The Accelerated Possession Procedure Explained

If you are a landlord in England trying to get your property back at the end of an assured shorthold tenancy, the accelerated possession procedure is often the quickest route through the county court. It is designed for straightforward section 21 cases where the paperwork is in order and there is no dispute about rent arrears to be sorted out alongside possession.

One thing worth flagging at the outset: the Renters (Reform) Bill, currently working its way through Parliament, proposes to abolish section 21 altogether. If it passes in anything like its current form, the accelerated procedure as described here will change or disappear. Until then, the rules below still apply, but it is worth checking GOV.UK for the latest position before you start.

The word "accelerated" is slightly misleading. It refers to the streamlined nature of the process, which in most cases skips a court hearing, rather than a guaranteed rapid outcome. Court backlogs and bailiff waits can still stretch the overall timeline out considerably. The trade-off for avoiding a hearing is that the judge decides the case on the papers alone, so the paperwork has to be right.

When you can use it

The accelerated procedure is only available where you are relying on a section 21 notice to end an assured shorthold tenancy. You cannot use it to claim rent arrears at the same time. If you want a money judgment for unpaid rent, you either bring a separate money claim later or use the standard possession procedure instead.

You also need a written tenancy agreement. The court needs to see it, and without one the accelerated route is not open to you.

Before you do anything else, check that your section 21 notice is valid. A notice served before the deposit was protected, before the How to Rent guide was given, or before a gas safety certificate was issued will almost certainly sink the claim. The same goes for serving a notice within the first four months of the tenancy, or one that has since expired (possession proceedings must be brought within six months of the date the notice was given, or within four months of the date specified in the notice if that is longer). It is worth working through the checklist carefully before you serve, rather than finding out at the court stage that something was missing.

Form N5B

The claim is started using form N5B (England). There is a separate version for Wales. The form asks for details of the tenancy, the property, the notice you served, and confirmation that the various legal requirements have been met. Fill it in carefully: the judge is going to decide the case from this form and the documents attached to it.

You send the completed form to the county court, pay the issue fee (current fees are on GOV.UK), and the court serves it on the tenant along with a reply form. The tenant then has 14 days to file a defence or reply. If they do not reply, the case still goes to a district judge for a decision on the papers; it is not an automatic win for the landlord. If the tenant files a reply that raises a genuine issue, or the judge has doubts when reading the file, a hearing can still be directed even where the tenant has said nothing of substance.

What you have to attach

Evidence is attached to the N5B at the point of issue. The usual documents, and why each one matters, are:

• The written tenancy agreement, including any renewals. This shows the terms and confirms it is an assured shorthold tenancy.
• The section 21 notice itself, with proof of how and when it was served. The court needs to see that the notice period was correct and that it was properly given.
• The deposit protection certificate and the prescribed information given to the tenant, if a deposit was taken. A section 21 cannot be served where the deposit has not been protected and the prescribed information provided within the required time.
• A valid gas safety certificate covering the start of the tenancy, and any renewals during it, where gas is supplied. The certificate must have been given to the tenant before they moved in.
• The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for the property, which must have been given to the tenant.
• Evidence that the current version of the How to Rent guide was given to the tenant at the start of the tenancy, or when a new version was published during it.

The deposit protection requirements themselves come from the Housing Act 2004, while the prescribed information, How to Rent and gas safety prerequisites for a valid section 21 were introduced or clarified by the Deregulation Act 2015 and its associated regulations. If any of them have been missed, the section 21 notice is not valid and the claim will usually fail. Judges do look through the attachments properly, and common reasons for refusal include a gas safety certificate not given before the tenant moved in, or a How to Rent guide that cannot be shown to have been served. Keeping dated proof of what was sent, and how, at the start of the tenancy is the single most useful habit a landlord can have.

Landlords with properties in scope of the Building Safety Act 2022, mainly higher-risk buildings, should also be aware of the separate safety duties that apply. They do not feed directly into a section 21 claim, but they sit alongside the compliance picture.

Court Form Finder

Find the right court form for your situation. Family, civil, criminal and tribunal forms.

Try our Court Form Finder free, here on this site →

Paper-based review

Once the tenant has filed a reply or the 14-day period has expired, the file goes to a district judge who reviews it on the papers. In most cases there is no hearing. The judge reads the N5B, the attachments, and anything the tenant has said, and decides whether the landlord is entitled to a possession order.

If everything is in order, the judge makes an order for possession. This is usually 14 days after the order, though it can be extended to up to 42 days if the tenant shows the court that leaving within 14 days would cause exceptional hardship.

The judge can direct a hearing instead where the papers raise something that needs to be looked at properly. That tends to happen when:

• The tenant has filed a defence raising a genuine issue, for example that the deposit was not protected, that no gas safety certificate was given, or that the notice was served before the required documents were provided.
• Something on the face of the claim form or documents does not add up, such as dates that do not match or a notice that appears to have been served too early.
• The judge has a concern about whether the requirements for a valid section 21 notice have been met.
• The tenant raises a retaliatory eviction point under the Deregulation Act following a local authority improvement notice.

If a hearing is ordered, it will usually be short, often 10 to 15 minutes, with both sides able to attend. The judge then either makes the order, dismisses the claim, or gives directions for it to continue as a standard claim.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

Realistic timings

Timings vary a lot by court. Some county courts are much busier than others, and waiting times have been longer than usual in recent years due to a combination of case backlogs and staffing pressures. London and the south east tend to be the slowest.

As a rough guide, from issuing the N5B to getting a possession order you might expect six to ten weeks where the paperwork is sound and no hearing is ordered. Add several more weeks if the judge directs a hearing.

The possession order itself does not physically remove the tenant. It tells them to leave by a certain date. If they do not, you cannot change the locks yourself. You have to apply for a warrant of possession so that county court bailiffs attend and carry out the eviction.

The warrant stage

A warrant of possession is applied for using form N325, with a further fee. Once issued, the bailiffs send the tenant a notice of eviction giving at least 14 days before they attend.

Bailiff waiting times are the part of the process most likely to cause frustration. Depending on the court, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months between applying for the warrant and the eviction actually taking place. Where bailiff delays are severe, landlords can apply to transfer the warrant to the High Court for enforcement by High Court Enforcement Officers, though this needs the court's permission and is not always granted. The claim form should really flag an intention to transfer at the outset, so it is worth thinking about this early if you suspect the local court is slow.

In the meantime, do not be tempted to cut corners. Changing the locks, removing belongings, or cutting off utilities to force a tenant out is a criminal offence under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, regardless of whether a possession order has been made. If you are worried about damage to the property during the wait, your remedies are limited to keeping the tenancy running on its existing terms and pursuing any damages later.

If things go wrong

If the claim is refused because of a defect in the paperwork, the usual answer is to put the problem right and start again. In practice that tends to mean: work out exactly why it was refused (the order will normally say), fix the underlying issue (for example protect the deposit, issue the prescribed information, serve the How to Rent guide, sort out the gas safety certificate), then serve a fresh section 21 notice and issue a new claim once the notice period has expired. Some defects cannot be cured retrospectively, such as a gas safety certificate that was not given before the tenant moved in, and specialist advice is worth getting in those cases.

For current court fees, forms and guidance, see GOV.UK. If the case is complicated, or the tenant is defending, it is sensible to get advice from a housing solicitor or an organisation such as Citizens Advice or Shelter before pressing on.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Court Form Finder lets you find the right court form for your situation. Family, civil, criminal and tribunal forms. Try it now →