Your landlord has locked you out

Stay near the property and start a timeline before you do anything else. Note the time you found the door secured against you. Photograph the door, the new cylinder or padlock, and a wider shot that shows the house number and street so the address is identifiable from the image alone. If a locksmith's van or the agent's car is still there, photograph it with the company name legible. If anyone is inside, photograph or film the exchange from the pavement rather than pushing past them.

Ring the police next. Use 999 if there has been violence or a threat of it, and 101 otherwise. Say the words that classify the call correctly: that you are a residential occupier, that your landlord has locked you out of your home, and that this is an offence under section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Ask for the incident or CAD reference number before you hang up, and write it down. You will need it for the council and for the witness statement that supports an injunction, and it exists even if the officers who attend do nothing.

Then ring your council's tenancy relations officer, who sits in the private sector housing or environmental health team — and out of hours, the council's emergency number, which is staffed because of social care and homelessness duties. Shelter's guidance is that the team can negotiate with the landlord and explain the law to them, and that the prospect of prosecution alone is sometimes enough to get the keys back the same afternoon. Ask for the homelessness duty officer as well if you have nowhere to sleep: Shelter advises contacting the council's homelessness team where an illegal eviction has left you homeless, and the council must try to prevent the homelessness the eviction caused.

Do not force your way back in before you have taken advice. Shelter says that using reasonable force to get back in — breaking a window, or changing the locks yourself — is an option, but advises speaking to the council's tenancy relations team first because of the risks. Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 makes it an offence to use or threaten violence to secure entry to premises where someone inside opposes the entry and you know they oppose it, with an exception for a displaced residential occupier or a person acting on their behalf. Whether you fall inside that exception is precisely the question you want an adviser to answer beforehand rather than afterwards.

Gather the documents that prove you lived there, because that is the fact the whole case turns on. The tenancy agreement, bank statements or receipts showing rent paid, the deposit protection certificate, any notice you were served, letters addressed to you at the property, and message threads with the landlord or agent all establish occupation. Photograph or email them to yourself so that losing a phone does not cost you the evidence. If the originals are locked inside the property, say so — it goes into the injunction statement as a reason the application is urgent.

Start a nightly log from tonight. Record where you slept, what it cost, and what you could not reach: medication, work clothes, a passport, a child's school uniform, a laptop you need for work. Shelter Legal's account of how the courts approach this is that general damages for loss of occupation are calculated on a nightly basis, with special damages on top for alternative accommodation and for belongings destroyed or lost. Receipts kept from the first night are worth considerably more later than a reconstruction attempted six months on.

Section 1(2) of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 provides that if any person unlawfully deprives the residential occupier of any premises of occupation of the premises or any part of them, or attempts to do so, that person is guilty of an offence unless he proves that he believed, and had reasonable cause to believe, that the residential occupier had ceased to reside there. Two features of that wording matter. It says any person, not the landlord — an agent, a letting company, a self-styled bailiff who is not a county court bailiff, a relative or a new owner can all commit it. And the defence must be proved by whoever did it.

Section 1(3) creates the harassment offence. A person commits it if, with intent to cause the residential occupier to give up occupation or to refrain from exercising any right or pursuing any remedy, they do acts calculated to interfere with the peace or comfort of the occupier or their household, or persistently withdraw or withhold services reasonably required for occupation as a residence. Here the prosecution must prove intent, which is why this limb is harder to run than it sounds.

Section 1(3A) is the provision that changes the arithmetic, and it applies specifically to a landlord or their agent. Where they do acts likely to interfere with the peace or comfort of the occupier, or withdraw or withhold services, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the conduct is likely to cause the occupier to give up occupation or to stop pursuing a remedy, they commit an offence — subject to a defence of reasonable grounds for doing the acts. The practical difference is that for a landlord the prosecution does not have to prove they meant to drive you out, only that they knew it was likely to.

GOV.UK sets out what this looks like in ordinary life. Harassment includes stopping services such as electricity, withholding keys — its example is a property with two tenants where the landlord gives out only one — refusing repairs that are the landlord's responsibility, antisocial behaviour by someone acting for the landlord, threats and physical violence, threatening to change the locks, opening or taking your post, and stopping your access to temperature control. Illegal eviction, on the same page, is where you are not given the notice you must be given, where you find the locks changed, or where you are evicted without a court order.

The penalties sit in section 1(4). On summary conviction the offence carries a fine or imprisonment for up to six months; on conviction on indictment, a fine or imprisonment for up to two years. Section 1(6) allows directors and officers of a company to be prosecuted personally where the offence was committed with their consent or through their neglect, which matters when the landlord is a limited company with no assets. Section 1(5) confirms that criminal liability does not remove the civil remedies available to you — the two run in parallel and on different timetables.

