Bailiff possession warrant and the N244 stay application: the tenant final-stage walkthrough (2026)

A Form N54 through the letterbox is the moment a possession case stops being a process on paper and starts being a date in the diary. The bailiffs have been allocated, the eviction is scheduled, and there is a clock running. It is the most stressful moment in the whole sequence, and for most tenants it feels like the point at which there is nothing left to do.

There is. The N54 is not the eviction — it is the notice of the eviction, and the gap between the notice and the date is the window in which a tenant can apply to the court to suspend, stay, or set aside the warrant. The form is N244. The grounds are real. The hearings are usually short, often successful in part, and almost always quicker to organise than a tenant fearing the worst would expect.

This walkthrough is for a tenant who has received an N54 (or expects to receive one shortly) and wants to know what to do with it. It covers reading the N54 carefully, deciding whether to apply for an N244 stay, the four most useful grounds, how to fill in the form, the fee and fee remission, what to expect at the hearing, the difference between mandatory-ground and discretionary-ground cases, the out-of-hours route for last-minute emergencies, and a sample grounds paragraph at the end. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 has not changed the warrant procedure itself, but it has changed the surrounding landscape — particularly around discretionary grounds and the new requirement for landlords to comply with the property portal, which can be a procedural lever in the right case.

Read the N54 carefully

The first 30 minutes after the N54 arrives should be spent reading it twice and writing down what it says, not panicking. Things to extract:

• The eviction date and time. This is your deadline.
• The court that issued the warrant. Usually the County Court hearing centre that heard the original possession claim. Any N244 goes to the same court.
• The claim number. Quote it on every document and every phone call.
• The name of the claimant (landlord) and any solicitor. The N244 has to be served on them.
• The original possession order. Look back at it. Note the ground (8, 10, 11, 14 — or more than one), the date of the order, whether it was outright or suspended, and any conditions.
• Any conditions on a suspended order. If the order was suspended on terms (e.g. current rent plus GBP X per month off the arrears), check whether the landlord's reason for applying for the warrant matches a real breach of those terms.

The N54 must give at least 14 days' notice. If less, that is itself a procedural challenge.

Decide whether to apply

An N244 application costs time and a fee. It is not the right move in every case. It is the right move when at least one of the following is true:

1. Your circumstances have changed materially since the possession order — a new job, a benefit award now in payment, an APA (managed UC payment) now in place, a relative able to clear part of the arrears.
2. You can pay the arrears in full, or a substantial part, before the eviction date.
3. The claimant has breached a condition of the original order — for example a suspended order on terms where the landlord miscounted payments.
4. There is a procedural error in the warrant or the underlying claim — wrong figures, expired notice, an incorrect address.
5. There is exceptional hardship — serious health issues, a child in critical care, a domestic abuse situation, a death in the household.

If none of those is present, the N244 is unlikely to succeed and may not be the best use of energy. In that case the focus shifts to the local authority's homelessness duty under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996, which is triggered by the eviction notice itself.

The four grounds that move judges

When the district judge reads an N244 to suspend a warrant of possession, they are looking for one of four families of argument.

Change of circumstances. The order was made on what was true then. What is true now is different. New employment, benefits now in payment, an APA in place, a guarantor now available, a family member able to step in. A change-of-circumstances ground is strongest when it shows the future will not look like the past.

Payment of arrears. Either in full or in substantial part. Full payment is the cleanest argument. Substantial part-payment plus a credible plan for the balance is the most common. Judges are pragmatic — they would rather suspend on terms than evict where the money is now visibly coming in.

Breach by the claimant. Where the original order was suspended on terms and the landlord has applied for the warrant on a misreading of those terms, that is a direct route to set the warrant aside. Read the order, list every payment made, and show the discrepancy.

Hardship. Standalone hardship is the weakest of the four but still real. Children with school exam dates, a household member receiving cancer treatment, a recently bereaved tenant, a domestic-abuse survivor at a settled address. Judges have a duty to consider Article 8 (right to respect for home and family life) in the proportionality of an eviction, and on discretionary grounds they have wide latitude.

