New forms which landlords MUST use from October 1

New forms have been posted which must be used by landlords and letting agents from October 1.

New legislation regarding eviction notices returning to their pre-pandemic levels means new versions of Section 8 and Section 21 Notices must be used from Friday.

It’s therefore crucial that any notice not deemed as served until October 1 must use the new paperwork. 

Here’s a reminder of the state of play, provided by Propertymark.

- Since June 1 2021, most possession notices have required the landlord to give a minimum of four months’ notice if they serve either a Section 21 or a Section 8 Notice;

- From June 1 2021, landlords have been required to serve four months’ notice (either a Section 21 or a Section 8 Notice) in all but the most serious cases;

- Additionally, from August 1 2021, notice periods in cases of ‘non-serious’ rent arrears (less than four months’ rent is due) reduced to two months’ notice;

- From October 1 2021, the notice period required for Section 21 notices will be two months and Section 8 notices will revert back to only two weeks, based on rent arrears grounds 8, 10 and 11.

- Any notices served before 1 October 2021 will still need to comply with the current rules so will typically require four months’ notice.

Propertymark adds: “Both the Form 6a (Section 21) and the Form 3 (Section 8) are prescribed forms so landlords must ensure they use the correct version before service. 

“It’s important for agents to remember that, as per deemed service rules, this can mean that where current forms are not deemed as served until 1 October 2021 the form will be wrong and the notice will be invalid.

“The notes from Form 3 will be moved onto a separate document which will be uploaded alongside Form 3 (as has already been done for Form 6A) and include information for the tenant at the start of the forms. These should be available to download from gov.uk on October 1 2021.”

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