Section 8 notice checklist

Read the document to make sure it meets your needs and that you’ve provided all of the necessary information. Specifically, check that:

• the property's address and postcode are correct

• all of the names in the Notice are spelled correctly

• the tenancy you’re attempting to end is an assured periodic tenancy (APT)

• you’re providing a long enough notice period to the tenant, and 

• your Notice correctly identifies the section 8 grounds you want to rely on

For more information on whether your Section 8 Notice is correct and suitable for your circumstances, read the FAQs for this document. Remember that, if you have any questions, you can Ask a lawyer for advice. 

You can use our Eviction notice review service if you’d like a lawyer to check that you’ve created your Section 8 Notice correctly.

The landlord must sign the Section 8 Notice. If there are joint landlords, at least one of the joint landlords should sign. Alternatively, someone authorised to give the Section 8 Notice on the landlord’s (or joint landlords’) behalf can sign – ie an agent.

The person(s) who signs the Notice should include:

• their name

• the name of their business (if required) 

• the capacity in which they are signing (eg as the landlord or the landlord’s agent)

• their address 

• their telephone number, and

• the date of signature

You must correctly serve (ie deliver) the Section 8 Notice, or it won’t be valid. To serve a Section 8 Notice, a landlord must: 

• serve the Notice themselves or have their agent serve it, and

• serve the Notice physically (ie on paper), unless the tenant expressly agrees to receive such notices by email 

You should ideally serve the Notice either: 

• by post, or

• by hand. Posting the Notice by hand into the mailbox of the rented property gives you the security of knowing when the notice gets to the tenant and removes the risk of the notice getting lost or delayed in the post

If there are multiple tenants, you should serve your Section 8 Notice to all tenants. The easiest way to do this is usually by delivering it to the property.

Landlords must also follow any further requirements for service that are set out in the Tenancy agreement (eg a tenancy agreement may require that any notices associated with the tenancy are served by registered post).

Note that the date of service of the Notice is the date that the tenant receives the Notice. Alternatively, if the tenant doesn’t acknowledge service but you correctly delivered the Section 8 Notice, the date you can prove that they should reasonably have received it will be the date of service. 

This means that any time before the Notice gets to the tenant is not included in the notice period required for the Notice. Take this into account when posting a Section 8 Notice by, for example, allowing for at least three days of postage time.

A copy of your Section 8 Notice will be stored automatically in your Rocket Lawyer account ‘Dashboard’.

You should also download and securely store a copy of your Section 8 Notice for your records. 

You should also keep proof that you gave the Section 8 Notice to your tenants. To do this, you can:  

• fill in the certification of service form (N215)

• write ‘served by [your name] on [the date]’ on the Section 8 Notice

You should also securely store any additional proof of service, for example: 

• Royal Mail receipts (remember, you should use a recorded delivery service if you’re serving your Section 8 Notice by post)

• signed and dated statements from witnesses that watched you hand deliver the Notice

• emails or text messages from tenants acknowledging that they’ve received the Notice