At best, avoid getting yourself into a situation where your tenancy can be terminated by your landlord.

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The conditions of your tenancy as stipulated in your Tenancy Agreement must always be adhered to, to prevent eviction due to a breach.

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Avoid being a nuisance to your neighbours by demonstrating behaviours that can be deemed as anti-social.  Like yourself, your neighbours deserve to enjoy their homes without fear of intimidation, noise and all other inappropriate conducts.

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Adhere to the landlord’s rules pertaining to subletting, pets and taking in lodgers.

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Avoiding engaging in any form of illegal activities to include the use of drugs as well as the sale and cultivation of them.

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As soon as you become aware of a potential change in your circumstances that can lead to your inability to keep up with your rent payment, please seek help and advice immediately.  It may be a question of applying for housing benefit or getting your existing claim reassessed.

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 Inform your landlord of the change in your circumstances and continue to update them regularly during the process.  You may also be entitled to Discretionary Housing Payment to assist with any shortfall that you are unable to meet, please enquire.

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Should your landlord serve you with a notice of seeking possession under either section 21 or 8, please seek advice immediately if you are unable to resolve the issue before the expiration of the notice.  In some cases, the notice may even be defective if your landlord hasn’t met their obligations, hence rendering the notice ineffective.

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A valid notice of seeking possession is not an eviction order – DON’T hand over your keys yet!!! You can still rectify the problem if you engage with your landlord and other agencies to reach an agreement.

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Avoid going to court if you can as your landlord may also apply to pass on the court fees to you thereby increasing your debt.

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Should going to court become inevitable, please seek advice immediately as it may still not be too late. 

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Unless you are confident that you can challenge the claim against you and make a compelling representation to the judge to rule in your favour, please seek the services of a legal representative.

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Should your circumstances change in your favour after an eviction order has been granted to your landlord, inform the court immediately with an application to stay the order and take the rightful steps to have the order suspended. 

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Where rent arrears are the reason for the eviction, if you are able to make the full payment even on the day; before or when the bailiffs arrive, you will not have to hand over your keys.