A section 21 notice in England and Wales also known as a section 21 notice of possession or a section 21 eviction, is the notice under the Housing Act 1988 section 21, which a landlord must give to their tenant to begin the process to take possession of a property let on an assured shorthold tenancy without providing a reason for wishing to take possession. The expiry of a section 21 notice does not bring a tenancy to its end. The tenancy would only be ended by a landlord obtaining an order for possession from a court, and then having that order executed by a County Court bailiff or High Court enforcement officer. Such an order for possession may not be made to take effect earlier than six months from the beginning of the first tenancy unless the tenancy is a demoted assured shorthold tenancy. If the court is satisfied that a landlord is entitled to possession, it must make an order for possession, for a date no later than 14 days after the making of the order unless exceptional hardship would be caused to the tenant in which case possession may be postponed to a date no later than six weeks after the making of the order. The court has no power to grant any adjournment or stay of execution from enforcement unless the tenant has a disability discrimination, public law or human rights defence, or the case is pending an appeal.
Where a landlord is seeking possession on the basis of a section 21 notice where the tenancy is, or where there are successive tenancies on the same terms as, the original tenancy comprised in a written tenancy agreement, the landlord may bring a claim for possession under the accelerated procedure if no other claims are being made at the same time. Unlike a standard possession claim, the accelerated possession version is decided by a judge on paper without a hearing unless the paperwork doesn't appears to be in order, or the tenant has raised an important issue in defence. The mean time between claim for possession under the accelerated procedure being issued at court and eviction in 2019 was 27.4 weeks, with a median of 18.7 weeks.
Background
Security of tenure was first given to tenants of certain dwellings in 1915 by the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act as a result of housing shortage caused by World War I. Regulations on security were variously widened and tightened over the years. The Rent Act 1977 and the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 consolidated existing legislations and is still in force . Tenants of regulated tenancies under the Rent Act 1977 cannot be evicted by their landlord without one of the grounds under Schedule 15 of the Act being satisfied. Notably, grounds for possession resulting from tenant's rent arrears is only a discretionary ground, meaning the court will only grant an order for possession if it considers it reasonable to do so.
The Housing Act 1988 introduced assured tenancies and assured shorthold tenancies from 15 January 1989, the latter being a subset of the former. Like regulated tenancies under the Rent Act 1977, tenants of non-shorthold assured tenancies cannot be evicted without one of the grounds specified under the Act being satisfied, though there is now a mandatory ground for possession for rent arrears. Landlords of tenants with an assured shorthold tenancies however can apply for an order for possession from the court without specifying any reason so long as sufficient notices have been given to their tenants in accordance with section 21 of the 1988 Act. Assured shorthold became the default type of private residential tenancies from the commencement of section 96 of the Housing Act 1996 on 28 February 1997.
Requirements
Section 21 of the 1988 Act provides two different mechanisms under which a landlord can give notice to obtain possession of their property. In either case, since the coming into force of the 1996 Act, the notice must be in writing. An agent of the landlord may give the notice on behalf of the landlord. Where there are joint landlords, the notice may be given by any one of them. Where the occupier tenant holds a sub-tenancy, a superior landlord may not give a valid notice at a time when they are not the direct landlord of the occupier even if the mesne tenancy will have ended by the time the notice expire thus making the sub-tenant a direct tenant of the superior landlord. If the notice is served by a company, then it must be signed or otherwise executed in accordance with the Companies Act 2006.