The Section 21 notice and Form 6A: the prerequisites, and what makes one invalid

In England, Section 21 was the assured shorthold tenancy no-fault possession route, but it ended for most private rented tenancies on 1 May 2026. The remaining practical questions are whether an old notice still works, whether Form 6A is still needed for social-housing ASTs, and which defects stop a possession claim.

What is a Section 21 notice?

A Section 21 notice is the Housing Act 1988 notice by which a landlord of an assured shorthold tenancy could require possession on at least two months’ written notice without proving a fault ground. Section 21(1) and section 21(4) were the two statutory routes for possession of property under an AST, and the core statutory condition was that “the landlord or, in the case of joint landlords, at least one of them has given to the tenant not less than two months’ notice in writing stating that he requires possession of the dwelling-house.” In ordinary housing language, Section 21 meant the old no-fault route: unlike Section 8, the landlord did not need to rely on rent arrears, breach, sale, occupation or another possession ground. It is an England question now: Wales no longer has assured tenancies, Scotland uses private residential tenancy eviction grounds, and Northern Ireland uses a written notice to quit rather than Section 21.

Can you still serve a Section 21 on an assured shorthold tenancy?

You cannot serve a new Section 21 notice for a private rented assured shorthold tenancy in England after 1 May 2026, but social-housing private registered provider ASTs continue under the old forms until 2027 at the earliest. For ordinary private rented properties, GOV.UK states plainly: “Landlords cannot use section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 to seek possession of their property.” The statutory change removed assured shorthold tenancies from the private rented sector by omitting Chapter 2 of Part 1 of the Housing Act 1988, including Section 21. The important exception is social housing: GOV.UK says, “Landlords and tenants with social housing assured tenancies should continue to use the old forms, now called the forms for social housing assured tenancies, as the changes will not apply to those tenancies until 2027 at the earliest.” For private landlords, the replacement route is Section 8 using the post-1 May 2026 grounds.

I served a Section 21 before the abolition date but never went to court - can I still use it?

A Section 21 notice validly served before 1 May 2026 did not become void on that day, but if no claim had been issued it had to be used by the end of its transitional period, which GOV.UK treated as 31 July 2026. Schedule 6 to the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 kept the old notice alive “until the end of the applicable period,” and that period was six months from service or, if earlier, “the period of three months beginning with the commencement date.” MHCLG put the practical last court date in one sentence: “31 July 2026 was the last date on which you could make an application.” That means a Section 21 notice served in 2025 or March 2026 was not automatically void on 1 May 2026, but Form N5B was no longer open for a fresh claim after 31 July 2026. No statutory fine attaches simply to using a stale Section 21; the repeated £7,000 figure is a general Renters’ Rights Act breach cap, not a Section 21 penalty.

Where do you get a free Section 21 Form 6A, and can you write your own?

You get the free Section 21 Form 6A from GOV.UK, and you can use either the prescribed Form 6A or a document that is substantially to the same effect where Section 21 still applies. GOV.UK says, “You can download the prescribed forms from this page,” so a Section 21 notice template free download should not require paying a template seller. The legislation is less rigid than some guidance wording suggests: the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements Regulations 2015 define a numbered form as the scheduled form “or to a form substantially to the same effect.” The official Form 6A notes say the same thing in plainer terms: “This form (or a document setting out the same information) must be used where possession of accommodation let under an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) is sought under section 21(1) or (4) of the Housing Act 1988.” For private rented properties, new Section 21 and Form 6A use ended on 1 May 2026; Form 6A remains relevant for social-housing ASTs until the social-housing timetable changes.

What documents must you have given the tenant before serving a Section 21?

Before serving a valid Section 21 in England, the landlord had to have dealt with the prescribed How to Rent information, the EPC, the gas safety record where gas rules applied, and any tenancy deposit protection and prescribed-information requirements. The prescribed information rules name the current How to Rent guide as “the version of the document entitled ‘How to rent: the checklist for renting in England’” in force at the time. The prescribed-document regulations identify the two Section 21A documents as the EPC and gas safety record, stating that the requirements are “the requirement to provide tenants with an energy performance certificate” and “the requirement to provide tenants with a gas safety certificate.” There is no extra Section 21A document requirement for an EICR. The gas rule has a hard distinction: Trecarrell allowed late delivery of a later gas-safety record before serving Section 21, but Muca v El-Amrani / Harker v Hubert [2026] EWCA Civ 515 held that never giving the tenant the pre-occupation gas certificate is the one uncured gas defect that destroys Section 21.

What makes a Section 21 notice invalid?

