvement notices.
If the Council has served an Improvement Notice or Emergency Remedial Notice in the 6 months before your landlord served Notice then the s21 Notice is invalid.
An Improvement or Emergency Remedial Notice is a letter from the council confirming that your landlord must make repairs. You get one by contacting your Local Authority to complain that your home is unliveable. Think mould, broken heating, serious damage.
Due to brutal local authority cuts, Improvement or Emergency Remedial Notices are increasingly difficult to get (we know from experience). Due to COVID-19 local authorities are further stretched, so you may find getting one impossible.
If you complained about disrepair in writing to your landlord and they failed to respond and the council serve an Improvement or Emergency Remedial Notice before a possession order is made, then the Section 21 notice will become invalid and your landlord won’t be able to serve a valid Section 21 notice for six months.
Documents
If your tenancy (or most recent tenancy) began after 1 October 2015 and the landlord didn’t give you a How to Rent booklet or an Energy Performances Certificate before you received the Section 21 notice then it is not valid. If your property uses gas, and your landlord did not give you a Gas Safety Certificate within the last 12 months then the Section 21 notice is not valid.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to prove that you haven’t received something! Landlords can take out a ‘Certificate of Service’ or ‘Statement of Truth’ through the courts to back up their claim - isn’t the legal system great?
Illegal fees
All extra fees relating to your tenancy are now illegal. If your tenancy (or most recent tenancy - i.e. most recent contract) began after 1 June 2019 and you were charged and not refunded any of the following, a Section 21 notice is invalid:
- A deposit of more than 5 weeks’ rent
- A holding deposit of more than 1 week’s rent
- Charges by your landlord for bills that weren’t included in your tenancy agreement (e.g Gas, Electricity, TV Licence, Council Tax)
- A fee of more than £50 for a change to the tenancy agreement or new tenancy agreement
- Interest on late rent of more than 3% over base rate
The wrong form
If your landlord used the wrong form, then the s21 Notice is invalid.
This is the current form updated for the Coronavirus Act.
Can I be served a Section 21 for going on rent strike?
While a landlord cannot use a rent strike as justification for a Section 21 notice, they also don’t need to. As we’ve said, it’s a no fault eviction so the landlord doesn’t have to justify it with the tenant’s actions. However, when planning a rent strike it’s always important to know the law around Rent Arrears. Check our Rent Arrears guide for more information.
Licensing
Across the country, all landlords need a licence from the Local Authority if they rent out an HMO (house of multiple occupancy). Privately rented homes that are not HMOs do not require a license, but some local authorities are introducing them.
To be an HMO, a residence must pass one of the following tests:
- a building or flat in which more than one household (and three people) shares a basic amenity, such as bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities: this is known as the 'standard test' or the 'self-contained flat test'
- a building that has been converted and does not entirely consist of self-contained flats: this is known as the 'converted building test'
- a building that is declared an HMO by the local authority
- a converted block of flats where the standard of the conversion does not meet the relevant building standards and fewer than two-thirds of the flats are owner-occupied: this is known as a section 257 HMO.
Some local authorities have a selective licensing scheme in place. How these typically work is that all landlords pay several hundred pounds for a licence, and they, and their properties, are subjected to legal checks – with penalties of up to £30,000 if they don’t comply.
Selective licensing allows councils to make it compulsory for every private rented property in a specified area to have a licence. (There are two other types of landlord licensing, mandatory and additional, that only apply to people letting out houses in multiple occupation, or HMOs).
In these areas, a landlord must apply for a licence if they want to rent out a property. This means the council can check whether they are a “fit and proper person”, as well as laying down other requirements concerning the management of the property and health and safety. The schemes work in different ways, but things a landlord might be required to provide include a valid gas safety certificate, an electrical installation condition report, a copy of the tenancy agreement and evidence of landlord insurance. Typically, a licence lasts five years.
If your landlord does not have a license, it is illegal for them to serve you a Section 21 notice.
Rent Arrears
Who does this guide apply to?
- Private Renters: Y
- Social Housing Renters: Y
- Lodgers: N
- Squatters: N
Introduction
We are so used to landlords - and the power they have - that they can seem unchallengeable. They make profit from our need for a home, and using the courts and the police, can make us homeless. While the situation for tenants in the UK is dire - and looks to get worse under COVID-19 - we still have rights under the law and community power to protect us.
This sheet deals with Rent Arrears. If you are having trouble with Landlord Harassment or have been served a Section 21 notice check out our other guides. For ways to fight back without going through the courts, check our Stuff Your Landlord guide.
Who does this guide apply to?
The law on Rent Arrears applies to two types of tenancies.
