Domestic abuse and eviction: your rights as a tenant

Living with domestic abuse, your home matters as much as your safety. Many people put off leaving, or reporting, for fear of losing their home. Here are the protections you hold. They apply whether you face eviction, or just need to know where you stand.

Domestic Abuse Act 2021 protections

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 brought several housing protections:

Secure tenancies and abuse: sometimes a social tenant flees while the abuser stays. Councils then carry clear duties to rehouse the victim. The Act also confirms a key point. Fleeing abuse never makes you intentionally homeless when applying for housing.

Injunctions: a domestic abuse protection order can carry rules stopping the abuser living in the shared home, or making them leave. Sometimes the abuser gets removed, instead of the victim having to go.

Eviction and domestic abuse: the position now

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished no-fault Section 21 evictions. Evicting now means proving a specific legal ground. One ground covers a tenant using the home for illegal activity. But domestic abuse is no ground for evicting the victim. Abuse happening in the home evicts nobody by itself.

Did an eviction notice land while you live with abuse? Get housing advice fast. Sometimes the notice, or its timing, ties to the abuse. The landlord may be the abuser. Or they may act on the abuser's word. The court can hear about that when the landlord tries to prove the ground.

Joint tenancies and domestic abuse

The tenancy may hold two names, one of them the abuser's. That runs legally hard:

• Either joint tenant can give notice to quit. That ends the tenancy for both. Abusers have used it to make victims homeless.
• The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 brought rules against this in social housing. Social landlords can give the victim a new tenancy in some cases.
• In private renting, an abuser can still end the joint tenancy. The victim may then have to apply for emergency housing as homeless.

Is a joint tenancy at risk through the abuser? Get urgent advice. Citizens Advice, Shelter, or a housing solicitor can help.

Secure injunctions removing a perpetrator from the home

Want to stay, with the abuser gone? You may be able to apply for:

• An occupation order under the Family Law Act 1996. It can make the abuser leave, even where they own or rent the home
• A domestic abuse protection order under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021

An occupation order can give you the right to stay, with the abuser kept out. The orders stay open whether you own or rent. Joint tenancy or sole, they apply.

Safe housing routes for domestic abuse victims

Needing to leave because of abuse:

• Refuges give safe housing straight away
• The council's housing duty: priority need likely covers you. Fleeing abuse never counts as intentional homelessness
• Safe rooms and sanctuary schemes: some councils harden your home's security. That can help you stay there safely

Disrepair and domestic abuse

Disrepair the landlord never fixed stays claimable. That holds even where you stayed put, because moving ran hard or dangerous through the abuse. Why you stayed may matter too. It helps show the full weight of the landlord's failures.

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

For urgent domestic-abuse or eviction advice, use an appropriate support service or housing solicitor. For disrepair, we check whether you may have a claim and refer suitable matters to an SRA-regulated panel solicitor.

Call us on 0800 030 4669. No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.

Sources

• Housing Act 1996 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Housing Act 1988 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Equality Act 2010 (legislation.gov.uk)

Related articles

• Housing help for domestic abuse victims
• Equality Act, housing disrepair and reasonable adjustments