Prohibition orders and emergency action. When the council stops you using the property.

Guide by Damion Robinson MCIOB MCIEH. Law and figures checked 01/10/2026. This is general information, not legal advice about your case.

Prohibition orders

Sections 20 and 21 of the Housing Act 2004. The council can prohibit the use of the whole property, part of it, or its use by more than a set number of people or a class of people. It’s the response to a hazard the council thinks can’t be fixed by works within a reasonable time, or where the layout itself is the problem. Overcrowded HMO rooms and unsafe cellar bedrooms are the usual triggers.

The order becomes operative 28 days after the date it was made, which is the date printed on the order, not the date it reached you. You can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal within those 28 days, and the appeal suspends it. Using the property in breach of an operative order is an offence under section 32. It’s prosecution only, with no civil penalty route, and a conviction carries an unlimited fine. Tenants in a prohibited property may be entitled to rehousing, and to a rent repayment order if the property is used in breach of the order.

Once the order is in force you can apply to have it revoked when the hazard is dealt with, and the council has to consider that application. Get the revocation in writing. An order that’s been complied with but never revoked still sits on the land charges register.

Emergency remedial action and emergency prohibition orders

Sections 40 to 43. Where a category 1 hazard presents an imminent risk of serious harm, the council can either do the works itself immediately and charge you, or serve an emergency prohibition order that takes effect at once. In both cases you’ll usually find out after the event. The notice of emergency remedial action has to be served within seven days of the works starting, and you can appeal to the tribunal within 28 days, but by then the work is done and the bill is on its way.

The argument at that stage is about the charge. Was the action emergency action at all? Was the work proportionate to the hazard? Was the cost reasonable? The council’s own file, the officer’s notes and the contractor’s invoice are all disclosable.

What to do

1. Get the order or notice checked the day it arrives. The 28 days run from the date the order was made, not from service, and the tribunal is strict about it.
2. Establish exactly what’s prohibited. Councils sometimes prohibit a whole house when one room was the problem. That’s an appeal point on its own.
3. Price the works that would remove the hazard and put them to the council with a timetable. Where the council accepts that works will resolve it, it can suspend the order or replace it with an improvement notice.
4. Deal with the tenants. If a room can’t be used, their rent and their housing position change immediately, and getting that wrong creates a second problem on top of the first.

Related guides

• You’ve been served an improvement notice. What to do in the first 21 days.
• How the council scores your property. HHSRS in plain English.
• Civil penalties. What a notice of intent means and how the 28 days work.

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