Every possession claim against a private assured tenant in England now starts with a section 8 notice on Form 3A. There is no “no-fault” route any more: section 21 ended on 1 May 2026, and the pre-May notices that survived the changeover had to reach court by 31 July 2026. What follows is how the new notice works, which ground needs how much notice, and the dates you need to diary. It is a dates-and-checklists guide, not legal advice; for a contested case, speak to a housing solicitor.
In force as of 25 October 2026 Form 3A: Completing the notice seeking possession – guidance for private landlords
What Form 3A is and when you use it
Form 3A, version (05.26), is the prescribed “Notice seeking possession of a property let on an assured tenancy or an assured agricultural occupancy in the private rented sector”. It is for private landlords in England only; social landlords use Form 3. The form is on GOV.UK’s assured tenancy forms page, last updated 1 May 2026.
Three parts of the form decide whether the notice works:
- Question 2.1, the earliest court date. The Form 3A guidance says this “must be the day after the notice period or periods for the grounds that you are using have expired”.
- Question 4.2, the grounds. You must insert “the full legal wording as set out in schedule 2”. The guidance warns that if the wording is missing, incomplete or inaccurate, “your notice may be invalid”. Copy it from the official Form 3A legal wording PDF, not from a website summary (including ours).
- Particulars. Section 8 only lets you rely on a ground if “that ground and particulars of it are specified in the notice”. Say what happened: arrears figures and dates, the term broken, the family member moving in.
Notice periods by ground
Section 8(4AA) of the Housing Act 1988 sets the minimum notice for each ground, counted “beginning with the date of service of the notice”. The table lists the grounds open to ordinary private landlords.
| Ground | What it covers | Type | Notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Occupation by landlord or family. You, your spouse or partner, or a close family member need the home as their only or principal home. | Mandatory | 4 months |
| 1A | Sale of the property. You intend to sell the freehold or leasehold (or grant a lease of more than 21 years). | Mandatory | 4 months |
| 2 | Sale by mortgage lender. Your lender is entitled to sell under its power of sale and needs vacant possession. | Mandatory | 4 months |
| 4A | Student HMO for the next academic year. An HMO let to full-time students, needed for a new group of students. | Mandatory | 4 months |
| 5C | End of employment. The home was let because of the tenant’s employment, and that employment has ended (or an early-employment letting has served its purpose). | Mandatory | 2 months |
| 6 | Redevelopment. You intend to demolish, reconstruct or carry out substantial works that cannot be done with the tenant in place. | Mandatory | 4 months |
| 6B | Compliance with enforcement action. You need possession to comply with a banning order, overcrowding notice, prohibition order or licensing decision. | Mandatory | 4 months |
| 7 | Death of the tenant. The tenancy passed under a will or intestacy to someone who was not living there. | Mandatory | 2 months |
| 7A | Severe antisocial behaviour or serious offence. Conviction for a serious offence, breach of an ASB injunction or criminal behaviour order, a closure order, or a noise offence. | Mandatory | No minimum |
| 7B | No right to rent. The Home Office has notified you that a tenant or adult occupier is disqualified from renting. | Mandatory | 2 weeks |
| 8 | Serious rent arrears. At least 3 months’ rent unpaid (monthly rent) or 13 weeks’ (weekly or fortnightly), both when you serve and at the hearing. | Mandatory | 4 weeks |
| 9 | Suitable alternative accommodation. Suitable alternative accommodation is or will be available to the tenant. | Discretionary | 2 months |
| 10 | Some rent arrears. Some rent is unpaid when proceedings begin and was in arrears when you served the notice. | Discretionary | 4 weeks |
| 11 | Persistent late payment. The tenant has persistently delayed paying rent, whether or not anything is owed now. | Discretionary | 4 weeks |
| 12 | Breach of tenancy. A term of the tenancy other than paying rent has been broken. | Discretionary | 2 weeks |
| 13 | Deterioration of the property. The condition of the home or common parts has got worse through the tenant’s or a resident’s waste, neglect or default. | Discretionary | 2 weeks |