- Assured Shorthold Tenancies
- Assured Tenancies
Assured Tenancies are usually people that live in social housing through a Housing Association. If you have this kind of tenancy you can be evicted on the basis of a Section 8 Notice and various grounds for possession as set out in Section 8 and Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988. Section 21 notices do not apply (there’s a jargon buster below if you’re not sure what all of this means!)
Assured Shorthold Tenancies are what most private renters have, and they’re usually fixed to six or 12 months. If you have this kind of tenancy, your landlord can evict you on the basis of Section 8 and Schedule 2 grounds. You can also be evicted for no reason at all under the Section 21 procedure once the original fixed term of the tenancy has passed. Read on for more on what this means.
How does the Coronavirus Act affect this?
For Ground 8 (rent arrears) a landlord usually needs to give two weeks notice before they can apply to court for a possession order. Any less than this and it is not valid. The Coronavirus Act 2020 has extended this mandatory notice period to three months if the notice is given after 26 March 2020 and before 29 August 2020. From 29 August 2020 to 31 March 2021 a landlord must give six months’ notice. Unless the law changes, it will go back to two weeks from 1 April 2021.
The landlord has up to one year from the date of issuing the notice to apply to court for a possession order before it becomes invalid.
If your rent arrears are over six months and the notice is given after 29 August, the landlord only needs to give four weeks’ notice.
Evictions are currently banned until 21 Feb 2021. This means that it is illegal for a landlord, someone acting on behalf of a landlord, or Bailiffs to remove you from your home. However, your landlord can still service notice, and apply to the courts for a possession order.
It is illegal for your landlord to evict you without first getting a court order.
Jargon buster
Housing Act 1988: this is the government legislation that specifies, among other things, a landlord’s rights to re-take possession of their property.
Section 8 and Schedule 2: these outline the processes and rules for a notice of possession. Section 8 is the notice, Schedule 2 is the process and grounds
Schedule 2 contains the grounds for possession. These are split into mandatory (where the court must make a possession order) and discretionary (where the court may make a possession order if it's reasonable). Discretionary ground might mean the court will stop a possession order if the tenant continues to pay rent and agrees to a repayment plan.
For the purposes of this guide, we’re interested in:
- Ground 8: Eight weeks’ rent arrears (mandatory)
- Ground 10: Rent arrears
- Ground 11: Persistent delay in rent payments (discretionary).
Why would a landlord serve a section 8, and not a section 21?
If you are an Assured Tenant your landlord can’t serve a Section 21, so they don’t have that easier option.
If you are an Assured Shorthold Tenant and the landlord has a choice, they will generally go for a Section 21 because it requires far less proof.
However, they may decide to use the Section 8 and Schedule 2 procedure if either they can’t serve a valid Section 21 Notice; or they want to give a shorter period of notice.
Once you get to court, the court could decide to issue an outright order - which sets a date for possession, or a suspended possession order - which allows you to stay in your home as long as you keep to conditions such as paying off arrears.
Defences if you have a private landlord
The reasonableness defence: if you have less than eight weeks of rent arrears, you can argue that it is unreasonable for your landlord to evict you on multiple grounds - losing income due to COVID-19 is extremely likely to be considered reasonable.
IMPORTANT: as soon as you owe eight or more weeks of rent arrears, it becomes Ground 8, where there is no reasonable defence and the court cannot prevent the eviction. The Coronavirus Act has done nothing to change this.
If you can and want to reduce the arrears to less than eight weeks’ rent, you should do this before the hearing date. If you owe eight weeks at the date of the hearing, the Court does not have the power to adjourn, even if you have guaranteed money coming in soon.
What counts as reasonable?
- If it’s not your fault you’re in arrears (E.g. if you’re struggling for money because of COVID-19, loss of employment, reduced wages, bedroom tax, benefit cap, two child rule, or benefit problems)
- If you have a good tenancy history, or the landlord has a record of poor conduct
- If there is evidence of efforts you have made to pay the rent or apply for financial support
- If there would be significant negative consequences for you and your housemates/family if you are evicted
- You usually do need to show that there’s a reasonable prospect that you will be able to pay the rent in the future and clear the arrears within a reasonable period of time (like a payment plan with small instalments).
It is the landlord’s responsibility to prove that it is reasonable for the court to make a possession order.
In almost all cases there is at least one good reason why it is not reasonable to evict now and to give the tenant a second chance.
Most of these reasons are put forward as part of the “reasonableness” defence but become relevant at the next stage: when the Court is considering whether to make an outright possession order or to suspend the order on you paying the rent in the future and clearing the arrears within a reasonable period of time.
Have they served the wrong paperwork?
- Wrong defendants (not all joint tenants are listed)
- Wrong claimant (a letting agent or relative of the landlord cannot be the claimant)
- The landlord hasn’t proved their status or right to possession
- The landlord hasn’t provided proof of arrears
- Failure to serve a valid Notice - you can see what one looks like here.