How to fill in the N244

The form is plain. Take it section by section.

Section 1 — what order are you asking the court to make? Tick "stay" or "suspension" of the warrant of possession. State the claim number.

Section 2 — are you asking for the application to be dealt with at a hearing, without a hearing, or at a telephone hearing? For an urgent stay, ask for a hearing. A short hearing is almost always more useful than paper-only.

Section 3 — how long do you think the hearing will last? 30 minutes is the standard estimate for a stay application.

Section 4 — is the hearing to take place before a particular judge? Usually no. If the original order was made by a named judge and you want them to hear the application, name them.

Section 5 — the level of judge. District judge.

Section 6 — your role. Defendant.

Section 7 — names of those to be served. The claimant (landlord) and any solicitor on the record. The address for service is on the original possession papers.

Section 8 — what information will you rely on? This is the crucial box. Tick "the attached witness statement". Then attach a short witness statement (one or two pages of A4) setting out the grounds, the evidence, and what you are asking the court to do. A sample grounds paragraph is at the end of this walkthrough.

Section 9 — statement of truth. Sign and date.

Attach as exhibits: the original possession order, the N54, payslips or benefit letters supporting any change of circumstances, bank statements showing payments made, any APA confirmation from DWP, any medical evidence for hardship grounds.

File the N244 and attachments at the court that issued the warrant. The court can accept emailed applications in urgent cases — call the court office first to confirm the email address.

The fee, and how to remove it

The standard N244 fee is GBP 87 when filed without notice to the other side, or GBP 275 with notice. In possession warrant cases the court will usually allow a without-notice application and arrange a short-notice hearing.

Help with Fees (HWF) removes the fee for tenants on a low income or on qualifying benefits — Universal Credit, income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support, Pension Credit guarantee, or households with disposable monthly income below the relevant threshold. Apply for HWF first using form EX160 or the online service. It takes minutes. File the N244 with the HWF reference on it and the court will not charge the fee until HWF is decided.

If HWF is refused, the court will write to you and the fee then becomes payable. Do not let HWF confusion delay the application — file the N244 alongside the HWF application and the court will hold both together.

What the hearing looks like

Possession warrant hearings are short. They take place in a hearing room rather than a courtroom, and they are typically listed in batches of three or four in a morning or afternoon list. The judge has read the papers. The tenant speaks first. The landlord (or solicitor) responds. The judge usually decides on the spot.

The judge can:

• Set aside the warrant entirely — usually only for procedural error or claimant breach.
• Stay the warrant for a fixed period — for example, 28 days to allow circumstances to settle.
• Suspend the warrant on terms — current rent plus an instalment off the arrears, with the warrant lying dormant unless the terms are breached.
• Dismiss the application — and the eviction proceeds on the scheduled date.

Suspension on terms is the most common outcome where the application has merit and the case is on a discretionary ground. Setting aside is rarer and usually procedural. Dismissal happens where the application has no real grounds or where the application is too late and the judge cannot fairly hear both sides before the eviction date.

Mandatory grounds vs discretionary grounds at warrant stage

The single most important distinction in any N244 case is whether the original possession order was made on a mandatory or a discretionary ground.

Discretionary grounds (10, 11, 14, 12 and the like) leave the court with wide latitude at every stage, including at warrant stage. A change of circumstances, partial payment, or hardship can all carry real weight. Suspension on terms is genuinely available.

Mandatory grounds (8 the rent arrears mandatory, 1A the landlord-sale mandatory introduced under the RRA, 7B and Right to Rent) leave very little latitude once the order is made. The court has limited discretion to suspend a warrant on a mandatory ground. The route in is narrow:

• A clear procedural irregularity (warrant defective, notice short, particulars wrong, no Form 6A in evidence).
• A breach by the claimant of any condition the court did impose.
• An exceptional hardship case where Article 8 is engaged.
• A material change in the underlying figures (in Ground 8, paying down below the threshold — though this is more powerful at the original hearing than at warrant stage).

