Please help, how do I start evicting non paying tenant

[stanbrl1]

My new tenant moved into my rental house on 1st June and paid deposit and one month's rent, she receives housing benefit
and informed the authorities of a change of address. Since June she has not paid any rent and is now 4 months in arrears, I was always promised that the payment would come from the housing benefit and be backdated. She has now learnt that her benefits have been cut and she only now receives a small amount to top up the rent payment. Basically I am now desperate to evict her as quickly as possible as I am already very much out of pocket and cannot afford to keep a none paying tenant in the house. I have read some posts on this forum and it seems I need to serve notice under section 8, grounds 8,10 & 11. How do I do this? I did briefly speak to a solicitor today and they will serve it for £120, is this the only way to go? Also how long is this process likely to take, I simply cannot afford this?
Can I also add that I did not put the deposit into a deposit protection Scheme (I am a bit of a novice and didn't know of this new regulation).

[daveg]

Timescales:-
Section 8 notice 2 weeks
Court date seems to be about 4 weeks
Possesion order notice hopefully 2 weeks
Bailiff waiting time say 8 weeks

The court and bailiff times will vary depending on which court area your rental property is in. Serve the section 8 first and phone the court to get an idea of the waiting times.

The sticky thread above - Enforcement of a Possession Order using the HCEO route may speed things up.

Dave

[thesaint]

You can DIY, this forum has the Sec 8 forms.
Also, call the Housing Benefit dept, and get her payments suspended pending redirecting them straight to yourself.