The room the council found you is a B&B with a shared bathroom, or a flat an hour's bus ride from your children's school, and nobody will say how long you will be there. In England there is no fixed limit on how long the council can keep you in temporary accommodation. The duty lasts until one of a short list of events in the Housing Act 1996 ends it, and most of those events are things you do.
This picks up after you have asked the council for help, often following a Section 8 eviction. Wales has its own rules under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014.
How long can you stay in temporary accommodation in England?
It depends which duty the council is housing you under, so ask if its letters don't say.
Interim accommodation, under section 188. The council must house you while it looks into your case if it has reason to believe you may be homeless, eligible and in priority need. The Code of Guidance calls that a low bar. It runs until the council tells you in writing what it has decided about your application. There is no time limit, but it is a stopgap.
If the council decides you are in priority need but made yourself intentionally homeless, it only has to house you for long enough to give you a reasonable chance to find somewhere under section 190(2).
The main housing duty, under section 193. Once the council accepts this duty, it must "secure that accommodation is available" for you until one of these events ends it, which can take years.
- Refuse an offer of temporary accommodation the council says is suitable, after it has warned you what refusing means and that you can ask for a review
- Stop being eligible, make yourself intentionally homeless from the placement, or move out
- Accept a social housing tenancy through the housing register, or refuse a final written offer of one
- Accept or refuse a private rented sector offer
That last route changed on 1 May 2026. A private rented sector offer, where the council arranges a private tenancy for you, is now an ordinary assured periodic tenancy with no minimum term. Before that date, if that tenancy ended within two years and you applied again, the council owed you the main duty whether or not you were in priority need. That safety net now covers only offers accepted before 1 May 2026.
Can you refuse temporary accommodation?
You can, but refusing is the step most likely to end the council's duty. Turning down main-duty accommodation the council considers suitable ends the duty under section 193(5), as long as it warned you first and then told you the duty is over. You can apply again, but unless your circumstances have changed since you refused, the council can usually rely on your refusal and owe you nothing more.
The safer route is to accept and ask for a review at the same time. Section 202(1A) lets you challenge an offer's suitability whether or not you have accepted it, so you keep a roof while the council looks again. The guidance recommends exactly this.
Interim accommodation is different. Turning it down, or moving in and later leaving, ends the interim duty, though not the council's other duties to you. If an interim placement looks impossible, speak to Remedy before you turn it down.
How to challenge unsuitable temporary accommodation
Section 206 says every placement must be suitable for you and your household. Under the 2012 Suitability Order, the council must weigh the distance from its area, disruption to work, caring and school, access to the medical care and support you rely on, and access to local services and transport. The place must also leave you enough to live on after paying for it.
Families get one firm limit. If someone in your household is pregnant or you have dependent children, the council should not place you in a B&B where you share a toilet, washing or cooking facilities with another household. It can do so only when nothing else is available, and then for no more than 6 weeks in total, under the 2003 Suitability Order. That rule does not cover places owned or managed by the council, a housing association or a voluntary organisation.
To challenge main-duty accommodation or a final offer, ask for a review in writing within 21 days of being told of the decision. Include evidence such as the school run, a GP letter or your budget. If the review goes against you, you can appeal to the county court within 21 days, but only by showing the council got the law wrong. Interim accommodation has no review under the Act. The only challenge is judicial review, a High Court claim that has to be brought promptly.
Can temporary accommodation be out of area?
Yes, but the council must house you in its own district if it reasonably can, and tell the receiving council in writing within 14 days if it does not, under section 208.
How much is rent in temporary accommodation?
You will usually pay rent in temporary accommodation, and the council decides how much. The law lets it set "reasonable charges", so there is no national rate. The amount should be in your placement letter.
You can usually claim Housing Benefit towards it, even if you get Universal Credit for everything else, because Universal Credit leaves out rent paid to the council or to a housing association it arranged. If you pay a private landlord directly, Universal Credit housing costs may apply instead.
Housing Benefit does not pay for meals, or for heating and hot water in your own room. If the part it doesn't cover leaves you short, raise it in a review. Keep paying, because rent you could afford but did not pay can lead the council to decide you made yourself intentionally homeless, which ends its duty to house you. Care leavers under 25 are protected from that finding since 30 September 2026, under section 191.
Can the council evict you from temporary accommodation?
It can end the placement once its duty ends. The notice depends on the duty and how the place is let.
For interim accommodation, the Supreme Court held in R (ZH and CN) v Newham and Lewisham [2014] UKSC 62 that a day-to-day licence pending a decision is not a home protected by the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. No court order is needed, though the council must give reasonable notice.
For main-duty accommodation, the arrangement matters. A self-contained flat let on a tenancy or an ordinary licence generally needs at least 4 weeks' written notice and a court order. If a private landlord lets it to you on an assured tenancy, the landlord will usually serve a possession notice on Ground 5G, which also gives 4 weeks, and must go to court. A room in a hostel provided by the council or a housing association is usually an excluded licence, so the council needs neither the notice nor a court order. Ask the council in writing what notice it is relying on.
Remedy can read your placement letter and any offer, work out which duty you are housed under, and help you write a suitability review request inside the 21 days.
