Eviction for antisocial behaviour

This content applies to England only.

Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. This page applies to England only. Get advice relating to Scotland

Most tenants can be evicted for antisocial behaviour in certain circumstances. The chances of this happening depend on who your landlord is and the type of tenancy.

If you have been threatened with eviction because of your behaviour, get advice immediately. If you do nothing and the behaviour continues, you could end up homeless and may not be entitled to any help from the council. Use our directory to find an adviser in your area.

Councils and housing association tenants

Eviction should only be used by councils and housing associations as a last resort. They are more likely to take action against antisocial behaviour in other ways, such as by asking the court to demote the tenancy or applying for an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO).

However, if you or someone in your household is behaving antisocially, the risk of losing your home if the behaviour continues is very real. The council or housing association's action will probably depend on:

• the seriousness of the antisocial behaviour
• whether they have already tried to take action in other ways, and
• whether the behaviour has improved.

Councils and housing associations must have specific legal reasons ('grounds') and must follow special procedures if they want to evict a tenant. However, some council and housing association tenants can be evicted fairly easily, so you should not assume that it won't happen. You are particularly at risk if you have:

• an introductory council tenancy
• a starter tenancy with a housing association
• a demoted council tenancy or a demoted housing association tenancy
• a family intervention tenancy
• a temporary tenancy that was granted when you made a homelessness application.

These types of tenancy give you very little protection from eviction, so your home is very much at risk if you behave antisocially. If you have one of these types of tenancy and you receive any papers saying that your landlord is going to apply for a court order to evict you, get advice immediately. You may only have a few days to take action if you want to stop the eviction and will need help from an adviser to challenge the decision. Do not wait or it may be too late! Use our directory to find help in your area now.

Tenants of private landlords

Most private tenants can be evicted for causing nuisance or annoyance to neighbours, or for using the property for illegal or immoral purposes (or allow someone else to do so).

The rules on how and when you can be evicted depend on the type of tenancy you have. Most private tenants have an assured shorthold tenancy but this is not always the case, so use our tenancy checker to check your status and find out what procedures the landlord has to follow. Bear in mind that:

• If you are an excluded occupier, you may only be entitled to 'reasonable notice', which is not defined by law.
• In many cases, the tenant is only entitled to two weeks' notice before court action can be started.

It is always a good idea to get in touch with an adviser to find out whether there's anything you can do to keep your home.

If a landlord won't take action

If a landlord decides not to evict an antisocial tenant, it may be possible for neighbours who are distressed by the behaviour to take action by:

Making a formal complaint

This is an option if the landlord is a council or housing association. All councils and housing associations must have a formal complaints procedure that you can use. In many cases you have to do this before you can take any further action.

Complaining to the ombudsman

The Local Government Ombudsman deals with complaints about councils, and has made a number of recommendations that councils should pay compensation to victims and/or review their policies. The ombudsman cannot look into your complaint unless you have already tried to use the formal complaints procedure but are not satisfied with the outcome.

Similarly, the Housing Ombudsman Service deals with complaints about housing associations and other registered social landlords.

Applying for an injunction

A court can make an order called an injunction. An injunction has to be made against one or more people. Usually the injunction is not to do something, for example not to make noise or not to shout abuse at neighbours. But sometimes an injunction is to do something, for example to clear rubbish or to put down a carpet. If someone breaks an injunction, the court can send her/him to prison. And injunctions sometimes have a 'power of arrest', which means that the police can arrest the person who breaks the injunction and take them to court.

Typical examples where the court can make an injunction to stop antisocial behaviour are:

• a landlord wants a tenant to comply with what the tenancy says (eg by not annoying neighbours)
• you or another neighbour want to stop harassment
• the council or a housing association want to stop antisocial behaviour where there is a risk of violence
• the council wants to stop a public nuisance (eg prostitution or drug dealing).

An injunction can work well where a person who has behaved badly wants to change their behaviour. Injunctions won't be likely to work where people can't or won't change, and aren't available against people who can't understand what they are doing wrong or how to stop doing it.