A section 8 notice is a legal document that your landlord must give to you from 1st May if they want to evict you from your privately rented home. 

It is the first step that your landlord has to take to evict you. 

The section 8 notice is the way they tell you they are planning to go court for an order to evict you, called a ‘possession’ order, if you don’t leave. 

1. The section 8 notice must be ‘valid’

Often landlords give tenants section 8 notices that are not actually valid for some reason. Here, ‘valid’ means legally enforceable - a section 8 notice is only legally enforceable if it meets all the legal requirements about how it is prepared, written and given to a tenant. So, it’s really important to work out if your section 8 notice is valid – for more help on this go to the next section.

2. Getting a section 8 notice does not mean that your landlord can force you out straight away 

There is a legal process they must follow. This gives you a bit of time to get some advice. The sooner you get advice the better the outcome will be for you!

3. You are immediately entitled to free legal advice 

There is a free government advice scheme to help you if you are given a section 8 notice. Go to Find a legal aid adviser and put in your postcode and click on ‘Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service’.

4. A section 8 notice does not end your tenancy 

Your tenancy does not end until the date that a bailiff comes to your home and enforces a court warrant that allows them to evict you. They can only evict you if they give you the correct notice and come on the date that the warrant allows them to come. But, if you leave voluntarily after you get a section 8 notice or after the court makes a possession order, your tenancy will end on that date.

5. Just because you have been given a section 8 notice, you can’t stop paying your rent

You need to keep paying your rent, and any arrears if you possibly can, until the end of the tenancy. If you need help with debt issues, go to More help and advice[BK5.1]. If you stop paying your rent, your landlord can ask the court for an order to evict you and, at the same time, start a money claim against you. This means they can ask the court to order you to pay any rent you owe, plus the arrears that have built up and their legal costs.

6. If the section 8 notice is valid and you don’t leave the property your landlord can ask the court for a possession order 

If you don’t leave by the date in your section 8 notice, your landlord can apply to court and ask for a possession order. If your landlord is successful, the court will also order that you have to pay your landlord’s costs.
 

Reason 1 – you are not given the correct form 

There will be a specific new form that your landlord must use, called a Form 3A. They cannot let you know they want you to move out by just telling you face to face. Your landlord might give you something called a ‘notice to quit’. This can only be used in a few situations and if you rent your home from a private landlord this will be the wrong form. If you do get a notice to quit, be sure to get legal advice to check that it is the wrong form. 

Reason 2 – you are given a section 8 notice too early in your tenancy

If your landlord says they want to sell or move into the property they can only give you a section 8 notice for this reason 12 months after the start of the tenancy. Any time before this and the section 8 notice will be invalid. 

Reason 3 – not enough information or incorrect information in the section 8 form

Your landlord needs to have all the key information correctly included in the section 8 form for it to be valid. For example, they must include your full name, the address and the reason or reasons they want to evict you. The form must be detailed and clear enough for you as a tenant to understand what you might be able to do to avoid being evicted. So, if the issue is rent arrears, where you have fallen behind on your rent payments or you are regularly late paying your rent, your landlord needs to provide details of the arrears so you can try and sort out the problem. 

Reason 4 – you have not been given enough notice 

Your landlord needs to put the date they can first apply to court to evict you in the section 8 notice. This is often called ‘notice’. How much notice you get depends on the legal reason your landlord is using to apply for a possession order. For more on this go to Legal reasons landlords can use to evict you

Reason 5 – the section 8 notice has expired 

Your landlord must apply to court within 12 months of giving you a section 8 notice. If they do not do this, the notice runs out and they will need to prepare and give you a new one. 

Reason 6 – your deposit has not been put in a tenant deposit protection scheme

Your landlord must protect your deposit in a tenant deposit protection scheme. The only situations when your landlord does not have to do this is when they ask the court for a possession order based on what they say is your anti-social behaviour. You can put this in your defence form. But your landlord will have the chance to put this error right and so you need to see this as a problem that might delay the process rather than stop the possession order being made eventually. 
 

After 1st May your landlord will have to use one or more legal reasons in a section 8 notice to ask the court to evict you. These legal reasons are called ‘grounds’. There is a long list of different grounds that landlords can use. Here we focus on the most commonly used ones. 

Landlords must be clear on the details of the legal reason they want to use. You need to get legal advice, if you can, to understand if your landlord can use the reason they have put in the section 8 notice and what you might be able to do to challenge it. 

