Possession order granted: outright or suspended, the date to leave, and applying for a warrant (England 2026)

A possession order is the county court's decision that the tenant must give the property back by a set date. On a mandatory ground, such as Ground 8 for three months' rent arrears, the order is outright and the date is no later than 14 days after the order is made, or six weeks where leaving sooner would cause the tenant exceptional hardship. On a discretionary ground the court can suspend the order on terms instead. If the tenant is still there after the date, the landlord applies for a warrant of possession on Form N325, for a fee of £152, and a county court bailiff carries it out.

This guide follows a Section 8 case in England from the claim to the bailiff, the landlord's side first: the forms, the hearing, the two kinds of order, the warrant and the move to the High Court. Every rule, fee and figure was read on the primary source (GOV.UK, legislation.gov.uk, the Civil Procedure Rules and the Ministry of Justice) on 25 October 2026. Wales has its own tenancy law under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, so the grounds and notices here are for England only.

From the Section 8 notice to the claim

Once the date in the notice has passed and the tenant is still there, the next step is a claim for possession in the county court. A Section 8 notice served on or after 1 May 2026 can usually be used to start that claim for up to 12 months after it was served. If you are told the tenant is in a Breathing Space (the debt respite scheme), you cannot take court action over the rent arrears until it ends.

Online or on paper

• Possession Claim Online is only for claims based on rent arrears alone, against a tenant with an address in England and Wales (Practice Direction 55B, para 5.1). You fill the claim in on the service, pay by card or Direct Debit and follow its progress there. It cannot be used with an application for help with fees.
• On paper, for any ground: Form N5 (the claim form) with Form N119 (the particulars of claim), posted, emailed or delivered to the county court that deals with housing possession for the property, with an extra copy of each document for the court to serve on each tenant.

Either way, the fee is £415. Send a copy of the Section 8 notice with the claim, and your proof of service: a certificate of service on Form N215, or "served by [your name] on [the date]" written on your copy of the notice.

What the particulars must show for rent arrears

Where the claim includes unpaid rent, Practice Direction 55A (para 2.3) sets out what the particulars must contain:

1. 1The amount due when the claim starts
2. 2A schedule of every payment due and every payment made over the two years before the claim was issued (or from the first missed payment, if that is later), with a running total of the arrears
3. 3The daily rate of the rent
4. 4Any earlier steps taken to recover the arrears, with details of any court proceedings
5. 5What you know of the tenant's circumstances, in particular any benefits and any payments made to you direct

On a monthly rent, a common way to work the daily rate is the yearly rent divided by 365. On £1,200 a month that is £14,400 divided by 365, or £39.45 a day to the penny, which lets the judge bring the arrears up to the hearing day.

Before the hearing

The court sends the tenant the claim and fixes a hearing. The hearing must be at least 28 days after the claim is issued, the standard gap is no more than 8 weeks, and the tenant must be served at least 21 days before it (Civil Procedure Rules 55.5(3)). The tenant can file a defence within 14 days of being served. A tenant who files nothing can still come to the hearing and defend, because there is no default judgment in a possession claim (CPR 55.7). At least 14 days before the hearing, send the court a copy of every document you rely on, with the tenant's defence if there is one.

If you took a deposit, check it before you issue. On most grounds the court can make an order only if the deposit is held in an authorised scheme with the scheme's requirements met (late protection still counts) and the prescribed information given in the prescribed form or one to the same effect, or you have returned the deposit in full or with deductions you both agreed, or the tenant's deposit claim has been decided, settled or withdrawn (Housing Act 2004 s.215, as it stands since 1 May 2026).

At the hearing

The judge either decides the claim there and then or gives directions, and a claim genuinely disputed on grounds that look substantial is allocated to a track for a fuller hearing later (CPR 55.8). Bring copies of everything, with the arrears brought up to the day. The judge can:

• make an outright order: the tenant must leave by the date in it
• make a suspended order: the tenant can stay while they keep to its terms, such as the rent plus a set amount off the arrears each month
• add a money judgment to either, usually for the arrears, the court fee and your costs
• adjourn the hearing to another date
• dismiss the claim, for example where the procedure was not followed, you do not attend, the ground is not proved or the arrears have been paid. You then start again, and you may be ordered to pay the tenant's costs.