Section 3 answers the landlord who says the tenancy has already ended. Where premises were let as a dwelling under a tenancy that is neither statutorily protected nor excluded, and that tenancy has come to an end while the occupier continues to reside there, it is not lawful for the owner to enforce their right to recover possession otherwise than by proceedings in the court. Section 3(2B) applies the same rule to licences other than excluded ones. An expired fixed term does not turn self-help into a lawful option. Section 6, meanwhile, gives local authorities the power to prosecute.

Most people renting a home in England and Wales are protected. Assured shorthold tenants, assured tenants, secure council tenants, regulated tenants under the older Rent Act framework, contractual periodic tenants and most licensees all fall within the definition of a residential occupier — a person occupying premises as a residence under a contract or by virtue of any enactment or rule of law giving a right to remain. Shelter's guidance confirms that the protection also reaches property guardians and students in halls of residence, two groups routinely told they have no rights at all.

Section 3A sets out the exclusions, and the two that matter most in practice both involve sharing. A tenancy or licence is excluded where the occupier shares accommodation with the landlord, provided the landlord occupied premises in the building as their only or principal home both immediately before the grant and at the time the arrangement ends. It is also excluded where the sharing is with a member of the landlord's family, where that family member occupied the premises as their principal home and the landlord occupied premises in the same building — and, in that second case, the building must not be a purpose-built block of flats.

The other exclusions in section 3A are narrower but real: a tenancy or licence conferring the right to occupy for a holiday only; a licence granted otherwise than for money or money's worth, which is the provision that catches someone staying with a friend rent-free; certain hostel licences granted by local authorities, development corporations, housing trusts and other specified bodies; and accommodation provided under section 4 or Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, which is asylum support accommodation.

Being called a lodger does not make you one. The exclusion turns on the landlord actually living in the building as their only or principal home and on genuine sharing of living accommodation, not on the label in the agreement. A landlord who owns the flat, keeps a key and visits does not thereby make you an excluded occupier, and neither does an agreement headed 'lodger licence'. If the owner does not live there, you are very unlikely to be excluded whatever the paperwork says.

What being excluded actually costs you is set out in GOV.UK's guidance for people renting a room in their own home. An excluded occupier needs only reasonable notice, which does not have to be in writing and normally matches the period of the rent — a week's notice where rent is paid weekly. A court order is needed only if the occupier refuses to leave after proper notice. And the landlord may change the lock on the room, though belongings must be returned. That is a materially weaker position than a tenant's, and it is why establishing which side of the line you are on comes before everything else.

Excluded occupiers are not without protection. Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 still makes it an offence to use or threaten violence to secure entry against someone inside who opposes it, and assault, theft and criminal damage still apply — so a landlord who puts your belongings in the street is answerable for that regardless of your status. The civil remedy in section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 also needs no tenancy. If you are unsure which side of the line you fall, treat yourself as protected and let a tenancy relations officer or Civil Legal Advice make the call.

The county court can order a landlord to readmit you and to stop harassing you, and it can do so quickly. Shelter's advice is to use form N16A, the general application for an injunction. HM Courts and Tribunals Service's own page for that form is explicit that N16A cannot be used on its own — it must form part of an application or a claim. In an illegal eviction that claim is normally issued on form N1, seeking both an injunction requiring your readmission and damages, with the injunction application riding on top of it.

Emergency applications are made 'without notice', meaning the landlord is not told in advance. Shelter's guidance is that you could get an emergency injunction on the same day you apply, and that a standard application normally requires at least three days before a hearing unless it is an emergency. Shelter Legal's account of the procedure adds the important qualification that an order made without notice lasts only a matter of days, until a return hearing at which the landlord can respond — so the first order buys you the home back and a date, not a final result.

The witness statement is the application. Shelter says it must give the address of the tenancy and the dates you lived there, and the dates and details of the landlord's behaviour and harassment. Add the rent evidence, the photograph of the changed lock, the police incident reference, the council case number if the tenancy relations officer has opened one, and a plain list of what is locked inside that you need — medication, identity documents, work equipment, a child's belongings. Tell the counter staff at the court why the matter is urgent when you hand it in; that is what moves a file in front of a judge the same day.

An injunction is enforceable in a way a letter is not. Shelter Legal notes that breaching one is a contempt of court punishable by a fine or imprisonment. Many landlords, faced with the hearing, offer an undertaking instead — a formal promise to the court to let you back in and not to interfere with your occupation. An undertaking carries the same consequences on breach as an injunction, so accepting one is not a concession, though it is worth having the terms written to cover the keys, the belongings and any further contact.

