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 spelt correctly

• the tenancy you’re attempting to end is an assured shorthold tenancy (AST)

• 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

Remember that, if you have any questions, you can Ask a lawyer for advice. 

Either the landlord or the landlord's agent must sign the notice. The person who signs the form should include their address and telephone number. 

Sign by printing your Section 8 Notice and signing it on paper. Section 8 Notices cannot be signed online.

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).

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 securely store any proof of service, for example: 

• Royal Mail receipts. 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

Make sure that you get proof of service. Either: 

• ask your tenant to acknowledge that they received the Section 8 Notice, and on which date

• prove that the Notice was served using a recorded (ie tracked) delivery service, which gives you proof of delivery, or

• deliver the Notice to the tenant’s address in person and take somebody with you to witness that you've delivered the Section 8 Notice. The witness should sign a note stating the time and date that the Notice was delivered. A witness should be independent (ie somebody who doesn’t have an interest in the tenancy and who isn’t ‘on your side’). They should also: 

  • be at least 18 years old

  • have mental capacity, and

  • not be related to you

Note that the date of service of the Notice is the date that the tenant receives the Notice. Alternately, 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 3 days of postage time.