Government issues guidance on court eviction process for landlords

More costs for landlords even when the tenant is withholding rent. I couldn’t afford to take a tenant to court especially if they’re not paying the rent. Why should we listen to this government when they are breaking the rules they are making. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

This is very disappointing. There are many bear traps a landlord can fall into when serving notice and completing a possession claim, such as needing to specify the exact wording of the grounds being relied on and getting the notice period right with multiple grounds. This was an opportunity to upgrade the PCOL process to automate the most bureaucratic elements and prevent unnecessary dismissals. Sadly the Government seems intent to slowing the eviction process in every way possible, forcing landlords to shoulder the burden of housing rogue tenants for as long as possible.

£404! That’s equivalent a months rent for a small property in many locations ‘up north’.

Whereas it’s not much more than 10% of a months rent for those such as Reeves who has let out her home whilst enjoying free accommodation.

At least tenants will be getting CCJs for their debts going forward unlike previously when they got lucky when LLs used S21 to get the property back and get paying tenants in situ quickly.

If I am reading this right…. Scenario: Landlord wants to evict tenant for rent arrears alone, no other ground, needs to use PCOL, costs £404. Then still has to send paper copies, still a court hearing. Tenant takes legal advice, takes out a loan and pays arrears off, Landlord then may have to pay tenants legal costs plus his own if he has used Solicitors. So going forward, tenant doesn’t pay rent as he’s paying back the loan. Arrears build up again…. Rinse and Repeat!! So process starts again, but can now include other ground of persistently late paying and needs to use the paper application to court.

I’m hoping that my tenants will leave to buy their own houses in the near future and I can just start selling when they leave.

My rents are currently way too low so will be rising to encourage this.

Even with large rent rises, I don’t see this happening. I’m currently trying to sell some houses to tenants.

So I guess that I’m going have use an eviction specialist to go through the, selling the property route and I will provide them with the contract with the estate agent and start selling up.

My preference is to sell up when tenant leaves.

The government are doing anything possible to get rid of landlords and I’m at the point I will let them win if they want me out, Just for gods sake give me a way out and don’t let the courts block it.

They want my houses to give them to the likes of Serco, I’ll sell them to them at market rate.

A year ago I was determined to hang in there, I’m at the point of not selling cheap but can’t wait to get all of my assets outside of the UK.

The UK government is driving investment out of the UK.

My assets are only worth a couple of million, so no loss to Reeves, but when a lot of other PRS landlords sell up, it may add up to a figure that may make a difference to her thinking… And there again maybe not. They are only thinking about votes and don’t care about anyone else but themselves.

After all, there are more tenants than landlords.

Thanks for sharing. The split system feels like it’s going to make things even slower. PCOL only for arrears and everything else still on paper sounds like a recipe for delays and confusion, especially if you’ve got mixed issues.

The main takeaway for me is that landlords won’t get away with any sloppy paperwork anymore. If you’re not on top of notices, evidence and timelines, the judge can just bin the claim and you start again.

Definitely worth tightening up record-keeping now. The margin for error looks tiny once this kicks in.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Gibbens at 03/12/2025 – 23:56
I think that 99% of my paperwork in in order, I;m sure that a pro tenant judge will find the other 1% that isn’t.

I am really questioning myself these days of why I am still a landlord and doing the best I can to look after my tenants and invest any money that I currently have outside of the UK. I really have had enough of investing in the UK. For me its time to sell up. Tenants left will not be happy, lets hope that the council have some spare houses

Reply to the comment left by Jill Church at 03/12/2025 – 10:30

seems the ‘only’ other way is to make sure its not just arrears that prompt possession. Surely not paying rent on time itself is by default a breach of contract and so S8 can be used? Arrears after all are the consequence of the rent not being paid on time and in full which is a contractual obligation?

S8 grounds make it clear.
G8, G10 & G11 can still be used.

Are they suggesting PCOL may be used as a wakeup call to tenants only? Are they hoping that the T then gets a PCOL and then pays all the arrears and the cost of the PCOL and that is the end of the matter?

Personally I’d not bother with a PCOL and wait for the situation where you can use as many S8 grounds as you can and seek possession at the same time.

Does a non paying T with rent arrears really ever come good and the situation addressed in full? No room for the benefit of the doubt these days…

When I went to court because a tenant disputed my PCOL application the magistrate also wanted a copy of my land registry entry to prove I actually owned the property and as I was a LTD company a copy of my articles of associated to prove my company was entitled to let out property.

Neither of these were legal requirements as pointed out by the solicitor that attended court with me (provided by Landlord Action) and he told the magistrate so ! .. but I had them anyway just in case (I won the eviction by the way)

It just goes to show that magistrates seem to be making it up as they go along to protect the tenant, and the landlord is advised to use one of these eviction specialists as they often know more than the magistrate..

LANDLORD WARNING – The PCOL System Has a Serious Flaw

Over the last 18 months I’ve completed four evictions using PCOL (Possession Claims Online) under Section 8 – Rent Arrears.
However, I’ve discovered a critical flaw in the system that every landlord and agent needs to be aware of.

The Problem

When issuing a possession claim via PCOL and selecting rent arrears, the system is supposed to populate Section 4c of form N119 – Particulars of Claim for Possession with the grounds being relied upon.
Instead, PCOL leaves Section 4c completely blank.

That means Grounds 8, 10 & 11 are NOT inserted, even though they were selected.
Worse still – because the N119 is auto-generated, the landlord cannot edit or add the grounds manually, meaning the form is served to the tenant incomplete.

What happened in my case

My first three cases went through without issue – the judges didn’t spot the omission.

But in the fourth hearing, the judge did notice, and declared the N119 defective.

I was forced to re-serve the corrected N119 on the tenant and the court and wait for a new hearing date.

This delayed the eviction by 2 months, causing an additional ~£3,000 in lost rent.

Response from Court & PCOL

PCOL helpdesk: “The system is working as designed – not an error.”

Court: “Grounds must be specified in the N119, even if they appear in the Section 8 notice.”

In other words, PCOL expects grounds to be stated but won’t insert them, and won’t allow you to correct it, leading to a legal dead-end unless the court overlooks it.