Paying for it is less of a barrier than people expect. GOV.UK states that legal aid is available for problems including homelessness, eviction and losing your home, subject to the financial eligibility rules. Civil Legal Advice, the free telephone service that forms part of legal aid in England and Wales, covers housing where you are homeless or at risk of being evicted; it is on 0345 345 4345, open Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 12.30pm, and it will ring you back. Shelter also points to law centres and to conditional fee — no win, no fee — arrangements with housing solicitors.

File imperfectly rather than late. Shelter's warning that regaining entry becomes impossible once new tenants move in is the operative constraint on the whole exercise, and a rough application handed in this afternoon beats a polished one filed at the end of the week. If you cannot get a solicitor today, take the forms to the court counter yourself and ask for the emergency procedure. And if you would rather not go back at all, make that decision after reading the next section — whether you are reinstated has a direct and counter-intuitive effect on what you can recover.

The tenancy relations officer is the person you most want on the case, and most tenants have never heard the job title. The role sits within the council's private sector housing or environmental health function, and its work is exactly this: negotiating with landlords who have locked tenants out, warning them, gathering evidence and, where necessary, prosecuting under section 6 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. GOV.UK confirms that councils can prosecute or impose a fine of up to £40,000 for harassment or illegal eviction.

Give them a file rather than a phone call. A one-page chronology with dates and times, the photographs, the tenancy agreement, proof of rent paid, the police incident number, contact details for the landlord and any agent, and the names of neighbours who saw what happened turns a complaint into a case that can be opened the same day. Ask specifically for the officer's name, a case reference, and confirmation in writing of what they say to the landlord.

On the police, GOV.UK's guidance points you to them where there is violence or a threat of violence — but the offence in section 1 is not confined to violence, and a locked door with your possessions behind it is squarely within it. When you ring, name the Act and the section, ask for the incident reference, ask for the attending officer's collar number, and ask that the log records the Protection from Eviction Act offence rather than a generic civil dispute entry. Those details are what let you escalate later.

If you are told it is a civil matter, escalate on the spot and in writing. Ask to speak to a supervisor or the duty inspector. Ask the council's tenancy relations officer to contact the police directly — an approach from the prosecuting authority is treated differently from one made by a tenant on the pavement. Separately, note that theft of your belongings, criminal damage to your property, assault, and violence used to secure entry under section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 are unambiguously police matters, so there is usually a second, uncontroversial offence to point at.

In Northern Ireland the enforcement function sits in the same place. Housing Rights states that the environmental health department of the local council enforces the harassment and illegal eviction provisions, and that councils can negotiate between the parties, take court proceedings against the landlord, issue fines and obtain court orders allowing you back into the property, with the police involved where there are threats of violence.

There are two distinct ways of being paid for an illegal eviction in England and Wales, and they cannot both be used for the same loss. The statutory route is section 27 of the Housing Act 1988, under which a landlord in default who unlawfully deprives a residential occupier of occupation — or drives them out by harassment or withdrawal of services — is liable to pay damages assessed under section 28. Section 28 measures those damages as the difference between two valuations of the landlord's interest, one assuming you retain your right to occupy and one assuming you have lost it, both taken at the date you ceased to occupy and both assuming an open-market sale.

That formula produces wildly different results depending on what sort of occupier you were. Shelter Legal's summary of the case law is that statutory tenancies under the Rent Act 1977 have been valued at roughly a quarter of the freehold value, because such a tenant is very difficult to remove and therefore depresses the property's value substantially — while assured shorthold tenants often recover very little on this basis, sometimes in the region of £500, precisely because their security was limited and their presence barely affects what the property is worth.

Section 27 also contains a trap worth understanding before you decide what you want. Under section 27(6) no liability arises if the occupier is reinstated in the premises before proceedings are finally disposed of, in circumstances where they again become the residential occupier. Section 27(7) allows the court to reduce damages where the occupier's conduct before the eviction makes that reasonable, or where they unreasonably refused an offer of reinstatement. Section 27(8) gives the landlord a defence where they prove they believed, with reasonable cause, that the occupier had ceased to reside, or had reasonable grounds for doing what they did.

The common law route runs in parallel and is unlimited in amount. Shelter Legal lists the causes of action as breach of the tenancy or licence agreement, breach of the implied covenant for quiet enjoyment, breach of section 3 of the 1977 Act as a statutory tort, trespass to land, trespass to goods, nuisance and assault. Damages break down into general damages for loss of occupation and suffering, calculated nightly; special damages for destroyed belongings and alternative accommodation; aggravated damages where the conduct caused particular outrage; and, in tort only, exemplary damages where the landlord acted to profit. Shelter's reported range runs from around £500 for a short assured shorthold tenancy to £90,500 for a secure tenant.

