Everything about Evic­tion Notice

An evic­tion notice is a formal writ­ten no­ti­fic­a­tion from a land­lord to a tenant, in­form­ing the tenant that they must vacate the rental prop­erty by a spe­cified date.

Evic­tion notice is the first step in the legal pro­cess of evic­tion, which may occur for vari­ous reas­ons, such as the land­lord need­ing the prop­erty back or the tenant breach­ing the terms of their ten­ancy agree­ment (e.g., fail­ing to pay rent or caus­ing damage).

Evic­tion: An Over­view

Evic­tion refers to the legal pro­cess by which a land­lord re­moves a tenant from a prop­erty.

The evic­tion pro­cess is gov­erned by strict laws to ensure ten­ant­s' rights are pro­tec­ted and that land­lords follow proper pro­ced­ures. There are dif­fer­ent types of evic­tions de­pend­ing on the ten­ancy agree­ment and the reas­ons for evic­tion.

Ten­ants have strong rights in the UK. Land­lords must follow the cor­rect legal pro­ced­ures to evict them. A tenant cannot be forced to leave without a court order.

Any at­tempt by a land­lord to evict a tenant il­leg­ally (e.g., by chan­ging the locks or har­ass­ing the tenant) is con­sidered an il­leg­al evic­tion, which is a crim­in­al of­fence.

Ten­ants also have the right to chal­lenge the evic­tion in court, es­pe­cially if they be­lieve the evic­tion is unfair or the land­lord hasn't fol­lowed proper pro­ced­ures.

Evic­tion Notice: Dif­fer­ent Types

There are two primary forms of evic­tion notice in the UK for As­sured Short­hold Ten­an­cies: Sec­tion 21 Notice and Sec­tion 8 Notice.

Sec­tion 21 Notice

Sec­tion 21 Notice is a no-fault evic­tion, used when the land­lord wants the prop­erty back at the end of the ten­ancy. No spe­cif­ic reason is re­quired, but proper notice must be given.

Since 2023, this pro­cess is sub­ject to in­creas­ing scru­tiny, and there are plans to ab­ol­ish Sec­tion 21 no­tices.

Sec­tion 8 Notice

Sec­tion 8 Notice notice is used when a tenant has broken the terms of the ten­ancy, such as fall­ing behind on rent or en­ga­ging in anti-social be­ha­viour.

Spe­cif­ic grounds for evic­tion must be provided under Sec­tion 8 of the Hous­ing Act 1988.

Evic­tion Notice: Notice Period

The length of time a tenant is given to leave varies based on the type of evic­tion notice.

• For Sec­tion 21: a min­im­um of two months' notice is usu­ally re­quired.
• For Sec­tion 8: the notice period de­pends on the grounds for evic­tion, which can range from two weeks to two months.

What to In­clude in an Evic­tion Notice?

An evic­tion notice must in­clude spe­cif­ic de­tails to ensure it is leg­ally valid and provides the ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion to the tenant.

• Tenant and Land­lord In­form­a­tion
• Date of the Notice
• Type of Evic­tion Notice
• Reason for Evic­tion (if ap­plic­able)
• Notice Period
• In­struc­tions on Va­cat­ing the Prop­erty
• Court Action Warn­ing
• Land­lord's Sig­na­ture
• Sup­port­ing Doc­u­ments
• De­liv­ery of the Notice

Evic­tion Notice – Free Tem­plate

Please find a basic tem­plate of an Evic­tion Notice, Sec­tion 21 below.

Evic­tion Notice – Sec­tion 21

Date: [Insert Date]

To: [Tenant’s Full Name]
[Tenant’s Ad­dress]

From: [Land­lord’s Full Name]
[Land­lord’s Ad­dress]

Dear [Tenant’s Name],

This notice is to inform you that I, [Land­lord’s Name], am seek­ing pos­ses­sion of the prop­erty loc­ated at [Prop­erty Ad­dress] under Sec­tion 21 of the Hous­ing Act 1988. You are re­quired to vacate the premises by [Insert Date – at least two months from the date of this notice].

Please ensure that the prop­erty is re­turned in good con­di­tion and that all per­son­al be­long­ings are re­moved before leav­ing. Fail­ure to vacate the prop­erty by the above date may result in court pro­ceed­ings to re­cov­er pos­ses­sion of the prop­erty.

Kind re­gards,
[Land­lord’s Sig­na­ture]
[Land­lord’s Name]
[Land­lord’s Con­tact In­form­a­tion]

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