New Prescribed Section 21 Form

Since this article was written, several updates have formed the prescribed section 21 form 6A notice.

The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 commence on 1 October 2015 and only apply to section 21 being served where the dwelling is located in England.

These regulations contain a new "prescribed form" for new sub-sections 21(8) and (9) Housing Act 1988 inserted by section 37 Deregulation Act 2015.

When the prescribed form was first published under the above regulations, the form contained some serious legal errors. The form was therefore changed just before October 2015 by The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015.

Those regulations contain the current prescribed form at the time of writing and are what we use for our possession notice wizard.

Subject to the next paragraph, the new prescribed form is only required (and only suitable) where an assured shorthold tenancy was granted on or after 1 October 2015, including a written renewal on or after that date.

The new form does not apply where an assured shorthold tenancy becomes a statutory periodic tenancy on or after 1 October 2015, where the original fixed-term tenancy was granted before 1 October 2015.

From 1 October 2018, the new section 21 prescribed form discussed in this article should be used for ALL assured shorthold tenancies in England, including any granted before 1 October 2015 (or went statutory periodic).

It may be that this is not legally required from 1 October 2018 for ASTs granted before 1 October 2015, but there will be no disadvantage to a landlord from using the new form.

The new prescribed form is the same for both section 21(1) (service during fixed term) and section 21(4) (service during periodic).

This can be accomplished by removing the requirement to expire the notice on any particular date.

The new section 21 prescribed form (titled 'form 6A') is pretty straightforward and has a similar feel to the section 8 notice, which is already prescribed.

The following information is to be entered onto the notice:

tenant names
date of expiry (when possession is being sought)
landlord's name and address
signature and details of the signatory and the date.

Our possession notice guidance has been updated with new versions of the section 21 notice and section 8 notice.