Eviction timeline calculator

The eviction timeline for a private landlord in England has six stages: notice, court claim, hearing, possession order, warrant and eviction by bailiffs. The notice alone can take from nothing to 4 months depending on the ground, and the Ministry of Justice's latest figures put the median time from claim to repossession at 24.6 weeks for private landlords (April to June 2026). On our estimate, a straightforward rent arrears case takes around 7 months from notice to keys at the median.

Choose your situation and the date you'll serve the notice, and the calculator turns it into a full timeline. The court stages use the Ministry of Justice median times, so half of cases are quicker and half take longer. The stage-by-stage table and worked example below show how each date is worked out.

The eviction timeline, stage by stage

Stage	What happens	Legal minimum or rule	Median time (private landlords, April to June 2026)
1. Notice	You serve a Section 8 notice (Form 3A) on the grounds you rely on	2 weeks to 4 months by ground; none for Grounds 7A and 14	Not measured
2. Claim	You file N5 and N119 (or use Possession Claim Online for rent-only claims) and pay £415	From the date in question 2.1 of the notice, up to 12 months after service	Not measured
3. Hearing	The court fixes the hearing date when it issues the claim	At least 28 days after issue; in the standard case no more than 8 weeks; the tenant must be served at least 21 days before	Part of claim to order
4. Order	The judge makes an outright or suspended order, adjourns or dismisses	Mandatory grounds: possession within 14 days, or up to 6 weeks for exceptional hardship	Claim to order: 8.0 weeks
5. Warrant	If the tenant stays after the possession date, you apply for a warrant (N325, £152)	Once the possession date passes, or on breach of a suspended order	Claim to warrant: 13.3 weeks
6. Bailiffs	County court bailiffs carry out the eviction	Notice of eviction at least 14 days before; return the EX96 form at least 3 working days before	Warrant to repossession: 8.7 weeks

Claim to repossession: median 24.6 weeks, mean 33.6 weeks, for private landlords' standard claims. The figures are from the Ministry of Justice's Mortgage and landlord possession statistics: April to June 2026, published on 13 August 2026 and updated on 19 August 2026.

For the notice periods by ground, see Section 8 notice periods.

A worked example: a rent arrears eviction

Here is how the timeline runs for a rent arrears case on Grounds 8, 10 and 11, using the legal minimums and the median figures above.

Step	Date
Notice served by hand	Monday 2 November 2026
Earliest date to issue the claim (4 weeks)	Monday 30 November 2026
Claim issued, allowing a week to prepare	Monday 7 December 2026
Earliest possible hearing (28 days after issue)	Monday 4 January 2027
Standard latest hearing (8 weeks after issue)	Monday 1 February 2027
Possession order at the median (8.0 weeks)	Around 1 February 2027
Warrant at the median (13.3 weeks)	Around 10 March 2027
Repossession at the median (24.6 weeks)	Around 28 May 2027

Watch out: This is our own arithmetic using median figures, not an official statistic or a prediction. By definition, half of cases take longer, and defended cases take much longer.

What can make an eviction take longer?

• A defended claim. A defence or disrepair counterclaim can lead to case management directions instead of a decision at the first hearing. See defended possession claims.
• A suspended order. Discretionary grounds often end in an order suspended on payment terms. Across all landlords, the median from claim to repossession was 26.0 weeks for outright orders and 77.7 weeks for suspended ones.
• A notice error or an unprotected deposit. An invalid notice means starting again, and an unprotected deposit blocks the order on most grounds.
• A breathing space. Enforcement stops, and a scheduled eviction is suspended until at least 14 days after a standard breathing space ends.
• Missing paperwork or steps. No rent schedule, not attending the hearing, or not returning the EX96 form at least 3 working days before the eviction can lead to an adjournment, dismissal or cancellation.

Can you make the eviction faster?

You can't skip a stage, but you can avoid delays:

1. Get the notice right first time. Use our Section 8 notice period calculator for the date in question 2.1.
2. Use the right grounds. On a mandatory ground such as Ground 8, the court must order possession if the ground is proved, and the possession date can be postponed by no more than 6 weeks.
3. Prepare the claim during the notice period. Have the rent schedule, deposit certificate, prescribed information and certificate of service (N215) ready to file on day one.
4. Consider High Court enforcement. You can ask the County Court to transfer the order to the High Court. GOV.UK says you "might get a faster eviction this way", but enforcement firms set their own fees.

Never change the locks or remove the tenant yourself. Only court bailiffs or High Court enforcement officers can carry out an eviction, and illegal eviction can bring a fine of up to £40,000 or prosecution.

How to read these figures

• The April to June 2026 figures cover only the first two months after the Renters' Rights Act took effect, and most of those claims will have rested on notices served under the old rules. The Ministry of Justice says it is not yet clear whether any changes are due to the Act.
• The statistics cover England and Wales together, and the medians are for standard claims by private landlords, not accelerated or social landlord claims.

For more detail on each stage, read our guides to the possession claim timeline, the warrant of possession and bailiffs.

What to do next

The timeline starts the day you serve a valid notice. Create your Form 3A with our Section 8 notice service, then read how long eviction takes for the factors that change it. All our free tools are on the landlord calculators page.