A judgment for money alone does not give you the property back: for that you need a new possession claim.

Outright or suspended: the ground decides

The ground you prove at the hearing decides which order the court can make, so choose the grounds for the notice with this in mind.

A worked example. The rent is £1,200 a month, so Ground 8 needs at least £3,600 unpaid (three months' rent) on the day the notice was served and again on the day of the hearing. The notice cites Grounds 8, 10 and 11.

• On the hearing day £4,800 is owed. Ground 8 is proved, so the court must make an outright order, and it cannot suspend it whatever the tenant offers to pay.
• The tenant pays £1,300 the week before the hearing, leaving £3,500. That is £100 short of three months' rent, so Ground 8 fails. The court then decides Grounds 10 and 11 on whether possession is reasonable, and a suspended order on terms (the rent plus, say, £100 a month off the arrears) is one outcome open to it.

One rule from 1 May 2026 changes the count. Where a tenant on Universal Credit is short only because the housing payment has not reached them yet, that amount is ignored when the arrears are measured for Ground 8 (Housing Act 1988 Schedule 2, Ground 8).

The date to leave

An outright order on a mandatory ground gives a date no later than 14 days after the order is made. If the tenant shows that leaving that soon would cause exceptional hardship, the judge can push the date back, but never beyond six weeks after the order (Housing Act 1980 s.89). For an order made on Tuesday 1 December 2026:

A suspended order works differently. It sets terms, and the tenant stays as long as they keep to them. If the order postpones the date for possession instead (Housing Act 1988 s.9(2)(b)), there is no date to enforce yet. When the tenant misses a payment, you give them written notice, at least 14 days and no more than 3 months before you apply, then ask the court on Form N244 to fix the date, with a statement of the rent account (Practice Direction 55A, Section IV).

What the court figures show

Outright orders are the norm for private landlords. The Ministry of Justice publishes every possession action by quarter and by local authority. Counted for properties in England from its local authority data for April to June 2026 (the published totals cover England and Wales):

On private landlords' standard claims, 96% of the orders were outright: 5,299 of 5,515. One reason is the rule above, since once a mandatory ground is proved there is nothing to suspend. The figures count what happened in the quarter, not one group of cases followed through, and the quarter straddles 1 May 2026, so most of these orders came from claims begun under the old rules. The repossession row counts only evictions by county court bailiffs, so it is smaller than the number of homes actually handed back.

Applying for the warrant

If the tenant has not left by the date in an outright order, or has broken the terms of a suspended one, the next step is a warrant of possession. Only a county court bailiff, or after a transfer a High Court enforcement officer, can remove a tenant. Changing the locks yourself while they still live there is illegal eviction, which GOV.UK says can lead to prosecution or a fine of up to £40,000.

The fee is £152. The request goes to the county court that made the order, and you certify that the tenant has not left. On a suspended order you also certify the amount still owed and that an instalment is unpaid (CPR 83.26). You can ask for a warrant without the court's permission for six years after the order; after that you need permission (CPR 83.2).

Once the warrant is issued, the court sends you its number, Form EX96 with the bailiff's appointment and a risk assessment on Form EX97A. Return both at least three working days before the appointment, or the eviction may be delayed. The tenant must get a notice of eviction at least 14 days before the bailiff comes (CPR 83.8A).

On the day, meet the bailiff outside, bring any spare keys and a locksmith to change the locks, and do not go in until the bailiff says so. You are responsible for any pets or belongings left behind.

The bailiff recovers the property, not the money. A money judgment in the order is enforced on its own, for example by taking payments from the tenant's wages; without one, the arrears need a separate claim, which recovering rent arrears through Money Claim Online covers.

Moving enforcement to the High Court

A landlord can ask for the order to be enforced in the High Court instead, where a High Court enforcement officer carries out a writ of possession. GOV.UK says this may be faster but costs more. You need the county court's permission to transfer (County Courts Act 1984 s.42): ask on Form N244 if it was not given at the hearing, and use Form N293A to request the writ once it has been. A writ needs the same 14 days' notice of eviction as a warrant (CPR 83.8A).

