The warrant of possession: how to apply, and what happens if your tenant applies to suspend it

In England, a warrant of possession is the county court enforcement step after a possession order, and the practical fight is often about suspension rather than the original order. The key distinction is whether the court is being asked to suspend before the bailiff takes possession, or set aside what has already happened.

How do you apply for a warrant of possession?

You apply for a warrant of possession by filing form N325 at the county court hearing centre that made the possession order, usually without giving the tenant notice, and paying the £152 warrant issue fee. CPR 83.26 says an application for a warrant of possession “may be made without notice” and “must be made to” the hearing centre where the order was made; EX50 gives the fee as “Issue a warrant of possession (recovery of a property or land) | £152”. Once the court issues the warrant, the county court bailiff serves a notice of eviction, and CPR 83.8A requires that “a notice of eviction must be delivered to the premises not less than 14 days before the writ or warrant is executed”. Possession Claim Online can also be used to request a warrant for an England property, but Wales is post-only. Some landlords try to bypass the county court bailiff queue by transferring enforcement to the High Court writ route, but that is a speed tactic, not the normal N325 warrant route.

How long do you have to apply for a warrant of possession?

There is no fixed deadline for a landlord to apply for a warrant of possession against a tenant, but if six years or more have passed since the possession order, the warrant must not be issued without the court’s permission. CPR 83.2 says “a relevant writ or warrant must not be issued without the permission of the court where—(a)six years or more have elapsed since the date of the judgment or order”. The three-month deadline in CPR 83.26 is only for trespassers, because it says “No warrant of possession against a trespasser may be issued after the expiry of 3 months from the date of the order without the permission of the court.” Permission after six years is not a rubber stamp: Shelter’s case-law note says the court starts from the position that six years “will ordinarily, in itself justify refusing” permission unless the creditor shows unusual circumstances. Once issued, the warrant itself is valid for 12 months, because CPR 83.3 says a warrant is valid “for the period of 12 months beginning with the date of its issue.” The quiet practical risk is delay, not limitation: official figures put the median claim-to-warrant time at 14.9 weeks and the median warrant-to-repossession time at 9.4 weeks.

On what grounds can a tenant get a warrant of possession suspended?

A tenant can get a warrant of possession suspended where the court still has a statutory discretion to stay or suspend the possession order, usually on terms such as paying rent plus arrears, but that discretion does not apply to every type of possession order. For assured tenancies, Housing Act 1988 section 9 says that “at any time before the execution of such an order” the court may “stay or suspend execution of the order”; section 9(3) also says the court normally “shall impose conditions with regard to payment by the tenant of arrears of rent (if any) and rent”. That is why a rent-arrears repayment plan can still matter after bailiffs have been instructed, if the order is one the court can suspend. Where the court has no discretion, Housing Act 1980 section 89 caps postponement at 14 days from the order, or six weeks for exceptional hardship, and “shall not in any event” allow a later date. The post-1 May 2026 Renters’ Rights change makes old section 21 suspension commentary stale, because the section 21 carve-out in section 9 was removed on that date.

How late can a tenant apply to suspend the warrant?

A tenant does not have to apply by midnight before the eviction date: the statutory cut-off is any time before the warrant is executed, meaning before the bailiff actually takes possession. Housing Act 1988 section 9 says the court may suspend “at any time before the execution of such an order”, and the equivalent secure-tenancy wording in Housing Act 1985 section 85 is also “at any time before the execution of the order”. That is the correction most landlord and tenant pages blur: “before execution” is not the same as “before the eviction date”. The tenant normally applies on form N244 and pays the dedicated £16 suspension fee; EX50 lists “Application to vary … suspend enforcement or suspend a warrant of possession or stay a High Court writ | £16”. The five-day rule is only an online-channel rule for Possession Claim Online, not the legal right itself: Shelter says a PCOL suspension application can be made online only if it is “at least five days before the eviction date.” Last-minute suspension applications are the reason an eviction day can turn into a hearing day.

Your tenant has applied to suspend the warrant, so what happens to the eviction date?

