What Is a Section 8 Notice and When Can Landlords Use It?

How does a section 8 notice work from start to finish?

You pick a ground, serve the prescribed form, wait out the notice period, then file a possession claim at the county court. Six stages, and the paperwork at each one is checked by a judge.

The six stages of a possession claim

• Pick your ground. Work out which of the Schedule 2 grounds fits the facts. You can cite several on one notice, and most landlords do.
• Serve the notice. Complete the prescribed form in full and get it to the tenant by an approved method, keeping proof of the date.
• Wait out the notice period. Anything from nothing at all to four months, depending on the ground. Issue early and the claim fails.
• File the claim. Send forms N5 and N119 to the county court with the fee, or use the online service if the claim is purely about arrears.
• Attend the hearing. Bring the tenancy agreement, the notice, the certificate of service and your evidence for the ground.
• Enforce the order. If the tenant stays past the date on the order, apply for a warrant of possession and county court bailiffs carry out the eviction.

What changed on 1 may 2026

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 came into force that day. Assured shorthold tenancies were abolished and every private tenancy became a periodic assured tenancy.

Section 21 went with them, so there is no no-fault route left. The government’s guidance on the Renters’ Rights Act confirms that possession now runs entirely through the Section 8 grounds.

A short transitional window let landlords finish claims begun under the old rules, and it shut on 31 July 2026. Every possession claim issued now is a Section 8 claim.

Which prescribed form do you need to use?

Form 3A. It replaced the old Form 3 for private assured tenancies on 1 May 2026, and Form 6A, the Section 21 notice, is no longer a possession route in England.

Form 3a, form 3 and form 6a compared

The forms are published as the assured tenancy forms and the gov.uk guidance on giving notice to evict tenants tells you plainly to fill in Form 3A. Using a form downloaded before May 2026 is one of the fastest ways to lose a claim.

Completing form 3a without invalidating it

Name every tenant exactly as they appear on the tenancy agreement, including anyone who has since moved out but never formally left the tenancy. A missing joint tenant is fatal.

Set out the full ground number and the wording of the ground, then give the facts in your own words underneath. Judges routinely strike out notices that cite a ground number with no supporting particulars.

The date in paragraph 5 is the earliest date you can start court proceedings, not the date the tenant has to leave. Landlords who confuse the two usually pick a date that is too early.

What are the grounds for possession under section 8?

There are two families. Mandatory grounds oblige the court to order possession once the ground is proved, while discretionary grounds only succeed if the judge also thinks eviction is reasonable.

Mandatory grounds

Ground 2 covers a buy-to-let lender taking possession to sell, and Grounds 2ZA to 2ZD deal with a superior lease ending, which matters if you sublet a flat in a block.

Ground 4A is the student ground, and only a student HMO let to a group of full-time students qualifies. It can only be used to recover the property between 1 June and 30 September.

Discretionary grounds

Proving the ground is only half the job. The judge weighs the tenant’s circumstances, the seriousness of the breach and whether the damage or arrears have been put right.

The grounds that come with strings attached

Grounds 1 and 1A cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy. Serve on either of them too early and the notice is void on its face.

Once you have possession on Ground 1 or 1A you cannot re-let or even market the property during a restricted period afterwards. A local housing authority can impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000 if you do.

Relying on a ground you never genuinely intended to act on is a criminal offence under the amended Housing Act 1988. Councils can charge up to £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution.

What notice period applies to each ground?

Four months for the no-fault grounds, four weeks for rent arrears, two weeks for tenancy breaches, and nothing at all for serious antisocial behaviour.

How the periods group together

• Four months: Grounds 1, 1A, 1B, 2, 2ZA to 2ZD, 4A, 6, 6A and 6B. These are the grounds where the tenant has done nothing wrong.
• Two months: Grounds 5, 5A to 5D, 5H, 7 and 9, covering ministers of religion, tied accommodation, death of the tenant and suitable alternative housing.
• Four weeks: Grounds 5E to 5G, 8, 10, 11 and 18, which is where all three rent arrears grounds sit.
• Two weeks: Grounds 4, 7B, 12, 13, 14ZA, 14A, 15 and 17, covering breach of tenancy and damage to the property or its furniture.
• No minimum: Grounds 7A and 14. You can issue the claim the same day you serve the notice.

The three-month arrears threshold on Ground 8 replaced the old two-month test in May 2026, a change the NRLA campaigned hard against. On a £1,300 a month tenancy that is £3,900 gone before you can even serve.

When the clock starts and when the notice dies

The notice period runs from the date of service, not the date you posted it. Allow at least two working days for first class post and record the date you actually delivered.

A notice served on or after 1 May 2026 stays alive for 12 months from the date of service. Miss that window and you serve again, which is why rent guarantee insurance matters more than it did under the old regime.

How do you serve a section 8 notice correctly?