Is the landlord lying about how much you owe?
- Check whether you agree that you owe as much as claimed.
- Check that the landlord is only claiming for ‘rent lawfully due’ - no illegal fees! Water rates, council tax, and utility bills are not ‘rent lawfully due’ and cannot be counted as rent arrears, even if you owe them.
- Get evidence of the payments you have made
Submitting a counterclaim
In claim for possession on rent arrears grounds you can “set off” the amount of money that you owe your landlord in rent against the amount they owe you for:
- failing to comply with their repairing obligations;
- failing to protect your deposit in a recognised scheme or give you the required information about the scheme;
- harassment or attempted unlawful eviction
- Get your evidence together: photos, emails, texts, letters.
Are you being discriminated against?
You are protected from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, and if you are able to provide that your eviction is because of a protected characteristic it will be illegal. What might this look like?
Direct Discrimination: when you are being evicted because of a protected characteristic (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.)
Indirect discrimination: the landlord has adopted a provision, criterion or practice that puts someone with a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage when compared with someone who does not have that protected characteristic, and the landlord cannot show that the provision, criterion or practice is proportionate.
Example: Indirect Disability Discrimination – If the reason for your eviction is “because of something arising in consequence of your disability” For example, if you have a diagnosed mental health condition which made you unable to deal with claims for benefits or your financial affairs.
You will need medical evidence that your impairment has directly led to rent arrears.
Defences if you have a social landlord
You can challenge the eviction on any of the points above. You can also challenge if you can show that your landlord has:
- Failed to follow the “Pre-action Protocol for Possession Claims by Social Landlords”
- Failed to act and make decision fairly (the public law defence)
- Failed to act in accordance with your human rights: Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights gives you the right to respect for home (invoking human rights legislation honestly only works in rare circumstances, but it would slow down the possession order which might give you some breathing room to pay off the arrears).
What if it’s neither Ground 8 or Section 21?
If it’s not Ground 8 – then the court has wide powers, even if rent arrears still exist.
The Court can adjourn or make a possession order but suspended on terms that you pay your rent and something towards the arrears.
Even if the court makes an outright possession order or you don’t keep to the suspended order and the landlord applies for a warrant for eviction, you can apply to suspend the warrant and the court has the power to give you another chance to stay, if the possession order was made under a discretionary ground.
If it’s a section 21 or a Ground 8 possession claim the courts don’t have these powers.
They’re sending the bailiffs round
It usually takes three to five months until the bailiffs come, if the court has not managed to stop the eviction.
Even so, there are ways of fighting court bailiffs enforcing a possession order: check out this infographic to find out how: .
Landlord Harassment
Who does this guide apply to?
- Private Renters: Y
- Social Housing Renters - sometimes
- Lodgers: N
- Squatters: N
Introduction
We are so used to landlords - and the power they have - that they can seem unchallengeable. They make profit from our need for a home, and using the courts and the police, can make us homeless. While the situation for tenants in the UK is dire - and looks to get worse under COVID-19 - we still have rights under the law and community power to protect us.
This sheet deals with Landlord Harassment. If you are having trouble with a Section 21 eviction or Rent Arrears check out our other guides. For ways to fight back without going through the courts, check our Stuff Your Landlord guide.
Relevant Legislation
- Protection from Eviction Act 1977 (still in force)
- Rent Act 1977 (for tenancies which began before Jan 1989)
How does the Coronavirus Act affect this?
If your landlord gave you notice from the 26 March to 28 August 2020, the notice period must have been at least 3 months for all grounds. From 29 August 2020 to 31 March 2021 you get six months with some exceptions, including more than six months’ rent arrears.
Evictions are currently banned until 21 Feb 2021. This means that it is illegal for a landlord, someone acting on behalf of a landlord, or Bailiffs to remove you from your home. However, your landlord can still service notice, and apply to the courts for a possession order.
See our other Stuff Your Landlord guides for the specific notice periods affecting the different grounds for eviction under the Coronavirus Act.
Statistics
- The equivalent of over 64,000 renters reported that a landlord has cut off their utilities without their consent and almost 50,000 said their belongings had been thrown out of their home and the locks changed
- Over 600,000 renters have had their home entered by a landlord without permission or notice being given
- Over 200,000 reported having been abused, threatened or harassed by a landlord
- Over 110,000 renters felt they had been treated unfairly due to their race, nationality, gender or sexual orientation.
(Shelter, 2016)
First things first - if your landlord wants to evict you
Don’t go anywhere, and don’t allow yourself to be bullied out. The current pause in the courts and eventual backlog means that - even once your Landlord gets a possession order - it will be some time before they can be legally enforced, and even longer before a court-appointed bailiff will be arranged to try and evict you.