The court fees are £126 for the permission (the fee for an application without notice) and £82 to seal the writ. The enforcement officer charges on top, so get a written quote first and set it against the £152 county court warrant.

The court fees, stage by stage

The amounts are those in the HMCTS fee list (EX50, updated 13 July 2026) and the Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008, amended that day by SI 2026/642. When read on 25 October 2026, GOV.UK's repossession guide still showed the earlier £148 for the warrant, £123 for the transfer and £80 for the writ, and its "If tenants do not follow a possession order" page £148 and £123. The court usually adds the claim fee and your costs to the money judgment. For the whole bill, with solicitor's charges and lost rent, see what an eviction costs.

What the tenant can still do

• Apply to suspend the warrant, on Form N244. A warrant can usually only be suspended where the order rested on a discretionary ground, or where you agree. The court lists a hearing and tells you the date, and you should attend.
• Apply to set the order aside, if they could not defend the claim, for example because they were away or unwell. The court normally gives at least three days' notice of that hearing.
• Appeal, usually within 21 days, if the judge made a serious legal mistake or did not follow the correct process. The same route is open to you if the claim is dismissed.

At the hearing itself, a counterclaim for disrepair can set damages against the arrears and take them below the Ground 8 line: see disrepair counterclaims.

Claims on a notice served before 1 May 2026

The old rules still decide some cases, and the cut-off is exact.

• A valid Section 21 notice served before 1 May 2026 could be used only if the court was asked to issue a claim on it by 31 July 2026, or six months after the notice was served if that came first (four months after its leave date, for a notice that had to give more than two months). That deadline has passed, although a claim the court was asked to issue in time carries on until the case ends.
• A Section 8 notice served before 1 May 2026, on the old Form 3, could be used to start a claim until 31 July 2026, or 12 months after it was served if that came first. GOV.UK's guidance on notices given before 1 May 2026 sets out one exception, a rent arrears notice on Grounds 8, 10 or 11 where the tenant was in a Breathing Space: if the notice would otherwise have run out during it, or had less than 8 weeks left when it ended, the landlord has 8 weeks from the day it ended to ask the court to issue the claim.
• A claim still running on an old notice is decided on the grounds as they stood before 1 May 2026, so Ground 8 there needs two months' rent unpaid (eight weeks' on a weekly or fortnightly tenancy), not three.
• An accelerated Section 21 order normally gives the tenant 14 days to leave, or up to 42 days for exceptional hardship, and is enforced with a warrant on Form N325 in the same way.
• If the judge dismisses a claim on an old notice, the tenancy becomes an assured periodic tenancy under the new rules from the date of dismissal, and getting the property back then starts with a new Section 8 notice on Form 3A.

Keeping the case on one record

Each stage leaves a date that sets the next one: the earliest day you can go to court, the 12-month limit for issuing, the hearing, the date to leave in the order, the warrant and the bailiff's appointment. In LetCompliance the possession tracker records the case against the property and the tenant: the notice, the earliest day to go to court, the last day to issue, the claim, the hearing, the day of the order and its type, the warrant and the eviction day. It prompts the next step (record an outright order, and it prompts the warrant if the tenant has not left). The earliest and last days to issue, the hearing and the eviction day go to your dashboard and, on a personal account, your calendar feed. The tracker has no field for the date to leave in the order, so note that date yourself: the warrant can be requested from the day after it.

Before the hearing, the evidence bundle puts the case into one zip with a numbered index: the notice as sent; a rent statement, month by month or rent period by rent period, of what was charged, what was paid and the running balance; the agreement; the deposit protection and prescribed information; the certificates and whether each reached the tenant; inspections, repairs and notes; and a list of anything the record does not hold. The arrears schedule in the particulars also needs the date of each payment, which the statement does not list.

The tracker, the bundle and the Section 8 notice builder, which fills in Form 3A with each ground in the statute's own words and works out the Ground 8 arrears, come with every paid plan, from £7.99 a month, with no charge per notice. They are not on the free plan or in the trial.

Track the case from notice to bailiff