By hand, by post or by leaving it at the property, and always with a written record of how and when. Service is the single most common point of failure in a contested claim.

Methods that hold up in court

Personal delivery to the tenant is the strongest, ideally with a witness who will sign a statement. Second best is posting it through the letterbox and photographing it on the doormat with a timestamp.

Recorded delivery sounds safer but is not. If the tenant refuses to sign, the item is returned and you have proof of non-delivery rather than proof of service.

Email only works if the tenancy agreement expressly permits service by email and the tenant has given that address for the purpose. Without that clause, an emailed notice is worthless.

Proving service with form n215

Complete a certificate of service, form N215, on the day you serve. It takes two minutes and it is the document a judge will ask for first.

If you would rather not use the form, write the details on your own copy of the notice: who served it, the method, the address and the exact date and time. Keep the original and file it with the claim.

What happens after the notice expires?

Nothing automatic. If the tenant is still there you file a possession claim, and if you do not file within 12 months of service the notice lapses.

Issuing the claim

Post or email forms N5 and N119 to your local county court with the £415 fee. The gov.uk guide to evicting tenants sets out the route, and the online service costs £404 but only covers rent arrears claims.

Attach the tenancy agreement, the served notice, the certificate of service and a rent schedule. Missing documents mean an adjournment and another two months of waiting.

Why the accelerated route no longer exists

Accelerated possession was a paper-only procedure that skipped the hearing, and it was only ever available on a valid Section 21 notice. With Section 21 abolished, that shortcut has gone.

Every possession claim now goes down the standard route with a hearing, whether the tenant defends it or not. The court closed the last accelerated applications on 31 July 2026.

What the judge can order

An outright order gives the tenant 14 days to leave, or up to 42 days if eviction would cause exceptional hardship. A suspended order lets them stay while they pay, which is where legal expenses cover earns its keep.

The judge can also make a money order for the arrears and your costs, adjourn, or dismiss the claim outright. Dismissal for a procedural error costs you the fee and the months already spent.

How long does a section 8 eviction take and what does it cost?

Ministry of Justice figures for April to June 2026 put the median at 27.1 weeks from issuing the claim to the bailiff getting the property back, and that is before the notice period.

The published timings

Those medians are national. Courts in London and the South East run materially slower than the figures below, and a defended claim adds a second hearing.

What you will spend

Court fees were last revised on 13 July 2026. Solicitor costs are the variable, and the gap between an undefended and a defended claim is wide.

Budget £1,100 to £2,100 for an undefended Ground 8 claim and £3,000 to £6,500 if it is defended. Add the lost rent across those months and the real number is far higher.

How do you enforce a possession order?

Apply for a warrant of possession at £152 and county court bailiffs carry out the eviction. If the bailiff queue is long you can ask the court for permission to transfer the case to the High Court.

County court bailiffs

The warrant is issued on paper and the court sends the tenant an eviction notice with the appointment date. Bailiff appointments are the bottleneck, and the MoJ median gap between warrant and repossession runs to several weeks.

You should attend with a locksmith and change the locks the moment the bailiff hands the property back. Tell your insurer that day, because most landlord buildings policies restrict cover once the property is standing empty.

Transferring to the high court

You need the court’s permission to transfer a possession order up for enforcement by a High Court Enforcement Officer. Permission is not automatic and the tenant can be heard on the application.

High Court enforcement is usually faster than the bailiff queue but costs materially more once the transfer application and the officer’s own fees are added. It suits an urgent case rather than a routine arrears eviction.

Between the eviction and the next tenant the property sits empty, so check whether you need unoccupied property cover. Landlords running several units through a portfolio policy should tell the insurer which address is void.

Why do section 8 notices get thrown out?

Almost always on paperwork rather than merit. The wrong form, the wrong date, a missing written statement of terms or a ground you cannot evidence will each sink an otherwise good claim.

The paperwork failures

• Using the withdrawn Form 3 or Form 6A instead of Form 3A. This is the most common error since May 2026.
• Naming the wrong tenants, or leaving a joint tenant off the notice entirely.
• Getting the notice period wrong, usually by giving four weeks on a ground that needs two months or four months.
• No certificate of service, so you cannot prove the tenant received anything.
• No written statement of terms. Since May 2026 landlords must give tenants a written statement, and a ground not disclosed in it can be challenged.
• Issuing the claim before the notice period expires, or more than 12 months after serving it.

The evidence failures

Ground 8 arrears must exist on the date of the notice and again on the date of the hearing. Arrears caused by a delay in a tenant’s Universal Credit payment are disregarded, which catches out landlords letting to tenants on benefits.

For Ground 1A you need real evidence of an intention to sell, such as an agency instruction or a valuation. A judge will not accept a stated intention on its own.

For Ground 14 bring dated witness statements, police reference numbers and copies of the warnings you gave. Complaints relayed second hand rarely carry weight.