Section 8

It is important therefore, when using the section 8 route, for a landlord to understand the different grounds that maybe applicable to his situation. Some grounds require that the court automatically award possession if the ground is proven, whereas, in others, the court may exercise its discretion. In rent arrears cases, it is normally straightforward to prove default by supplying a rent schedule detailing the missing payments. In other cases damage or noise nuisance it will be important to provide sufficient evidence that the tenant is in breach of his tenancy.

 

Under section 8 notice, you can use 17 grounds to put the tenant on notice that (depending on the ground you use) you require possession of your property or the tenant has breached the tenancy and they must make the breach / default good. If not on expiry of the notice you may apply to the court seeking possession. Out of the 17 grounds ground 14 is the only ground that does not have a waiting period. A section 8 notice can be served on a tenant using ground 14 and a landlord without waiting can then apply to a court for a possession order. Ground 14 can be a contentious ground and you should use other grounds too if possible, this of course will mean having to wait for the notice to expire as all other grounds have a waiting period.

 

Some of the grounds are mandatory, which mean that if you prove that one of the grounds applies, then the court must award you possession. The other grounds are discretionary, and the court will only award possession if it is reasonable to do so. Some of the mandatory grounds, called 'prior notice' grounds, can only be used if the landlord informed the tenant in writing before the tenancy started that he intended one day to ask for his property back using those grounds (unless they are already written into the tenancy agreement. like ground 1).