Where there has been a course of conduct rather than a single lockout, section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 adds a further civil claim. It allows damages for any anxiety caused by the harassment and any financial loss resulting from it, and supports an injunction; if the defendant breaches that injunction the claimant may apply for a warrant for their arrest, and breach without reasonable excuse is itself a criminal offence carrying up to five years' imprisonment on indictment.

In England there is also the rent repayment order, which is separate from damages and goes through a different forum. The table of offences in section 40 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 includes eviction or harassment of occupiers under section 1(2), (3) or (3A) of the 1977 Act, and violence for securing entry under section 6(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977, alongside unlicensed HMO and improvement notice offences. The First-tier Tribunal can order the landlord, or any superior landlord, who committed one of those offences to repay rent to you. GOV.UK lists this alongside being let back into your home and claiming compensation.

Your belongings are a separate fight and a winnable one. Shelter's position is that the landlord must return them or allow you to collect them, and cannot sell, destroy or withhold them — including where they say you owe rent. Agree a collection time in writing, take a witness, and photograph the condition of everything as it comes out. If items are missing or damaged, that is a claim for the value of the goods and, where they were deliberately taken or destroyed, a police matter. Pursue the deposit separately through whichever protection scheme holds it rather than treating it as part of the damages claim.

The Protection from Eviction Act 1977 extends to England and Wales, so everything above about the offence, the exclusions and the court remedies applies in Wales too. What differs is the framework underneath it: since December 2022 Welsh renters are contract-holders with occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. Shelter Cymru states plainly that it is illegal for a landlord to harass you or force you out without the right legal process, that the council should help you get back into a property you have been locked out of and may consider prosecuting, and that its homelessness department may provide emergency accommodation.

Wales has a second lever that England lacks. Under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, landlords must register with Rent Smart Wales and those who manage their own properties, or manage on behalf of others, must be licensed. Shelter Cymru's guidance is that licensed landlords must comply with a Code of Practice and that you can report an incident to Rent Smart Wales, which can investigate and contact the landlord on your behalf. Separately, section 217 of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 allows a court to refuse a possession order where it is satisfied the claim is retaliatory — brought to avoid complying with repair obligations the contract-holder has been trying to enforce.

Scotland has its own statute but the same three offences. Section 22 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 makes it an offence to unlawfully deprive a residential occupier of occupation or attempt to, unless the accused proves reasonable belief that the occupier had ceased to reside; an offence to do acts calculated to interfere with peace or comfort, or persistently withdraw services, with intent to force the occupier out; and an offence for a landlord or agent to do acts likely to interfere, knowing that is likely to drive the occupier out, subject to a defence of reasonable grounds. Penalties are a fine up to the statutory maximum or six months summarily, and a fine or up to two years on indictment.

Scottish damages work on the same valuation logic as the English ones but under different sections. Section 36 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988 makes the landlord liable to pay the former residential occupier damages in respect of the loss of the right to occupy the premises as a residence, with the amount calculated under section 37. As in England, the liability attaches to a landlord in default, and the claim is a civil one running alongside any prosecution.

Scotland also offers a route with no English equivalent. Under sections 58 and 59 of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, a person who was the tenant or a joint tenant immediately before a private residential tenancy ended can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a wrongful-termination order where the landlord misled them into ceasing to occupy the let property, and section 59 caps the payment at six months' rent. The Housing and Property Chamber, which handles private rented sector evictions and other non-criminal matters, is on 0141 302 5900. The Scottish Government notes that the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 received Royal Assent in November 2025 and that wrongful termination payments have increased, so confirm the current maximum.

Northern Ireland has neither the 1977 Act nor the Scottish provisions. Article 54 of the Rent (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 creates the equivalent offences: unlawfully depriving the tenant of a dwelling-house of occupation or attempting to, subject to the same defence of belief that the tenant had ceased to reside; harassment with intent to force the tenant out; and the landlord or agent limb where the conduct is known to be likely to cause the tenant to leave or to abandon their remedies. As originally enacted the penalty is a fine not exceeding £1,000 or six months on summary conviction, and a fine or up to two years on indictment. The Order expressly allows district councils to bring proceedings and preserves the tenant's civil remedies.

The practical Northern Irish route is the district council. Housing Rights describes illegal eviction there as including changing the locks while you are out, stopping you getting into your home, making conditions intolerable so that you feel you have to go, and removing your belongings; and harassment as including threatening or abusive behaviour, entering or letting others enter without permission, letting the property deteriorate, disconnecting utilities and pressing you to sign away your rights. It identifies council environmental health as the enforcing body, able to negotiate, prosecute, fine and obtain court orders letting you back in, with its own helpline on 028 9024 5640. Notice-to-quit lengths sit separately in Articles 14 and 14A of the Private Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.