Section 8 Notice Periods: Every Ground in One Table

Section 8 Notice Periods: Every Ground in One Table

Under section 8(4AA) of the Housing Act 1988, as amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, Section 8 notice periods in England are four months, two months, four weeks or two weeks depending on the ground. Grounds 7A and 14, the anti-social behaviour grounds, allow proceedings immediately or almost immediately after service.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords should seek independent legal advice for their specific circumstances. It describes the position in England.

The notice period for every ground

The table below reproduces the statutory scheme in section 8(4AA) of the Housing Act 1988 for notices served on or after 1 May 2026, with the subject of each ground. Mandatory means the court must order possession if the ground is proved, and discretionary means the court must also be satisfied that an order is reasonable. Grounds 7A and 14 sit outside the table's four periods and are covered in the next section.

Where a notice specifies more than one ground, the date specified in it must be no earlier than the end of the longestperiod applying to any ground cited. A notice combining Ground 8 with Ground 1A therefore carries the four month period, which is one reason arrears notices are usually served on the arrears grounds alone.

Grounds 7A and 14: the immediate grounds

The two anti-social behaviour grounds have their own timing rules in section 8(3A) and 8(4). For Ground 14, the discretionary nuisance ground, the date specified in the notice can be the date of service itself, so proceedings can begin immediately.

For Ground 7A, the mandatory ground based on convictions and closure orders, the specified date on a periodic tenancy must be no earlier than the earliest date the tenancy could have been ended by a notice to quit served the same day. Ground 7A also carries its own service deadlines, generally 12 months from the conviction or finding relied on, and three months from a closure order.

The 12 month use it or lose it rule

A Section 8 notice does not last indefinitely. Under section 8(3)(c) of the Housing Act 1988, proceedings must begin no later than 12 months after the notice is served, and a notice outside that window cannot found a claim, so the process restarts with fresh service.

Combined with the notice period, this fixes the usable claim window for each ground: roughly 11 months on a four week ground, and roughly eight months on a four month ground. The court stage that follows is set out step by step in our guide to what happens after you serve a Section 8 notice, and realistic end to end durations are in our article on how long eviction takes in England in 2026.

Ground 8: the arrears thresholds behind the four weeks

Ground 8's four week notice period is only half its test, because the arrears threshold must be met at two separate points, the date the notice is served and the date of the hearing. The threshold is at least three months' rent unpaid where rent is payable monthly, or at least 13 weeks' where it is payable weekly or fortnightly.

One further rule softens the ground for benefit delays. Rent unpaid only because the tenant has not yet received a Universal Credit housing payment they are entitled to is ignored in the calculation. Tenants who reduce arrears below the threshold before the hearing defeat the mandatory ground, which is why claims commonly plead Grounds 10 and 11 alongside it, as our article on what to do in the first 30 days after a tenant stops paying rent explains.

The protected periods: when notice cannot yet be served

Three grounds carry restrictions that sit before the notice period even starts. Grounds 1 and 1A require the tenancy to have begun at least 12 months before the date specified in the notice, so the earliest realistic service is around month eight of a tenancy. Ground 4A requires the specified date to fall between 1 June and 30 September, holding student HMO possessions to the academic cycle.

The conditions attached to each ground, beyond its notice period, are where most notices fail, and they are covered in our overview of Section 8 notices and the grounds landlords can use. Whatever the ground, the notice must be served on the prescribed form, and our guide to Form 3A and how to complete it covers the form, the particulars and service.

Every ground on this table turns on dates: service dates, specified dates, thresholds met on the day. LLCR's Form 3A notice builder applies the correct statutory period for the grounds selected and records the service evidence with the property file. You can review a property's position first with the free compliance checker.