Nothing automatically happens to the eviction date when a tenant applies to suspend the warrant: the date stands unless a judge orders a stay or suspension, or a separate legal moratorium applies. Government guidance says that if the tenant does not apply, or “if the court does not agree to suspend the warrant, a county court bailiff will enforce the warrant and evict you from your home.” The one clear automatic stopper is not an N244 application but a breathing space moratorium; the Debt Respite Scheme Regulations include a bar on taking possession of a dwelling let to a debtor on rent-arrears grounds. Landlords should therefore assume the listed eviction appointment remains live until the court says otherwise, while also being ready for a same-day or short-notice suspension hearing. The gap between warrants and actual evictions is large enough to be operationally important: in April–June 2026, official statistics recorded 9,715 landlord warrants but 6,560 repossessions. Many warrants never become a bailiff eviction, but the application itself is not what stops the bailiff.

Do you have to accept a repayment plan to stop the eviction?

A landlord does not have to accept a repayment plan as the price of stopping eviction; the question is whether the court has power to suspend the warrant and, if it does, what terms the judge imposes. Housing Act 1988 section 9 says the court, not the landlord, imposes conditions about “payment by the tenant of arrears of rent (if any) and rent”. Government tenant guidance frames repayment plans as voluntary, saying a landlord “may agree to reduce the rent or set up a repayment plan.” For social landlords, the pre-action protocol applies to claims by “social landlords (such as local authorities and housing associations)”, not ordinary private landlords. In a Ground 8 rent-arrears case, agreement is not the only issue anyway: Ground 8 is retested “at the date of the hearing”, so arrears levels on the day can decide whether the mandatory ground is still made out. A credible payment plan helps the tenant because judges prefer workable numbers to promises, but landlord consent is not the legal gate.

Can a warrant of possession be set aside?

After a warrant of possession has been executed, it can be set aside only if the possession order itself is set aside, the warrant was obtained by fraud, or there was abuse of process or oppression in the execution; hardship alone is not a ground. The Court of Appeal stated that after execution a warrant “can only be suspended or set aside” if “the order on which it is issued is itself set aside”, “the warrant has been obtained by fraud”, or there has been “an abuse of process or oppression in its execution.” It also rejected the wider hardship argument, holding that a warrant “obtained and executed without fault on anyone’s part cannot properly be set aside as oppressive”. There is no general CPR Part 83 rule that lets a tenant set aside an executed possession warrant just because the outcome is harsh. If the tenant succeeds after eviction, the practical route back in is a warrant of restitution: CPR 83.26 says “A warrant of restitution may be issued, with the permission of the court, in aid of any warrant of possession.” This is why “suspend before execution” and “set aside after execution” are different remedies.

Last reviewed August 2026.

