Schedule 2 Housing Act 1988

Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 lists 21 ‘grounds’ on which a landlord can rely upon to regain possession of a dwelling house they have let on an assured tenancy (AST). “Dwelling” refers to a property used primarily as residential accommodation. An AST is a private contract granting the tenant the right to live in the property for a specified period. 

Some of the most common grounds (or reasons) relied on under Schedule 2 to evict a tenant are:

• – Ground 8: failure to pay rent;
• – Ground 11: persistent delays in paying rent;
• – Ground 12: breach of the tenancy agreement; 
• – Ground 14: anti-social behaviour.

A landlord must establish at least one of the relevant grounds to obtain an order for possession removing their tenant from the property. The court must grant possession if any of the first ten are proven. For the remaining 11, the outcome is at the court’s discretion. Pursuing a notice relying on mandatory grounds is better for a landlord as it avoids risk a claim being pursued, is ‘won’, but that possession still isnt returned.