A Section 21 notice is invalid if it was served too early, too late, after abolition for private rented tenancies, while required deposit, prescribed-information, licensing, prohibited-payment, EPC, gas-safety or How to Rent conditions were unmet, or during a statutory retaliatory-eviction bar. The Housing Act 1988 imposed the familiar six-month use-by rule: “proceedings for an order for possession under this section in relation to a dwelling-house in England may not be begun after the end of the period of six months beginning with the date on which the notice was given.” Deposit non-compliance also bars the notice: “no section 21 notice may be given” while the initial deposit-protection requirement is unmet. A prohibited payment or unpaid holding deposit has the same effect, because “No section 21 notice may be given in relation to the tenancy so long as all or part of the prohibited payment or holding deposit has not been repaid.” Licensing matters too: no Section 21 may be given for an unlicensed HMO or an unlicensed selectively licensed house while it remains unlicensed.

What happens if your Section 21 notice is invalid?

If your Section 21 notice is invalid, the court cannot make a possession order on that notice, and after 1 May 2026 a private landlord cannot cure the problem by serving a fresh Section 21. Section 21A states the basic rule for prescribed requirements: “A notice under subsection (1) or (4) of section 21 may not be given in relation to an assured shorthold tenancy of a dwelling-house in England at a time when the landlord is in breach of a prescribed requirement.” The post-abolition consequence is harsher than the old one. Before abolition, a failed Section 21 usually meant delay, fresh compliance and a new notice; after abolition, GOV.UK says “Landlords cannot use section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 to seek possession of their property.” If the old notice was not valid and still usable within the transitional deadline, the landlord must restart under the post-1 May 2026 possession regime, normally using Section 8 and paying the county-court possession application fee, which GOV.UK lists as £415.

Can you serve a Section 21 without a gas safety certificate?

Muca v El-Amrani / Harker v Hubert [2026] EWCA Civ 515 held that never giving the tenant a pre-occupation gas certificate is the one Section 21 defect that can never be cured — unlike Trecarrell, where a late copy of a later certificate still unlocks Section 21 if given before the notice. The prescribed-requirements regulations limit the Section 21A gas requirement to giving the tenant the relevant record: “the requirement prescribed by paragraph (1)(b) is limited to the requirement on a landlord to give a copy of the relevant record to the tenant and the 28 day period for compliance with that requirement does not apply.” Trecarrell therefore remains important where a gas-safety record existed and was given late before service; King LJ said that, once the record has been provided before service, the landlord keeps the right to use Section 21 despite the earlier timing breach. Muca is the later and narrower hard case: Falk LJ described failure to supply a pre-occupation gas safety certificate as “the only restriction on the use of section 21 of the 1988 Act which is wholly irremediable.”

How do you prove to a court that a property has no live gas supply?

You prove that a property has no live gas supply with evidence, not a special statutory form: use a current Gas Safe engineer’s written report confirming the meter, pipework, cap and appliances position, because no legislation prescribes a single proof method for the accelerated Section 21 court. The key is to answer the question the N5B form actually asks, which is broader than whether there are appliances; the form asks, “Is there any relevant gas fitting (including any gas appliance or installation pipework) installed in or serving the property?” An old invoice for capping may show work was done on a date, but it does not prove the present position if a judge wants evidence that the supply is actually disconnected or no relevant fitting remains. HSE guidance helps only where there are no gas appliances, saying: “As there are no gas appliances, there is no requirement for an annual gas safety check.” For a possession file, a current engineer’s report is stronger because it deals with live supply, installation pipework and secure capping in one evidential document.

Can you serve a Section 21 without a selective licence?

You could not serve a valid Section 21 for a house requiring selective licensing while it was an unlicensed house, but a duly made and still-effective licence application stops the property being treated as unlicensed for that bar. Housing Act 2004 section 98 is direct: “No section 21 notice may be given in relation to a shorthold tenancy of the whole or part of an unlicensed house so long as it remains such a house.” The same licensing point applied to selective licensing under Part 3 and sits alongside the separate HMO licensing bar. The practical exception is a pending application: a house is not treated as unlicensed where “an application for a licence has been duly made in respect of the house under section 87 and that application is still effective.” Since 1 May 2026, private landlords cannot serve a new Section 21 at all, licensed or not, because GOV.UK states that “Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions are not available for privately rented properties.”

Is the agent or the landlord liable for an admin error on a Section 21 notice?

A defective Section 21 notice defeats the landlord’s possession claim, but who pays for an agent’s admin error is not fixed by Section 21; it depends on the agency contract, negligence, complaint route or redress scheme. The possession statute frames the notice as the landlord’s notice, requiring that “the landlord or, in the case of joint landlords, at least one of them has given to the tenant not less than two months’ notice in writing stating that he requires possession of the dwelling-house.” That does not mean an agent cannot serve or sign for the landlord. In Northwood v Fearn, a Section 8 case whose agency point is still useful, the Court of Appeal said “a landlord complies with section 8 if an agent serves notice on his behalf.” Nor does every clerical error kill a notice: the Court of Appeal said of one signature-rubric error, “I cannot think that it could have been Parliament’s intention that such an immaterial error would invalidate the notice.” If the agent’s mistake caused loss, the landlord usually pursues the agent through contract, professional negligence or the mandatory redress scheme for property management work.

Last reviewed September 2026.