Sources

• “CPR 83.26, — "(2) An application for a warrant of possession—(a)may be made without notice; and (b)must be made to—(i)the County Court hearing centre where the judgment or order which it is sought to enforce was made” Source
• “EX50 civil court fees, — "Issue a warrant of possession (recovery of a property or land) | £152” Source
• “CPR 83.8A, — "a notice of eviction must be delivered to the premises not less than 14 days before the writ or warrant is executed” Source
• “Possession Claim Online help, — "You can use this facility to submit a request to the court to issue a Warrant of Possession.” Source
• “CPR 83.26, — "(11) No warrant of possession against a trespasser may be issued after the expiry of 3 months from the date of the order without the permission of the court.” Source
• “CPR 83.2, — "(3) A relevant writ or warrant must not be issued without the permission of the court where—(a)six years or more have elapsed since the date of the judgment or order” Source
• “Shelter Legal, — "the court must start from the position that the lapse of six years may, and will ordinarily, in itself justify refusing the judgment creditor permission to issue the writ of execution, unless the judgment creditor can justify the granting of permission by showing that the circumstances of his or her case takes it out of the ordinary.” Source
• “CPR 83.3, — "(3) Subject to paragraph (4), for the purposes of execution, a writ or warrant will be valid for the period of 12 months beginning with the date of its issue.” Source
• “MoJ possession statistics Apr–Jun 2026, — "Claims to warrant median timeliness is currently 14.9 weeks, down from 15.1 weeks in the same period in 2025.” Source
• “MoJ possession statistics Apr–Jun 2026, — "Warrants to repossessions median timeliness has decreased to 9.4 weeks, down from 10.1 weeks in the same period in 2025.” Source
• “Housing Act 1988 s.9, — "(2)On the making of an order for possession of a dwelling-house let on an assured tenancy or at any time before the execution of such an order, the court, subject to subsection (6) below, may—(a)stay or suspend execution of the order” Source
• “Housing Act 1988 s.9, — "the court, unless it considers that to do so would cause exceptional hardship to the tenant or would otherwise be unreasonable, shall impose conditions with regard to payment by the tenant of arrears of rent (if any) and rent” Source
• “Housing Act 1980 s.89, — "the giving up of possession shall not be postponed (whether by the order or any variation, suspension or stay of execution) to a date later than fourteen days after the making of the order, unless it appears to the court that exceptional hardship would be caused by requiring possession to be given up by that date; and shall not in any event be postponed to a date later than six weeks after the making of the order.” Source
• “Housing Act 1988 s.9 amendment note, — "S. 9(6)(b) and word omitted (1.5.2026 for specified purposes) by virtue of Renters' Rights Act 2025 (c. 26), s. 145(1)(8), Sch. 2 para. 25” Source
• “Housing Act 1988 s.9, — "On the making of an order for possession of a dwelling-house let on an assured tenancy or at any time before the execution of such an order, the court, subject to subsection (6) below, may— (a) stay or suspend execution of the order, or (b) postpone the date of possession, for such period or periods as the court thinks just.” Source
• “Housing Act 1985 s.85, — "On the making of an order for possession of such a dwelling-house on any of those grounds, or at any time before the execution of the order, the court may” Source
• “EX50 civil court fees, — "Application to vary (amend or change) a judgment (or order), suspend enforcement or suspend a warrant of possession or stay a High Court writ | £16” Source
• “Shelter Legal, — "Where the application for a warrant was made using Possession Claim Online (PCOL) then an application to suspend a warrant can be made online in the same way, providing it is made at least five days before the eviction date.” Source
• “Government social housing possession guidance, — "However, if you do not make an application or if the court does not agree to suspend the warrant, a county court bailiff will enforce the warrant and evict you from your home.” Source
• “Debt Respite Scheme Regulations 2020 reg. 7, — "serve a notice to take possession of a dwelling-house let to a debtor on grounds 8, 10 or 11 in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 or take possession of a dwelling-house let to a debtor having served such a notice” Source
• “MoJ possession statistics Apr–Jun 2026, — "When compared to the same quarter in 2025 there were increases in landlord possession claims from 22,352 to 23,635 (6%), orders remained stable and there were decreases in warrants from 10,349 to 9,715 (6%), and repossessions from 6,767 to 6,560 (3%).” Source
• “CPR pre-action protocol for possession claims by social landlords, — "This Protocol applies to residential possession claims in England and Wales brought by social landlords (such as local authorities and housing associations).” Source
• “Government tenant guidance, — "If you are worried about your rent, speak to your landlord early. They may agree to reduce the rent or set up a repayment plan.” Source
• “Housing Act 1988 Schedule 2 Ground 8, — "Both at the date of the service of the notice under section 8 of this Act relating to the proceedings for possession and at the date of the hearing” Source
• “Jephson Homes Housing Association Ltd v Moisejevs, — "... after a warrant for possession has been executed in this class of case it can only be suspended or set aside if either (1) the order on which it is issued is itself set aside; (2) the warrant has been obtained by fraud; or (3) there has been an abuse of process or oppression in its execution.” Source
• “Jephson Homes Housing Association Ltd v Moisejevs, — "I would therefore reject Mr Knafler's first and main argument and hold that a possession warrant obtained and executed without fault on anyone's part cannot properly be set aside as oppressive within the Aldwinckle principle.” Source
• “Jephson Homes Housing Association Ltd v Moisejevs, — "In short, once it is concluded that there is no oppression, it necessarily follows that there is no inherent power in the court to set aside the eviction.” Source
• “CPR 83.26, — "A warrant of restitution may be issued, with the permission of the court, in aid of any warrant of possession.” Source