Right now, landlords can use either a Section 8 notice or a Section 21 notice to evict their tenants, with a range of options and criteria that can be used to oust tenants for a number of reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n The Renters\u2019 Rights Bill<\/a>, which just passed its second reading in Parliament, aims to change the rules surrounding evictions – among other things – in order to make it fairer. This has caused some concerns in the industry, including rumours circulating that landlords won\u2019t be able to evict their tenants – which is untrue.<\/span><\/p>\n Most tenancies do not end in eviction, and come to a natural end when a tenant decides to move out, or when landlords sell up with tenants in situ. However, it is crucial to be aware of what would happen if you did need to remove a tenant, and how this can be done at the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n Under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988,<\/a> landlords can end a tenancy for a set of specific reasons, under either mandatory grounds (which are a definitive list that will lead to eviction) or discretionary grounds (where landlords must justify their reason).<\/span><\/p>\n There are a total of 16 grounds for possession under this method, and notice periods are likely to vary depending on the circumstances. These grounds are:<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 1: Owner occupation<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 2: Repossession by lender<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 3: Out of season holiday let<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 4: Lets to students by educational institutions<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 5: Minister of religion<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 6: Redevelopment<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 7: Death of assured tenant<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 7A: Anti-social behaviour<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 7B: No right to rent<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 8: Serious rent arrears<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 9: Suitable alternative accommodation<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 10: Rent arrears<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 11: Persistent delay in rent payments<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 12: Breach of tenancy obligation<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 13: Deterioration in the condition of the property or common parts<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 14: Nuisance, annoyance, illegal or immoral use of the property<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 15: Deterioration of furniture<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 16: Employee of landlord<\/span><\/p>\n Ground 17: Recovery of possession where grant is induced by false statement<\/span><\/p>\n In order for a landlord to successfully carry out a Section 8 eviction, they would need to include a valid version of one of the above reasons for eviction, as well as supporting evidence where possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Under the Renters\u2019 Rights Bill, there are proposals to make a number of changes to Section 8 evictions, which landlords will need to know about should it become law.<\/span><\/p>\n This includes extensions to the notice periods for certain grounds for possession. For example, if a landlord or their family member wants to occupy the property, making eviction necessary, the notice period for tenants could extend to four months rather than the current two months, and will not be able to take effect within the first 12 months of a tenancy.<\/span><\/p>\n The same extension applies when the property is going to be sold, and for when the property is set to be redeveloped and the tenants must move out.<\/span><\/p>\n In terms of rent arrears, under the Renters\u2019 Rights Bill, tenants will need to be three months behind on their payments at the time notice is served.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the same time, it has been proposed that the court system should be improved and streamlined, so that landlords do not end up losing time and money going through lengthy court processes to repossess their properties.<\/span><\/p>\n For now, and until the Renters\u2019 Rights Bill comes into effect, you can also use a Section 21 eviction notice to remove tenants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Under this law, a landlord must give a tenant at least two months’ notice to leave the property, unless the tenancy is a contractual periodic tenancy, in which case the notice period may be longer. For example, if the tenant pays rent every three months, the landlord must give three months’ notice.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s also known as a \u2018no-fault eviction\u2019<\/a>, because no reason needs to be given for a Section 21 notice to be served. Often, landlords find it quicker and more straightforward to use Section 21, even if the reason for the eviction falls under one of the Section 8 grounds.<\/span><\/p>\n The Renters\u2019 Rights Bill seeks to abolish this method of evicting tenants completely, meaning only Section 8 will be available. By the time this law comes into play, more detailed information will be available on exactly how landlords will still be able to remove tenants from their properties where necessary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Stay up-to-date on the progress of the Renters’ Rights Bill and other changes and trends that could affect the UK property market on our News pages<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eviction is something the vast majority of landlords would rather avoid, but it\u2019s important to know what\u2019s involved, as well as what might change under the Renters’ Rights Bill. Right now, landlords can use either a Section 8 notice or a Section 21 notice to evict their tenants, with a range of options and criteria… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":6032177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,59],"tags":[332,410,411],"class_list":["post-6100309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buy-to-let-landlords","category-trending-news","tag-eviction","tag-section-21","tag-section-8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6100309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6100310,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100309\/revisions\/6100310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6032177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6100309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6100309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6100309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How can I evict under Section 8?<\/b><\/h3>\n
How are Section 8 evictions set to change?<\/b><\/h3>\n
What about Section 21?<\/b><\/h3>\n