Possession claim timeline: from notice to bailiffs

A possession claim timeline in England runs from serving your Section 8 notice to the bailiffs' eviction. For private landlords' standard claims in April to June 2026, the median time from claim to repossession was 24.6 weeks. Add the notice period (4 weeks for rent arrears, up to 4 months for other grounds) and a week or two to prepare, and a typical Ground 8 arrears case takes about 7 months.

All court durations on this page come from the Ministry of Justice's "Mortgage and landlord possession statistics: April to June 2026" (published 13 August 2026, updated 19 August 2026; Q2 2026 figures are provisional).

Possession claim timeline at a glance

Stage	Minimum set by law	Typical: median, April to June 2026 (private landlords)
1. Notice period	2 weeks to 4 months, depending on the grounds	—
2. Prepare and issue the claim	Any time from the day after the notice ends to 12 months after service	1 to 2 weeks (our estimate)
3. Claim to hearing and order	Hearing at least 28 days after issue, normally within 8 weeks	8.0 weeks from claim to order
4. Order to possession date	Up to 14 days on a mandatory ground (6 weeks for exceptional hardship)	—
5. Warrant	Once the possession date passes	13.3 weeks from claim to warrant
6. Bailiff eviction	At least 14 days' notice to the tenant	8.7 weeks from warrant to repossession
Claim to repossession		24.6 weeks (mean 33.6 weeks)

For comparison, across all landlord claims the medians were 7.6 weeks (claim to order), 14.9 weeks (claim to warrant), 9.4 weeks (warrant to repossession) and 27.1 weeks (claim to repossession).

Stage by stage

Stage 1: the notice period

Your Form 3A notice must give at least the period for each ground, counted from the day of service. With several grounds, the longest one sets the date.

Notice period	Grounds
4 months	1, 1A, 1B, 2, 2ZA, 2ZB, 2ZC, 2ZD, 4A, 6, 6A, 6B
2 months	5, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5H, 7, 9
4 weeks	5E, 5F, 5G, 8, 10, 11, 18
2 weeks	4, 7B, 12, 13, 14ZA, 14A, 15, 17
None	7A, 14 (even when combined with other grounds)

The earliest court date in question 2.1 is the day after the notice period ends. GOV.UK's example: a notice served on 1 June 2026 on Grounds 8 and 7 means you can apply to court from 1 August 2026. Work out your own with the Section 8 notice period calculator, or read Section 8 notice periods.

Stage 2: preparing and issuing the claim

You can issue from the earliest date in the notice and must issue within 12 months of service. The official figures don't measure this stage. Allowing 1 to 2 weeks to prepare N5 and N119 with a 2-year rent schedule is a sensible planning figure, and having your rent records ready keeps it short.

Stage 3: the hearing

Under CPR 55.5 the court fixes the hearing when it issues the claim: at least 28 days after issue, normally no more than 8 weeks, with the tenant served at least 21 days before. The median from claim to order was 8.0 weeks for private landlords. See what happens at a possession hearing.

Stage 4: the order and the possession date

On a mandatory ground such as Ground 8, the possession date can't be more than 14 days after the order, or 6 weeks if the tenant would suffer exceptional hardship. On discretionary grounds the court can set any date or suspend the order. See possession orders.

Stages 5 and 6: the warrant and the bailiffs

If the tenant stays past the possession date, you request a warrant of possession. The tenant must get a notice of eviction at least 14 days before the eviction, and you must return the bailiffs' appointment forms at least 3 working days before it. The median from warrant to repossession was 8.7 weeks. See bailiff evictions.

Worked example: a Ground 8 case

These dates use the medians above. They are an estimate, not a forecast for your case.

Date	Step
Monday 2 November 2026	Form 3A served on Grounds 8, 10 and 11
Monday 30 November 2026	Earliest court date (4 weeks beginning with the day of service)
Monday 7 December 2026	Claim issued after a week's preparation
Around Monday 1 February 2027	Possession order (median 8.0 weeks after the claim)
Around Wednesday 10 March 2027	Warrant (median 13.3 weeks after the claim)
Around Friday 28 May 2027	Eviction by bailiffs (median 24.6 weeks after the claim)

That is about 30 weeks from serving the notice. If your case ran at the mean of 33.6 weeks from claim to repossession instead, the eviction would be around the end of July 2027.

What makes a possession claim take longer

• A defended claim. If the claim is genuinely disputed, it is allocated to a track with directions and a later hearing. See defended possession claims.
• A suspended order. Across all landlords, the median from claim to repossession was 26.0 weeks for outright orders but 77.7 weeks for suspended orders.
• Adjournments, for example because deposit evidence or an updated rent schedule is missing.
• A Breathing Space. A standard breathing space lasts up to 60 days. It stops enforcement, and a scheduled eviction is put back to no earlier than 14 days after it ends.
• A defective notice. If the notice fails, you start again with a new notice period.
• Missing the bailiffs' forms. An eviction may be cancelled if you don't return the EX96 and EX97a at least 3 working days before.

How reliable are these figures?

They are the latest official numbers, but read them with care. The April to June 2026 quarter covers only the first 2 months after the Renters' Rights Act changes on 1 May 2026, and most of those claims rested on notices served under the old rules. The Ministry of Justice says it is "not clear" whether recent changes can be attributed to the Act. Half of all cases take longer than a median.

What to do next

Put your own dates into the eviction timeline calculator. When your notice has expired, the possession court pack prepares N5, N119 and the rent schedule for you to sign and file, so stage 2 takes as little time as possible. For the wider picture, see how long eviction takes and the possession claim hub.