| 14 | Nuisance or antisocial behaviour. Nuisance or annoyance to neighbours or to you or your staff, or a conviction for illegal or immoral use or an indictable offence locally. | Discretionary | No minimum |
| 14ZA | Rioting. The tenant or an adult resident was convicted of an indictable offence committed during and at the scene of a riot in the UK. | Discretionary | 2 weeks |
| 15 | Deterioration of furniture. Furniture you provided has deteriorated through ill-treatment. | Discretionary | 2 weeks |
| 17 | False statement. You granted the tenancy because of a false statement made knowingly or recklessly by the tenant (or someone they put up to it). | Discretionary | 2 weeks |
The full list of notice periods from the Form 3A guidance:
| Notice period | Grounds |
|---|---|
| Four months | 1, 1A, 1B, 2, 2ZA, 2ZB, 2ZC, 2ZD, 4A, 6, 6A, 6B |
| Two months | 5, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5H, 7, 9 |
| Four weeks | 5E, 5F, 5G, 8, 10, 11, 18 |
| Two weeks | 4, 7B, 12, 13, 14ZA, 14A, 15, 17 |
| None | 7A, 14 |
Grounds 1B, 5B, 5D, 5H, 6A and 14A are for social landlords and are not in the private-sector legal wording PDF.
Counting the dates
Because the period begins with the day of service, the earliest court date is the same date one period later:
- Weeks. Served on Saturday 17 October 2026 with two weeks’ notice, the period ends on 30 October, so question 2.1 is 31 October 2026.
- Months. Served on 1 June 2026 with grounds 8 and 7, the longest period is two months, so the date is 1 August 2026. That is the guidance’s own worked example.
- Month ends. Served on 31 October 2026 with four months’ notice, there is no 31 February. The period ends on the last day of February, so the date is 1 March 2027.
The section 8 notice calculator works these out, including month ends and leap years.
The 12-month window
Section 8(3)(c) says proceedings “will not begin later than twelve months from the date of service of the notice”. A notice served on 1 June 2026 must be used by the end of May 2027. If it is not, you serve a fresh one.
Rent arrears notices can be extended by a debt-respite breathing space. The notice stays valid for another 8 weeks from the day the breathing space ends if it would otherwise be over 12 months old by then, or if fewer than 8 weeks would be left.
Grounds 7A and 14: no notice period
For severe antisocial behaviour (7A) and nuisance (14), the date in the notice “shall not be earlier than the date of the service of the notice”. In practice the guidance says “you can apply to the court on the same day you serve the notice”. That holds even if the notice also relies on grounds with longer periods. The court still cannot order possession to take effect within 14 days of service where only these grounds are proved.
The court can sometimes dispense with a notice altogether if it is “just and equitable”. It cannot do so for grounds 7A, 7B or 8.
The grounds most landlords use
Ground 1: you or family moving in (mandatory, four months)
You, your spouse or partner, your parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild, or a child or grandchild of your spouse or partner needs the home as their only or principal home. The legal wording begins: “The current tenancy began at least 1 year before the relevant date”. The relevant date is the date in your notice, and both days are counted. GOV.UK puts it simply: the notice can be served earlier but “cannot expire before the 12 month period has ended”. On a tenancy that began on 1 May 2026, the notice date cannot be earlier than the end of April 2027, so with four months’ notice the earliest you could serve is about 30 December 2026.
Ground 1A: selling (mandatory, four months)
The same one-year rule applies. Ground 1A is not available for legacy assured tenancies: those that were already assured (not shorthold) tenancies before 1 May 2026 (SI 2026/421, regulation 5). Former assured shortholds that converted on 1 May can use it.
The 12-month re-letting and marketing ban
If you rely on ground 1 or 1A, section 16E bars you, during “the restricted period”, from letting the home on a tenancy of 21 years or less, letting it on a paid licence, or marketing it to let. The ban applies whether or not the tenant leaves. Under section 16M, the restricted period runs from service of the notice to the end of 12 months beginning with the date in the notice. With a four-month notice, that is about 16 months from service. If the sale falls through, you cannot simply re-let.