Be aware that landlords are allowed to use more than one ground in the section 8 notice and often will if they think this will make it more likely that they get a possession order. 

Landlords must also be careful to use a legal reason that they believe they are actually entitled to use – rather than just pick one they fancy to get you out as quickly as possible. 

Landlords can be fined by the council if they use a ground that, given all the facts of the situation, it would be unreasonable to use. 

Mandatory and discretionary grounds 

Some of the legal reasons that landlords can use are easier to challenge than others. This is because with some of the reasons, if your landlord can provide evidence and the court accepts it, the judge must make a possession order. This is called a ‘mandatory’ ground. 

Some other legal reasons are easier to challenge. This is because even if your landlord’s evidence is accepted by the court, the judge can still take into account your personal situation and if they decide it is ‘reasonable’ to do so, they can refuse to make an order or they can make an order that gives you more time to put things right and avoid being evicted. 

Next, we explain the different legal reasons your landlord might be able to use. 

We have put them into the two types – mandatory and discretionary. 

Mandatory grounds  

Discretionary grounds 

How to work out notice periods correctly

The notice period starts on the date the law says you received the section 8 notice – this is not always the same date that you actually receive it. How long you then have till the date your landlord can go to court depends on the legal reason they use. 

Example (set in the future!) 

Rachael and Colin rent their home from a private landlord. The landlord decides they want to sell the property. They have to give Rachael and Colin 4 months’ notice. 

Their tenancy agreement says that notices can be sent by first class post and will be assumed to arrive the next day. 

Their landlord sends a section 8 notice to them on 1st July 2026 which says the earliest date the landlord can apply to court for a possession order is 31st October. The notice will be treated as arriving on 2nd July (even if it arrives later than that). Their landlord has not given them enough notice. It is two days short of the required 4 months and so the notice is not valid. 

Rent arrears 

Due to the new laws in May, it is likely that many landlords will use a legal reason linked to rent arrears. 

If your landlord is using a rent arrears reason in the section 8 notice, don’t give up. There are things you can do!

1. Get in touch with your landlord as soon as possible and suggest a repayment plan to start reducing the amount of rent you owe. This must only be an amount you really can manage though otherwise the plan will quickly become unmanageable. Get help from a debt adviser on this beforehand.
2. If your landlord is using Ground 8 rent arrears, try and get what you owe below the amount of 13 weeks or 3 months’ rent. Get help as soon as possible.  
3. You might get some benefits already but there could be other benefits you aren’t getting but that you are entitled to. Again – get help on this as soon as you can as it takes time to make a new claim.
4. If you get UC but the DWP are making deductions and this problem is adding to your difficulties in paying your rent, you might be able to negotiate smaller deductions with the DWP.  
5. If you have rent arrears and your home is in a bad condition with problems like mould, damp or a broken boiler, you may be able to make a counter claim against the rent arrears for ‘disrepairs’. You must tell your landlord about the problem, keep a record that you have told them (like the email or a photocopy of any letter) and take photos of the problem and any medical evidence you have of the how the problem is affecting you or anyone else who lives with you. Get free legal advice on this if you possibly can. If you can’t, take what evidence you can to court, with copies, and show it to the judge. 
    

Get free legal advice on your exact situation as soon as you can. Go to the section called Getting legal advice for more help and read our guide about preparing to see a solicitor or adviser so you get the most out of your advice session. 

It may well be that your section 8 notice is not valid or you might be able to challenge the possession claim due to your particular situation. Or, if your home is in a bad condition and you need repairs doing you may be able to ask the court to take this problem into account when it looks at your landlord’s possession claim. This is called a ‘counter claim’.  You will need evidence to show problems with the condition of your home. Try and get urgent legal advice if you want to make a counter claim. 

Legal advice is essential to help you work all this out. 

Think about the pros and cons involved in challenging the section 8 notice before you make any big decisions. 

Pros 

If you decide to challenge your landlord’s application for a possession order and you are successful you get to stay in your home – great news! But be aware that your landlord could give you another section 8 notice at a later date, especially if they only made an administrative error in the form – they may re-apply just a few months later. 

If there is any chance that your local council will accept you as homeless and find you somewhere to live, they will ask you to challenge your landlord’s possession claim if they are aware that there is a reason you can do this. You can ask your council to help you do this. 

Cons

If you are not successful, the court will order you to pay the landlord’s costs and you will still have to leave the property. But even in this situation, you will have got a bit more time, while the court process happens, to hopefully find somewhere else to live. 

You may not get a positive or any reference from your landlord.