Tenant with Section 21 may be jailed?

We have had similar more than once.
1. Do you have guarantor?
If so, liase with them.
They will in all likleyhood want the T to voluntarily give up the tenancy. Agree to forgo any notice period;thereby offering G a saving..
Stick their furniture in storage or better still get the guarantors to take it away.
Count yourself lucky.
2. No guarantor. Finding the prison isn’t easy but you need to.
Write to or if local go and visit.
Shows interest.
Make offer to vacate as above.
This often works.
3. Otherwise liase with LA PRS.
They ‘may’ pay HB and in some cases discretionary HB so T does not come out and need Emergency Housing.
However fact s21 is issued may if you actually want them out count against this course of action .
Don’t despair and as others say don’t do anything drastic.
Prison is like holiday.
We don’t go and change the locks then .
You cannot use abandonment as you have stated you know they are in the penal system

We give free initial advice, ( directly, rather than comment on Posts )
However, Until your tenant actually goes to prison and for how long, the whole scenario is speculative.

Tenant can claim housing benefit if sentence is below a certain time.

They may sign deed of surrender.

If tenant in prison contact liaison prison officer to try arrange deed and f surrender.

Continue with eviction process

I’ve heard of a tenant getting a rent repayment order against a landlord from jail, because a landlord hasn’t heard from the tenant and assumed the property was abandoned. They made entry, replaced the locks and moved in a new tenant.

The tenant hasn’t given up possession, so you are still required to obtain a possession order and use baliffs. You can still get possession with costs, and a CCJ for the rental arrears.

The best outcome here for all, would be to speak to the tenant about signing a deed of surrender and having them return the keys, and remind them and that if they don’t, the tenancy remains in effect and a rental debt would accrue if rent isn’t paid, even if they are in jail. If the tenant has a guarantor you can pursue them as well.

If you plan to stick with s21 and court, make sure the s21 is valid (deposit protected, correct form, dated, signed, gas saftey certificates served and up to date etc). If your s21 isn’t valid and the tenant doesn’t pay rent, you can after 2 months swap to s8 notice, using the mandatory ground for rent arrears.

Reply to the comment left by Tim Rogers at 30/09/2025 – 11:33

You cant add clauses that override basic & legal rights conferred under the Housing Act.

TLDR The fully legally compliant process is t do the S21 (or S8 depending upon the impact of the renters rights bill) as you would any other tenant. Treat no response to the eviction notices as you would any other tenant. Get the bailiffs round to perform the eviction as you would any other non responding tenant. Store/dispose of any remaining belongings as you would do for any other tenant who left things behind. But also give notice and do regular inspections, potentially turn off the water to avoid leaks, and comply with any requirements of your building insurance. Changing the locks, throwing away all there stuff and getting a new tenant in risks charges of illegal eviction etc. But of course your tenant may never come back to the property and may just assume they’ve been evicted, so it’s up to you the risks you take.

This all comes from me having a similar situation. The tenant had been in for 2-3 months, then arrested, charged and not granted bail. Here is what I did.

To be clear, the fact they are in jail has almost no bearing on anything. They are still your tenant and you can only evict them via the normal routes. The theory is that if they keep paying the rent then they have done nothing wrong and will need a home when they get out of jail. Simply changing the locks could be considered illegal eviction. You might find references on the internet to “abandonment” of property – ignore all these as they are wrong. There is some legislation regarding abandonment, however it was caveated with a statement that it would be enacted by the home secretary at a later date. This never happened, so it is not law and is irrelevant.

I messaged and posted a letter to the tenant saying that I believed they had abandoned the property and that this was 24 hour notice that I would begin daily inspections to move post (required at least weekly by my insurance for empty properties) and ensure there was no damage. I informed them I would also turn of the water at the stop tap to avoid risks of water damage.

I did those inspections, recording them on my phone.

I had to wait for two months of arrears to build up to issue section 8 proceedings for unpaid rent as they were within their fixed term. You may be able to issue S21 immediately, depending on your circumstances.

I got a court date and went to court representing myself. All paperwork was in order and 2 months arrears requires an eviction notice, which the judge duly made.

I explained to the judge that the property appeared abandoned and that I’d performed regular inspections and had photoghic evidence showing the bed had clearly not been slept in, etc. The judge gave the stock answer that the tenant may have gone on a long holiday, but he did give the shortest possible duration on the eviction notice and made an order for costs and unpaid rent.

He also said something along the lines of, “I’m not allowed to give legal advice, but it’s worth remembering that there is a legal process to follow for eviction.” I presume he was hinting that there is a time period to wait after the court date and if the property is not surrendered then bailiffs need to be called in.

I did consider waiting for the eviction order date, then changing the locks without getting the bailiffs involved. While this could initiate allegations of illegal eviction I thought the odds of the tenant actually making those allegations were slim to none. However, one week later the tenant got bail and I was able to contact him. His bail condition did not allow him to live in the property so I told him there was now an eviction order, he owed me rent and that debt would continue increasing until he emailed me to say he surrendered the tenancy. He did that immediately. I had changed the locks an hour later.

I asked him what he wanted doing with his stuff and he said he didn’t want any of it. I got him to confirm that in writing and booked a skip and got rid of it all.

I didn’t pursue him for the unpaid rent or skip costs as it was pretty clear he had nothing to pay it with anyway. I just got a new tenant in and moved on.

Something else worth considering – I kept getting calls from some council department wanting to pay the tenant’s rent. I simply told them that data protection legislation stopped me disclosing information about my tenants or their tenancies without their consent. You may feel different.