Ground 6: redevelopment (mandatory, four months)
This is for demolition, reconstruction or substantial works that cannot be done with the tenant in place. The tenancy must have begun at least six months before the date in the notice. Keep plans, quotes and planning or building-control documents. You also need evidence that a partial letting or access arrangement will not work.
Ground 8: serious rent arrears (mandatory, four weeks)
The legal wording: “Both at the date of the service of the notice … and at the date of the hearing”, at least three months’ rent is unpaid if rent is payable monthly, or 13 weeks’ rent if payable weekly or fortnightly. On £1,000 a month that means £3,000 unpaid at both dates. If the tenant pays it below the threshold before the hearing, ground 8 fails.
The amended ground ignores any amount unpaid “only because the tenant had not yet received” a Universal Credit housing payment. The statute names Universal Credit only; the GOV.UK explanation mentions “other benefits” too, so treat benefit-delayed arrears with care.
Rent in this ground means “rent lawfully due”. The Act names only weekly, fortnightly and monthly rent. If your rent is due every four weeks, take advice on the threshold.
Grounds 10 and 11: some arrears and persistent late payment (discretionary, four weeks)
Ground 10 needs some rent unpaid when proceedings begin and in arrears when the notice was served. Ground 11 covers persistent late payment, whether or not anything is owed on the day. Both are discretionary, so the court must also find possession reasonable. Landlords often pair them with ground 8 in case the arrears dip below the threshold before the hearing.
Grounds 12, 13 and 14: breach, damage and nuisance
Ground 12 covers breach of any tenancy term other than rent, and ground 13 deterioration of the property. Both need two weeks’ notice. Ground 14 (nuisance or annoyance, or conviction for illegal use) needs none. All three are discretionary. Dated photos, inventories, warning letters and incident logs carry these cases.
Breathing space: when you must not serve
If the Insolvency Service tells you a tenant is in a debt-respite breathing space, you must not serve a notice relying on grounds 8, 10 or 11. You also must not start a new claim on an existing arrears notice. A standard breathing space lasts up to 60 days; a mental health crisis one lasts for the treatment plus 30 days. Non-rent grounds are unaffected.
Serving the notice
The Form 3A guidance sets the order of preference:
- Use any method of service your written tenancy agreement specifies.
- Otherwise, hand it to the tenant in person, deliver it to the property (through the letterbox if no one answers), or send it by registered post.
- Email only if the agreement clearly allows it.
Give a copy to every named tenant and keep the original. Record service on form N215 (certificate of service), or write “served by [your name] on [the date]” on the notice.
Things that stop the court ordering possession
- Unprotected deposit. Under section 215 Housing Act 2004 as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, the court cannot order possession unless the deposit is protected and the prescribed information given. The exceptions are grounds 7A and 14. The bar lifts once the deposit is returned or a claim about it is resolved. Protection is due within 30 days of receiving the deposit.
- The landlord database, in future. Once the database duties commence, section 90 of the Act will stop the court ordering possession while you are in breach of the registration duty. Again only grounds 7A and 14 are exempt. This is not in force yet: the database regulations were still in draft on 25 October 2026. See our PRS database guide.
Going to court
If the tenant has not left by the date in question 2.1, the claim uses form N5 (claim for possession) and form N119 (particulars of claim for a rented residential property, updated 1 May 2026). The accelerated N5B route was tied to section 21 and only survives for pre-May section 21 notices.
For mandatory grounds, the court must order possession if the ground is proved. It can delay the date “by up to 6 weeks” for exceptional hardship. For discretionary grounds it may make an outright or suspended order.
Keep the dates in one place
A section 8 case is a chain of dates: when you served, when you can issue, when the notice lapses and, for grounds 1 and 1A, when you can let again. Add the notice to the property in the tracker and those dates land on your deadline list and calendar export. If the dispute is about rent rather than possession, start with the section 13 guide.