Landlord Tenant Eviction Notice

When landlords want to remove occupants and recover custody of their rental dwelling, they are required by law to start the procedure off by serving the occupant with a valid landlord tenant eviction notice.

The Accelerated Possession Procedure

A landlord should use an eviction notice citing section 21 when;

• They do not wish to chase up any outstanding rent.
• They want their rental property vacated by the residents ASAP.

Landlords should be mindful that if they seek repossession by citing section 21, a court is unable to also grant any orders for rent arrears. This type of notice is a precursor to what is known as the accelerated possession procedure and this tends to be the fastest way for the repossession of a rented property. However many landlords decide to obtain eviction via a section 21 notice because they must have their rental income to avoid financial difficulties themselves; and so they must remove their non-paying occupants as a matter of urgency.

When considering an eviction notice and any request for repossession, courts will need to confirm that the right legal steps have been followed; therefore it is very important that everything is done following current housing legislation. A landlord should either deliver the notice personally, along with a third party witness or dispatch the eviction notice by mail; and so that the occupant is unable to claim that they never received the notice, preferably by recorded delivery.

Click Here To Use The Section 21 Notice Creator

Landlord Tenant Eviction Notice

Two final points on section 21 tenant eviction procedures;

• Landlords may not serve a landlord tenant eviction notice if the rental dwelling is a HMO which has not been licensed and it should be.
• Landlords also cannot issue a landlord tenant eviction notice if a tenancy deposit has been handed to the landlord but has not been then put into a government backed tenancy deposit arrangement.

Section 8 Alternative

The other key process for achieving a tenant's eviction is via a section 8 eviction notice. When a landlord needs to recover possession from an assured shorthold occupier prior to the fixed period coming to a close, the landlord should serve appropriate notice following the guidance of section 8 in the 1988 Housing Act. Consequently, this procedure is often known as the section 8 eviction process.

Landlord Tenant Eviction Notice

To summarise, section 8 of the Housing Act states that;

• the landlord ( in the case of joint landlords, only one is required),
• has served on the occupier a notice (in compliance with section 8),
• that court proceedings are underway within the deadline as stipulated in the Housing Act (and are stated in the notice),
• the notice must be provided in the recommended format,
• which stipulates the ground being cited (as to why the landlord requires repossession).

Legislation under section 8 provides no fewer than seventeen grounds which a landlord can use to regain possession and all landlords must state in the eviction notice which ground they intend to utilise, as well as giving the particulars of the appropriate ground to support the claim.