A tenant on a Ground 8 warrant who can clear the arrears entirely before the hearing has the strongest version of the narrow route. A tenant who cannot but has demonstrable hardship is in weaker territory but the application is still worth making.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 has tightened the mandatory grounds (higher Ground 8 threshold, 12-month bar on Ground 1A), which has changed the population of warrants now coming through. More of the cases reaching warrant stage are on discretionary grounds. That is good news for N244 applicants — discretionary cases respond better to a well-pleaded stay.

Out-of-hours emergency applications

If the eviction date is within 24 to 48 hours and a normal hearing cannot be listed in time, the County Court has a duty-judge route for genuine emergencies. The route is:

1. Phone the court office during working hours and explain the urgency.
2. Email the N244 and witness statement to the court email address.
3. Ask for the matter to be put before a duty judge.

Duty-judge hearings can sometimes be conducted by telephone in the evening or first thing the following morning. The judge can grant a short stay (often 7 or 14 days) to allow a full hearing to be listed.

This is a last-resort route. The far better course is to file the N244 within a day or two of receiving the N54, while there is comfortable time for a normal listing. Last-minute applications fail more often, and even where they succeed they create avoidable stress.

What evidence to attach

The witness statement is the heart of the application, but it is the exhibits that carry the weight. Attach:

• The original possession order and any sealed copy.
• The N54 and the envelope it came in (postmark).
• Bank statements showing every rent payment in the last 12 months.
• Any APA confirmation or DWP correspondence on Universal Credit housing element.
• Payslips or contract of employment for any change of circumstances.
• Medical evidence (GP letters, hospital letters) for hardship grounds.
• Any correspondence with the landlord since the possession order.
• For mandatory-ground cases, a clean re-pleading of the procedural challenge with the documents that show the irregularity.

Number the exhibits. Refer to them in the witness statement by exhibit number.

Sample N244 grounds paragraph

Use this as a starting frame, not a template to copy verbatim. Adapt it to your real facts.

1. I am the Defendant in this matter. The possession order was made on [date] under [ground]. The Claimant has now obtained a warrant of possession and the Notice of Eviction (Form N54) gives an eviction date of [date].

2. I apply for the warrant to be suspended on the following grounds. First, my circumstances have changed materially since the date of the possession order. [Describe — new employment, benefits in payment, APA in place, etc., with reference to the exhibits.]

3. Second, I have paid £[amount] off the arrears since the order was made, reducing the balance to £[amount]. [Reference bank statements at exhibit X.] I am able to pay £[amount] per month going forward in addition to current rent, which would clear the remaining balance within [number] months.

4. Third, the eviction would cause exceptional hardship to my household. [Describe — children at school, medical situation, etc., with reference to the exhibits.]

5. In the circumstances I respectfully ask the court to suspend the warrant on terms that I pay current rent and £[amount] per month off the arrears, with permission to apply if circumstances change.

Sign and date. Statement of truth.

When to use RentSOS

RentSOS focuses on Section 13 rent increase challenges, which is upstream of any possession claim, but the data RentSOS produces is often relevant in the round at warrant stage — particularly where a rent increase that may itself have been challengeable is part of the story of how the arrears built. If the tenancy is continuing or the household is moving on, the free RentSOS check on any new tenancy is the cleanest way to make sure the same pattern does not begin again.

A calmer last word

A bailiff date is the most concentrated form of stress in the renting cycle, and the instinct to freeze is real. The N244 is the route designed exactly for this moment. The form is plain, the fee is reachable, the hearing is short, and the grounds that work are the grounds that real tenants have. Read the N54, write down the date, decide whether one of the four ground families fits your case, and file the application. None of it is guaranteed, but the route exists for a reason, and judges hear these every week.