You can use this time to contact a tenants union and plan how to resist. It’s illegal for your landlord to change your locks while you are out - but this doesn’t mean they won’t try it. If you think they might do this it would be wise to leave one person in the property at all times.
What does Landlord Harassment look like?
Landlord harassment isn’t always physical or verbal violence, it can be pretty much anything that unjustifiably interferes with your ‘peace and comfort’.
What’s more, the harassment can be committed by someone else - maybe they’ve sent a family member, letting agent, or someone intimidating round?
Examples of harassment are:
- Removing or restricting services like gas, electricity or water, or failing to pay bills so these services are cut off
- Visiting your home regularly without warning, especially late at night
- Interfering with your post
- Threatening you
- Sending builders round without notice
- Entering your home when you are not there without your permission
- Letting your home get into such a bad state that it’s dangerous to stay there
- Starting disruptive repair works and not finishing them
- Harassing you because of your gender, race or sexuality
When does harassment become an illegal eviction?
It is illegal eviction if your landlord:
- Physically throws you out
- Changes the locks while you’re out
- Forces you to leave your home because the harassment is so bad
Protection from Eviction Act
People protected by the PEA can only be lawfully evicted by court bailiffs who are enforcing a possession order. Anyone other than this cannot lawfully evict you.
Even so, there are ways of fighting court bailiffs enforcing a possession order: check out this infographic to find out how:
What you are protected from?
Unlawful or attempted unlawful eviction:
Where a landlord (or anyone acting on their behalf) unlawfully deprives a residential occupier of their occupation of the whole or part of the premises.
Unlawful or attempted unlawful eviction:
Where a landlord (or anyone acting on their behalf) unlawfully deprives a residential occupier of their occupation of the whole or part of the premises.
Harassment
Where a landlord (or anyone acting on their behalf):
- takes action likely to interfere with the peace or comfort of the residential occupier, or persistently withdraws/withholds services required to live in the premises (see our list above!)
- Knows or has reasonable cause to believe that their conduct will cause the occupier to give up occupation or the whole or part of the premises or refrain from exercising their rights. (Like constructive dismissal, but for your home).
How does the law enforce this? (Criminal Law)
Unfortunately, it rarely does. The police have the power to prosecute, but they rarely do.
The same is true of local authorities, who lack the resources due to systemic underfunding, and are often unable to support in even the most extreme cases.
However, if the police or local authority do successfully prosecute, the penalties for your landlord could be a maximum of two years in prison, an unlimited fine, and compensation (under Criminal offence s1(2) Prevention from Eviction Act 1977).
What legal claims can you make? (Civil Law)
You could bring a civil claim under unlawful or attempted unlawful eviction and harassment, and/or breach of the terms and conditions of your tenancy. You can claim an injunction requiring your landlord to let you back in, and/or preventing the landlord from continuing to harass you. You can also claim damages.
Damages can be claimed for: your financial loss, your distress as a result of the eviction or harassment, any particular suffering you experienced and “exemplary” damages where the landlord was trying to avoid court procedures and/or make a profit from illegally evicting you.
For tenancies that are not assured shorthold tenancies (generally Rent Act 1977 tenancies which started before January 1989), you can claim an additional amount of damages assessed on the difference in value to the landlord with you in possession as against vacant possession. Those additional damages can only be claimed if you have left the property and are not reinstated. Damages can be reduced if your landlord offers to reinstate you and you refuse.
So ideally, you’d need to make separate claims:
- Breach of the contractual term giving you right to ‘quiet enjoyment’ of the property
- Landlord’s ‘Derogation from Grant’ – this basically means the landlord’s use of common parts or neighbouring premises interferes with the tenant(s) use of their home.
These rights are “implied” by every tenancy agreement (which means they don’t need to be in writing to be enforceable).
Who is not protected by this act?
- Lodgers (where the landlord or a member of their family lives in the property)
- People not paying rent in exchange for accommodation
- People granted a right to occupy for a holiday only
- Homeless people placed in B&B or homeless temporary accommodation by the council pending a decision on their homelessness application
- Hostel residents where the landlord is a council or housing association and they have a licence not a tenancy
- Asylum seekers living in asylum support
- Where the Home Office serves a No Right to Rent Notice on basis of the tenant’s immigrations status
- Trespassers (squatters)
Even if you fit into this category you are protected in some ways:
If you are in the list above’ you can be peaceably evicted by your landlord but only once your tenancy or licence has been lawfully ended (by giving the notice specified in the agreement or reasonable notice if no agreement).
It is a criminal offence (s6(1) Criminal Law Act 1977) to use or threaten violence to gain entry where someone inside the property objects. This includes violence to property, like smashing doors or windows.