Section 21 or Form 6A?

I seem to have had several people asking me recently whether they should use Section 21 or Form 6A so I thought I would just answer this quickly here.

Actually, they are the same thing.

Section 21 is, in this context, section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 and is the notice you serve if you want to use the ‘no-fault’ ground for evicting tenants.

The notice has always been called a section 21 notice for that reason.

Initially, there was no special or ‘prescribed’ form to use for this and we all had to make them up.  This is probably one reason why people had such problems with them.

Then in 2015 a lot of new rules came in under the Deregulation Act 2015, most of which apply only in England.

One of these was the new ‘prescribed form’ which now needs to be used in all cases if you want to serve a section 21 notice in England.  This notice is one of a series of notices prescribed by law for assured and assured shorthold tenancies and it was given the number 6A.

So that is your Form 6A – which actually IS a section 21 notice.

ALWAYS use it now – unless your property is in Wales.  In which case you can use one of the old forms that we used to use.

That is, unless and until the Welsh have their own ‘prescribed form’.

And of course unless and until the proposal to outlaw section 21 altogether comes into effect.

Logged in Landlord Law members will find all our section 21 content, including the notices, here.