Sources

• Housing Act 1988 s.21 — “the landlord or, in the case of joint landlords, at least one of them has given to the tenant not less than two months’ notice in writing stating that he requires possession of the dwelling-house.” Source
• NRLA, Section 21 and Section 8 notices served before 1 May 2026 — “Unlike Section 8 notices, landlords did not need to give a reason for seeking possession.” Source
• GOV.UK, Repossessing your privately rented property after 1 May 2026 — “Landlords cannot use section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 to seek possession of their property.” Source
• GOV.UK, Assured tenancy forms — “Landlords and tenants with social housing assured tenancies should continue to use the old forms, now called the forms for social housing assured tenancies, as the changes will not apply to those tenancies until 2027 at the earliest.” Source
• Renters’ Rights Act 2025 Sch.6 para.4 — “until the end of the applicable period, except where the claimant has requested the court to issue the claim form for possession proceedings before the end of that period” Source
• Renters’ Rights Act 2025 Sch.6 para.4 — “the period of three months beginning with the commencement date, if this three month period ends before the six month period mentioned in paragraph (a).” Source
• GOV.UK, Giving notice of possession to tenants before 1 May 2026 — “31 July 2026 was the last date on which you could make an application.” Source
• GOV.UK, Assured tenancy forms — “You can download the prescribed forms from this page.” Source
• Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 reg.2 — “In these Regulations any reference to a section or Schedule is a reference to a section of, or Schedule to, the Housing Act 1988 and any reference to a numbered form is a reference to the form bearing that number in the Schedule to these Regulations, or to a form substantially to the same effect.” Source
• MHCLG, Notes to Form 6A — “This form (or a document setting out the same information) must be used where possession of accommodation let under an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) is sought under section 21(1) or (4) of the Housing Act 1988.” Source
• Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 — “The information is the version of the document entitled ‘How to rent: the checklist for renting in England’, as published by the Department for Communities and Local Government, that has effect for the time being.” Source
• Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 — “Regulation 2 prescribes certain requirements for the purposes of section 21A of the Act (compliance with prescribed legal requirements): these are the requirement to provide tenants with an energy performance certificate under regulation 6(5) of the Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 and the requirement to provide tenants with a gas safety certificate under regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.” Source
• Housing Act 1988 s.21 — “proceedings for an order for possession under this section in relation to a dwelling-house in England may not be begun after the end of the period of six months beginning with the date on which the notice was given under subsection (1) or (4).” Source
• Housing Act 2004 s.215 — “if a tenancy deposit has been paid in connection with a shorthold tenancy on or after 6 April 2007, no section 21 notice may be given in relation to the tenancy at a time when section 213(3) has not been complied with in relation to the deposit.” Source
• Tenant Fees Act 2019 s.17 — “No section 21 notice may be given in relation to the tenancy so long as all or part of the prohibited payment or holding deposit has not been repaid to the relevant person.” Source
• Housing Act 1988 s.21A — “A notice under subsection (1) or (4) of section 21 may not be given in relation to an assured shorthold tenancy of a dwelling-house in England at a time when the landlord is in breach of a prescribed requirement.” Source
• Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 reg.2 — “For the purposes of section 21A of the Act, the requirement prescribed by paragraph (1)(b) is limited to the requirement on a landlord to give a copy of the relevant record to the tenant and the 28 day period for compliance with that requirement does not apply.” Source
• Trecarrell House Ltd v Rouncefield [2020] EWCA Civ 760 — “As a consequence, in my view, so long as the GSR has been provided to either a new or existing tenant before service, a landlord retains his right to use the s21 procedure notwithstanding his or her earlier breach of the s36(6) or (7) requirements.” Source
• Muca v El-Amrani / Harker v Hubert [2026] EWCA Civ 515 — “the consequence appears to be that a failure to supply a pre-occupation gas safety certificate is the only restriction on the use of section 21 of the 1988 Act which is wholly irremediable.” Source
• Form N5B England, May 2026 — “Is there any relevant gas fitting (including any gas appliance or installation pipework) installed in or serving the property?” Source
• HSE, Gas safety checks — “As there are no gas appliances, there is no requirement for an annual gas safety check.” Source
• Housing Act 2004 s.98 — “No section 21 notice may be given in relation to a shorthold tenancy of the whole or part of an unlicensed house so long as it remains such a house.” Source
• Housing Act 2004 s.96 — “that an application for a licence has been duly made in respect of the house under section 87 and that application is still effective” Source
• GOV.UK, Assured tenancy forms — “Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions are not available for privately rented properties.” Source
• Northwood Solihull Ltd v Fearn [2022] EWCA Civ 40 — “a landlord complies with section 8 if an agent serves notice on his behalf, even if the agent signs the notice in the landlord’s name.” Source
• Northwood Solihull Ltd v Fearn [2022] EWCA Civ 40 — “I cannot think that it could have been Parliament’s intention that such an immaterial error would invalidate the notice.” Source
• Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014 art.5 — “A person who engages in property management work must be a member of a redress scheme for dealing with complaints in connection with that work.” Source