You must follow strict procedures if you want your tenant to leave your property. If you do not follow these procedures you may be guilty of illegally evicting or harassing your tenant.
Harassment and illegal evictions
It’s a crime if you harass or try to force your tenant out of a property without using proper procedures.
If you are found guilty of harassment or illegal eviction, your tenant may have a right to claim damages through the court. Convictions in cases of illegal eviction may carry a prison sentence.
What is harassment?
Harassment can be anything a landlord does, or fails to do, that makes a tenant feel unsafe in the property.
This can include for example:
- threatening to change the locks
- opening or withholding post
- entering a tenant's home without permission
- removing or interfering with your tenant's belongings
- violent or intimidating language or behaviour
- persistently cutting off gas, water or electricity
- demands for money that your tenant doesn't owe or can't pay
- pressure to move out before a tenancy ends legally
Illegal evictions
You may be guilty of illegal eviction if you:
- do not give the tenant notice to leave the property
- change the locks
- evict without a court order
Even if your property is repossessed by a mortgage lender, the lender must give your tenants notice so they can find other accommodation.
Dealing with problematic tenants
In cases where disputes with tenants arise, landlords have several sources they can go to for the advice they need and there are also services available for resolving disputes:
Sector bodies
- Guild of Residential Landlords
- London Landlord Accreditation Scheme
- National Residential Landlord Association
- Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
- iHowz (formerly the Southern Landlords Association)