Can my landlord change the locks while I'm out?
Short answer
No. Shelter says a landlord who changes the locks while you are out is illegally evicting you, and section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 makes unlawfully depriving a residential occupier of occupation a criminal offence. Only court bailiffs can evict. Talk to your council, and call the police if there is violence. GOV.UK says you may have the right to be let back in.
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Section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 makes it an offence to unlawfully deprive a residential occupier of their occupation of the premises, and the only escape route it gives a landlord is proving they reasonably believed you had stopped living there. The same section makes harassment an offence: interfering with your peace or comfort, or persistently withdrawing or withholding services reasonably required for living there, with intent to make you leave or give up your rights. Cutting the electricity and removing the keys are the textbook examples.
The two official sources come at it from different angles. Shelter is the blunt one: a landlord who changes the locks while you are out is illegally evicting you, only court bailiffs can evict, and if anyone other than a court bailiff makes you leave it is an illegal eviction. GOV.UK's harassment and illegal eviction page catalogues the surrounding conduct — threatening to change the locks, withholding keys where there are two tenants but the landlord gives out only one, stopping services like electricity, and opening or taking your post. It is also direct about the two calls: talk to your local council if you think you are being harassed or threatened with illegal eviction, and contact the police if physical violence or threats are involved, or if someone is trying to remove you or your belongings without a court order or a court-appointed bailiff.
Officers do sometimes wave this away as a civil dispute. It is not, and saying so with the section number attached usually changes the conversation: unlawful eviction is a criminal offence under section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Meanwhile do the evidence work — photograph the changed lock and any belongings left outside, keep the tenancy agreement and rent receipts, note times and names, and get a witness statement from a neighbour. Do not force the door yourself; take advice first, because self-help can hand the landlord a counter-argument.
GOV.UK says you may have the right to be let back into your home, to claim compensation and to apply for a rent repayment order, and that civil route runs alongside the criminal one. Under section 27 of the Housing Act 1988 a landlord who unlawfully deprives a residential occupier of occupation of the whole or part of the premises, or whose conduct is likely to interfere with the occupier's peace or comfort and causes them to give the property up, is liable to pay the former occupier damages for the loss of the right to occupy, assessed on the basis set out in section 28. Section 28 works from the difference in the landlord's own property values with and without you in it, so the sum is not tied to what you spent on a hotel, and it is worth taking advice on before settling for a refund of the rent.
The honest exception is excluded occupiers. Section 3A takes a tenancy or licence outside the protection where, under its terms, the occupier shares any accommodation with the landlord or licensor, and that landlord or licensor occupied the premises as their only or principal home both immediately before the grant and when it ends — a lodger in the owner's home, in short. Shelter puts the practical effect the same way: the court bailiff requirement does not apply if you are a lodger or share living space with your landlord. Read the statutory definition carefully, though. Section 3A(5) says accommodation here includes neither an area used for storage nor a staircase, passage, corridor or other means of access, so sharing only a hallway or a bin store does not make you an excluded occupier.
The 1977 Act covers England and Wales, and the other two nations have their own statutes doing the same job. Scotland's is section 22 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984: unlawful deprivation of occupation and harassment carry, on summary conviction, a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or six months or both, and on indictment a fine or two years or both. It also says nothing in the section prejudices any civil liability or remedy, so a prosecution does not close off a damages claim. Northern Ireland's is Article 54 of the Rent (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, with the same custodial terms but a summary fine capped at £1,000, and the district council for the area may institute proceedings. In all four nations the principle is identical: possession comes from a court, not from a locksmith.
- Changing the locks to shut a tenant out is a criminal offence, not a civil dispute
- Only a court order enforced by county court bailiffs can lawfully remove you
- Call the council's tenancy relations team — councils prosecute under the 1977 Act
- Call the police where there is violence, threats or forcible removal
- Section 27 of the Housing Act 1988 gives damages for loss of the right to occupy
- Lodgers sharing living space with a resident landlord are excluded from the court bailiff rule
- Sharing only a storage area, staircase, passage or corridor does not make you an excluded occupier
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Sources & provenance
Facts verified
- 1.Protection from Eviction Act 1977, section 1 Legislationlegislation.gov.ukUsed for: The offences of unlawful deprivation of occupation and harassment, the residential occupier definition, and the reasonable belief defence
- 2.Protection from Eviction Act 1977, section 3A Legislationlegislation.gov.ukUsed for: Excluded tenancies and licences where the occupier shares any accommodation with a landlord or licensor occupying the premises as their only or principal home, and that under section 3A(5) 'accommodation' includes neither an area used for storage nor a staircase, passage, corridor or other means of access
- 3.Housing Act 1988, section 27 Legislationlegislation.gov.ukUsed for: Civil liability for damages for loss of the right to occupy where a landlord unlawfully deprives an occupier or drives them out, assessed under section 28
- 4.Housing Act 1988, section 28 Legislationlegislation.gov.ukUsed for: That damages are the difference in the value of the landlord's interest assuming the occupier stays and assuming the occupier has ceased to have that right, valued immediately before they ceased to occupy
- 5.Private renting: harassment and illegal evictions OfficialUK GovernmentUsed for: The listed conduct — threatening to change the locks, withholding keys, stopping services like electricity, opening or taking post — the instruction to talk to the council and to contact the police where violence, threats or removal without a court order or court-appointed bailiff are involved, and the rights to be let back in, claim compensation and apply for a rent repayment order
- 6.Private renting: evictions OfficialUK GovernmentUsed for: That the landlord must apply to the court for a possession order and then, if you do not leave by the date in it, for a warrant for possession before bailiffs can evict
- 7.How to deal with illegal eviction OfficialShelterUsed for: That a landlord who changes the locks while you are out is committing an illegal eviction, that only court bailiffs can evict and anyone else making you leave is an illegal eviction, and that this does not apply if you are a lodger or share living space with your landlord
- 8.Rent (Scotland) Act 1984, section 22 Legislationlegislation.gov.ukUsed for: The Scottish offences of unlawful deprivation of occupation and harassment, the penalties of a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or six months on summary conviction and a fine or two years on indictment, and that nothing in the section prejudices civil liability or remedies
- 9.Rent (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, Article 54 Legislationlegislation.gov.ukUsed for: The Northern Ireland offences of unlawful deprivation and harassment, the penalties of a fine not exceeding £1,000 or six months on summary conviction and a fine or two years on indictment, and that the district council for the area may institute proceedings
The offences, the reasonable belief defence, the excluded occupier rules in section 3A, the damages provision in section 27 and the valuation basis in section 28 are quoted from the Acts on legislation.gov.uk. The catalogue of conduct that counts as harassment, the instruction to contact the council and the police, and the rights to be let back in, claim compensation and apply for a rent repayment order are from GOV.UK; the point that only court bailiffs can evict, and that lodgers sharing living space are outside it, is Shelter's. Ours is the tactical advice — citing the section number when an officer calls it civil, the evidence to gather, taking advice before settling, and not forcing the door yourself — which the cited sources do not set out that way. Penalties, council contact routes and possession procedure change as new legislation commences; confirm with your council, Shelter or Citizens Advice. General information, not legal advice.
Facts on this page are taken from the sources listed above — UK government departments, devolved administrations, regulators, statutory bodies and official statistical releases. Comparisons, judgements and "which option suits whom" conclusions are AI-assisted analysis written over those sources; they are marked in the text and listed as an AI-analysis entry in the sources, not attributed to any authority. Rates, thresholds, fees and processing times change, usually at the start of a tax year in April; figures are current as at the review date shown and should be confirmed with the responsible body before you rely on them. Much of what follows differs between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — where it does, this site says so.