Complaints about eviction from your privately rented home
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people living in privately rented accommodation who are being threatening with eviction, and who may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.
My landlord is trying to evict me, can the Ombudsman help me?
In some cases, yes. But first you should get in touch with your council. The council can take action against private landlords for the harassment or illegal eviction of tenants. We can consider your complaint if the council has not dealt with the matter properly.
What should the council do?
- If you are being harassed and believe that your landlord may evict you illegally, or you have been evicted already, you can ask the council for help and advice. The housing department can advise you about your rights. They usually employ someone to deal specially with the problems of private tenants, generally called either a tenancy relations officer or a homelessness prevention officer.
- Your landlord cannot evict you without following the correct legal procedure. There are different kinds of tenancies and the council should be able to tell you about your own position. Generally, the landlord must serve a Notice of Seeking Possession and you are not required to leave until the period of notice has expired. Even then, the landlord cannot evict you without a court order.
- The law says that a landlord cannot interfere with the peace or comfort of a tenant or persistently withhold services which are reasonably required by the tenant. Examples of unacceptable actions by landlords might be: damaging the property, disconnecting the electricity supply or making threats. If the landlord prevents you from entering the property, for example by changing the locks, you may have been evicted illegally.
- The council has the power to investigate complaints of illegal eviction under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and to take criminal proceedings against the landlord.
How do I complain?
- Unless the matter is urgent, you should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.
- Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.
- If your situation is urgent you may need to get advice immediately from a solicitor, law centre or housing advice centre. But we do not expect you to do this if you have already been evicted and you have nowhere to stay, or if you are at risk or particularly vulnerable, for example if you are a young person or have mental health problems. We would then look at your complaint straightaway even if you have not been through the council’s complaints procedure first.
- You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.
- To complain to the Ombudsman phone our Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 or 0845 602 1983 (8.30am to 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays). You will be able to discuss your complaint with one of our advisers. You can text us on 0762 480 4299.
- You can complete an online complaint form at www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint, or you can email us at advice@lgo.org.uk.
- It is important that we can keep in contact if you have no permanent address and you move around. If you give us a mobile telephone number or email address that will make it much easier for us to keep in touch with you.
If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
We have to decide whether the council has done something wrong in the way it dealt with your case and whether this has caused you a problem. Some of the issues we can look at are if the council:
- failed to consider your concerns properly;
- failed to advise you of your rights; or
- failed to investigate your allegations properly; and whether it
- took appropriate action; or
- took too long to deal with your case.
- We cannot investigate the way the council deals with legal proceedings because this is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds that the council was at fault?
The Ombudsman usually cannot say that the council has made the wrong decision unless there is evidence that it failed to follow the procedure properly. So, if the council has investigated your case and reached a decision properly we may not have any grounds to take it further. But if we find that the council failed to deal with your case properly we will consider whether it should take steps to put things right, for example by carrying our further investigation or giving you further advice and support with housing. Sometimes we ask the Council to pay compensation when something has gone wrong, and we may also recommend that it carries out a review of the way it deals with similar cases.
Examples of some complaints we have considered
Mr and Mrs Y had an assured shorthold tenancy. They paid their rent regularly until Mr Y lost his job and they missed one payment. The landlord started sending text messages demanding the rent and visiting Mrs Y at her workplace. He then served them with a Notice to Quit. Mr and Mrs Y alleged that the landlord entered their flat, threatened and assaulted Mr Y and stole money and personal belongings. They reported the matter to the police and to the council.
For three months the matter was passed between the housing department and the council’s legal service but no action was taken. After Mr and Mrs Y’s solicitor chased up the matter, the council interviewed them. However, it was a further four months before the landlord was interviewed.
By this time the landlord had started possession proceedings, but without waiting for a court order he changed the locks and evicted Mr and Mrs Y illegally. They complained to the council. The legal department then interviewed the landlord under caution and decided to pursue a prosecution.
The Ombudsman could not say that the incidents of harassment would have been prevented if the council had handled the investigation more effectively. He could not comment either on the way the council dealt with the legal proceedings because this aspect is outside his jurisdiction. But he found there was injustice caused to Mr and Mrs Y because there was a long period of uncertainty when they did not know how the investigation was progressing and they felt vulnerable to further harassment.
Other sources of information
- If you are in a crisis and you need immediate practical help or advice on your legal rights you can contact Shelter who run a free national telephone advice line (0808 800 4444) and have a network of housing aid centres across England – you can find out more at england.shelter.org.uk
Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.
The Local Government Ombudsmen provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result the Ombudsmen aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.
Date Updated: 11/11/09