Honourable and personal residential letting experts

The good news is, this happens very rarely.

The overwhelming majority of modern tenancies are held directly with tenants as either Assured Shorthold Tenancies or Periodic Tenancies (Statutory or Contractual). In these cases the usual route for removing tenants who stay beyond the end of their tenancy is the Accelerated Possession Procedure (APP).

The APP looks at the processes that have been followed, not the reason for the tenancy being ended. Therefore provided all the correct paperwork and communication is up to date, accurate, complete, served at the right time and available as evidence, then the Courts will usually grant possession. The APP recovers vacant possession of the property, it does not recover unpaid rent or other debts.

The courts charge a fee which can be reclaimed from the tenant. We charge a fee to collate and prepare all the documents required to support the application. We help landlords with completing the application form, which needs to be signed by the landlord or their legal representative.

Where landlords have Legal Expenses or Rent Protection insurance, the insurer will normally manage these issues.

The Court usually makes a judgement in around 8-12 weeks, provided the tenant does not raise a defence. If possession is granted they usually give the tenants up to two weeks to leave, but can give up to six weeks. Meaning the overall time is about 10-18 weeks. Through this time the tenant has the key rights of any tenant to quiet enjoyment, meaning any unauthorised access to the property could be regarded as trespass or harassing the tenant, which would make possession harder to achieve.

If tenants do not leave at the date decided then an application is made to the Courts for a ‘Warrant for Possession’, which means the Court bailiff will take possession of the property for a Court fee. The Court usually makes a judgement in around 2-4 weeks. If bailiffs are instructed then the timetable is driven by their availability. Our experience is this takes about six weeks, meaning a total of about 8-10 weeks, on top of the 10-18 weeks for the APP.