Tenant Won’t Leave After a Notice? What a Landlord Can Do

You served the notice, it expired, and the tenant is still in the property. It is one of the most stressful moments a landlord faces — and the moment when the wrong instinct causes the most damage. You cannot change the locks, cut off utilities, or move their things out. Doing any of that is a criminal offence, and it turns you from the landlord who is owed possession into the landlord who is prosecuted.

This guide sets out what you legally can and cannot do when a tenant stays past a notice, and the lawful route that actually gets you the property back.

This is guidance, not legal advice. Possession is fact-sensitive — take advice before acting.

First, what you must NOT do

A notice — even an expired one — does not give you the right to remove the tenant yourself. Under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, removing or harassing a residential occupier other than by the lawful court process is a criminal offence. That includes:

The penalties are serious: unlawful eviction and harassment can carry up to two years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine, plus civil damages the tenant can claim. It does not matter that the tenant owes you rent or that the notice has expired — the only lawful way to remove them is through the court.

The lawful route, step by step

Getting possession when a tenant will not leave is a sequence, and each step has to be done before the next:

At no point in that chain are you allowed to take matters into your own hands. The bailiff appointment is the finish line — not the day the notice expired, and not the day of the possession order.

How long, and what it costs

Be realistic about both. Beyond the notice period, you are into the county court queue for the hearing, and then — if a warrant is needed — the bailiff queue on top. A straightforward case can still take months from notice to keys; a contested one can run past a year.

The court fees (GOV.UK EX50, checked July 2026):

You can apply to transfer enforcement to the High Court for potentially faster High Court Enforcement Officers, which costs more. Either way, budget for the wait and the fees, and keep charging the rent arrears clock running — a Ground 8 arrears→ case, for example, depends on the arrears at the hearing date.

What to do while you wait

The waiting is real, but it is not passive:

How LetCompliance helps: the Section 8 notice builder produces a notice on the correct ground with the right period and the earliest lawful date, and the rent and arrears ledger gives you the timestamped record a possession hearing turns on — so the case you take to court is the strongest version of itself.

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