This page explains what happens if we are forced to take legal action, what eviction means and how you can get help to avoid you losing your home.
At SNG, we are committed to supporting our customers to stay in their homes. We want to work with you to get you back on track if you’ve fallen behind with your rent or you’re facing challenges in your life that are affecting your tenancy.
If we have tried to help and there are no improvements, there are some occasions when we may have to consider taking legal action against you – which could result in eviction. This is always a last resort.
Please note, evictions are serious and could have a detrimental impact on your future housing options. Getting evicted may mean you’ll be unsuccessful in bidding for another home with your local authority and renting privately may also be hard as we’d be unable to give you a positive landlord reference.
This page will help you understand our eviction procedure and offers advice to help you avoid losing your home.
What happens when you take legal action?
- If you fail to clear your unpaid rent or there are other breaches of your tenancy that remain unresolved – such as ASB, poor property condition or refusal of access - we will send you a Notice of Intended Possession Proceedings.
- The letter will explain which parts of your tenancy agreement have been breached and provide a date that we’ll apply to the court to start legal action.
- The notice gives you an opportunity to contact us to resolve the issue – for e.g. you can make a reasonable offer of rent arrears repayment, based on an affordability assessment. Our team can help you complete this assessment using the Better Off Calculator and put together a manageable repayment plan. If you take action now to turn things around, we may not need to take legal action.
- If the outstanding rent arrears are still not cleared or we can’t agree on a payment plan, or any other breach of your tenancy is still not resolved, a court hearing will be arranged. We’ll tell you the date of your court hearing as soon as we have it.
- You will be required to pay court fees of £404 and if you haven’t already done so, you should seek professional advice at this stage – we’ve provided contact details of organisations who can offer support at the bottom of this page.
- If you’re in rent arrears, we suggest making as many payments as you can before the court hearing, to demonstrate that you have been trying to clear the outstanding balance. You can still also contact us to discuss your situation and find a resolution.
- Before the court hearing takes place, we’ll contact you to discuss what will happen and any documents or evidence you may need.
Outright Possession Order
- You will have to leave your home by the date given. If you don’t leave your home by this date, we will ask the court for an eviction warrant and a date for eviction will be set by the court bailiff. If you have any rent arrears, you will still have to pay them, plus court fees.
Suspended Possession Order
- You must make the payments the court tells you to pay or adhere to the specific conditions set by the court. If you do not do this, we will ask for an eviction warrant and the court bailiff will set a date for your eviction.
Adjourned
- The judge may adjourn for more evidence or information, and the case may be put on hold. If the judge sets a further hearing date, they may make a possession order.
Adjourned on terms
- This could happen if you have reduced your rent arrears before the hearing. No further action will be taken if you continue to make the payments the judge tells you to make. However, if you don’t make the payments, we’ll request a further hearing and the judge is likely to make a possession order.
How can I avoid legal action progressing and/or getting evicted?
We want to help if you’ve fallen behind with your rent or you’re facing challenges that are affecting your tenancy. We can support with budgeting, repayment plans, benefits, debt, employment or referrals to independent support agencies to prevent you from losing your home.
The important thing is to get in touch with us as soon as possible.
FAQs about eviction
If the court hearing results in an eviction warrant against you, we’ll send you notification of this. We’ll arrange a pre-eviction meeting so that we can understand your current situation and provide a final opportunity to work with you.
If you don’t attend this, or you don’t bring your payments up to date or find a resolution, we’ll contact you to tell you when your eviction will take place. You’ll also receive confirmation of this date from the court bailiff.
We’ll contact the housing options team at the council to let them know that we are applying to evict you, as you may be made homeless. It's important you engage with any support they can offer to help sustain your tenancy. Find the details of your local council’s housing options team. 
If you pay all your arrears and any court costs in full before the eviction date, or resolve the breaches of your tenancy, the eviction may be stopped. Please remember to keep receipts of your payments if you’ve begun to pay your rent arrears.
You can also request a ‘stay hearing’ (held before the eviction date) where you ask the judge to stop the eviction. You’ll need to explain why you haven’t kept up with your payments or breached your tenancy and make an offer of repayment or a resolution. The judge will decide whether you can stay in your home.
If you want to apply for a stay hearing, contact your local county court. You may have to pay court fees if it goes ahead.
You can get further support from organisations at the bottom of this page to arrange a stay hearing - they will able to help you with the paperwork, and may even be able to come to the hearing with you.
If you don’t pay your rent arrears and court costs in full, you continue to breach your tenancy, or you have an unsuccessful stay hearing, you will have to leave your home by the eviction date.
A court bailiff and someone from SNG will be present at the eviction. We’ll change the locks to the property, and you won’t be allowed to re-enter. If you haven’t removed all your belongings from the property, they will be disposed of.
You will still have to pay the debt, plus any extra costs for cleaning, clearance and damage to the property. We may pass this work on to a debt collection agency.
Contact your local councils housing options team immediately for support with finding a new home. Find your local council’s housing option team.
Citizens Advice
National Debt Line
- www.nationaldebtline.co.uk
- 0808 808 4000
Universal Credit helpline
- 0800 328 5644
Step Change
- www.stepchange.org
- 0800 138 1111
HM Revenue and Customs
Shelter
- www.shelter.org.uk
- 0808 800 4444
Turn 2 Us
Money Advice Plus
- www.moneyadviceplus.org.uk
- 0808 196 8845
Mind
- www.mind.org.uk
- 0300 123 3393
Law Centres Network
Find your local council’s housing options team