Section 8 Notice

Using a Section 8 notice to regain possession of a property

If a tenant breaches their tenancy agreement by not paying their rent, the landlord can serve a section 8 notice under the Housing Act 1988. the relevant grounds to be cited are 8, 10 and 11. contained in schedule 2 of the Act

After serving the Section 8 on all or any of the grounds, the landlord must wait 14 days before pursuing court action, during which time the tenant has the oppunity to remedy the breaches as alleged by the landlord.

Ground 8 is a mandatory ground, which means that the court must give possession back to the landlord if the ground subsists. to establish this gound, the tenant must be two months in arrears if rent is due monthly, both at the date of the service of the notice and the date of the hearing.

Grounds 10 and 11 of the Housing Act are discretionary i.e. the judge decides whether or not to grant possession back to the landlord. it is generally not advised to use these grounds alone to seek possession.

At the expiration of the Section 8 notice the landlord can inssue court proceedings using forms N5 and N119 available from www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk

One of the most common reasons for such forms to be rejected by the courts is because the agent has signed them when only the landlord (claimant) or the landlord's solicitor is permitted to do so. Once proceedings have been initiated the hearing date is commonly around four to eight weeks later.

Assuming that a possesion order is granted the court can permit the tenant to stay at the property for up to six weeks, although this is usually two weeks unless the tenant can establisgh that this would cause exceptional hardship for them and their family.

if the tenant does not leave on the date contained in the court order, the landlord will need ot seek a warrant for possesion (N325) from the court abd pay the additional costs.

* Mandatory Grounds

If a mandatory ground is proved, the court must give possession to the landlord

* Discretionary Grounds

If a discretionary ground is provded he court will not necessarily give possession to teh landlord. They will only do so if they think it is jst and reasonable, fair to do so. If a landlord proved a discretionary ground but was not given possession the tenant would be on notice that if they breached the ground again possession would be given if the landlord went to court a second time.

For more information please contact us.

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