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Serving Section 8 Notice

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SOME BACKGROUND

As of 1 May 2026, new section 21 notices have now been abolished in the private rented sector. The main route is now a section 8 notice. This notice will allow you to obtain a possession order and a County Court Judgment for any rent arrears (if there are any). The required notice period can be as little as two weeks, and after it has expired you can issue a claim.

A section 8 notice is a fault based notice. You are the landlord, the tenant is the tenant but you are saying that you are entitled to possession of the property because one or more statutory grounds applies. Usually this type of notice will be issued because the tenant hasn’t paid rent, but other grounds can also be relied on.

As you are relying on a statutory ground for possession, there will usually be at least one hearing, and because of the type of claim, the tenant is also allowed to pursue a counterclaim. Counterclaims can include claims (against the landlord) for any deposit issues or alleged disrepair in the property. This can all significantly delay a landlord’s ability to obtain a possession order and if allegations are made at the first hearing it is likely an adjournment will be ordered to a later date. That means lost time and money. Sometimes however a landlord will have no choice but to consider a section 8 notice – for example if no rent has been paid and possession is needed before any other ground is available.

If there are rent arrears, the rent arrears grounds have changed under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The court can make a possession order if the relevant arrears ground is made out. For the mandatory serious rent arrears ground, the arrears threshold is now three months’ rent, and the arrears must meet the statutory test both when the notice served and at the date of the hearing. If the tenant makes a payment which brings the arrears below the required threshold, then the mandatory ground may not be made out, although the landlord may still be able to rely on discretionary rent arrears or other grounds depending on the facts.

THE SECTION 8 EVICTION SERVICE

STEP 1; THE NOTICE

To go ahead email the tenancy agreement, Deposit prescribed information and terms and conditions, EPC and How to Rent Booklet and confirmation of the rent arrears or what the tenant has done wrong to us at [email protected] and our solicitors specialising in section 8 notices will confirm next steps.

STEP 2; THE CLAIM

Our fixed fee includes drafting and issuing the claim. To go ahead email the tenancy agreement, Deposit prescribed information and terms and conditions, EPC, How to Rent Booklet and section 8 notice to us at [email protected] and we will confirm the next steps.

Issuing a claim based on an incorrect or invalid section 8 notice can result in you being ordered to pay the tenants legal costs as well as your own. If the section 8 notice is not valid it is not in your interests to issue a claim relying on that notice and is better to review whether the notice is valid first. If you are unsure whether you are entitled or have served a valid section 8 notice. To go ahead email your details to [email protected] and we will contact you.

STEP 3; THE HEARING

With a section 8 notice and possession claim the starting point is that there will be at least one hearing. We will draft and file and serve a witness statement on your behalf confirming the rent arrears. We will also arrange for an advocate to attend the hearing on your behalf. If you need more information regarding the eviction process and how it works, read our eviction guide available here.

STEP 4; THE BAILIFFS

Our fixed fee includes our drafting and submitting application to apply to the court for a bailiffs appointment, if needed. There is a court fee which is currently £148.

Key Contacts

Alex Cook
Senior Partner
Laura Albon
Partner
No Win No Fee Eligibility Calculator
This process takes no longer than 2 minutes and is step one in assessing whether or not we would be prepared to offer you a CFA.

This is a non binding indication whether Helix Law Ltd might be able to offer you a "No Win, No Fee" agreement (also known as a Conditional Fee Agreement, or CFA). There is no cost of obligation for using this service and each case is assessed on its merits.

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We only enter into CFA funding agreements in relation to some commercial, property and construction disputes. We therefore need to understand what type of dispute you have so that we can assess whether a CFA might be appropriate.

We only offer No win, No Fee (CFA) funding in some commercial, property and construction disputes. We do not offer CFA funding in harassment, personal injury or housing disputes. If you are seeking CFA funding in another area other than those listed please use our Contact Us form at the bottom of this page
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Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?

This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.

If your dispute is worth less than £10,000, it will typically be allocated by the Court to the Small Claims Track. In small claims usually costs are not recoverable and therefore we cannot offer you a CFA in these circumstances. There is always risk you have not fully identified the amount in dispute or you may want to consider paying us a fixed fee for fixed advice on your prospects of success and/or the process moving forwards, in which case please do contact us.
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Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?

This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.

If your dispute is worth less than £10,000, it will typically be allocated by the Court to the Small Claims Track. In small claims usually costs are not recoverable and therefore we cannot offer you a CFA in these circumstances. There is always risk you have not fully identified the amount in dispute or you may want to consider paying us a fixed fee for fixed advice on your prospects of success and/or the process moving forwards, in which case please do contact us.
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Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?

This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.

If your dispute is worth less than £10,000, it will typically be allocated by the Court to the Small Claims Track. In small claims usually costs are not recoverable and therefore we cannot offer you a CFA in these circumstances. There is always risk you have not fully identified the amount in dispute or you may want to consider paying us a fixed fee for fixed advice on your prospects of success and/or the process moving forwards, in which case please do contact us.
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The dispute is:

Generally speaking tenants will not own assets. That means you might ‘win’ but not recover damages and costs- even if the court orders the tenant to pay. Whereas if your dispute is with a property owner we can usually recover your costs and damages from their share of the property.

A CFA is unlikely to be workable in this scenario, but we may still be able to assist you with our services; please contact us via this page.
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Is your claim about an unpaid application for payment and/​or retention greater than £20,000?

This is important as it helps us assess the likely cost; benefit for you, and our ability to offer you CFA funding.

A CFA is unlikely to be workable in this scenario, but we may still be able to assist you with our services; please contact us via this page.
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Do you have a contract in writing or registered shares in your name?

The more evidence you have in support of your allegations, the better your prospects of success. The higher your prospects of success, the more likely we can offer you a CFA funding arrangement.

Where you lack documents in writing, there can be greater complexity. We need to review your circumstances and background in more detail before being able to consider alternative funding with you. Please provide details of your circumstances here and we will contact you - anchor to commercial sherholder form.

Is the issue arising recently or within the last 6 years at most?

All disputes are subject to limitation periods- this is the period of time in which a claim must be issued. Most limitation periods in our work are 6 years. There can be exceptions and upto 12 years is possible, but this is a factor that can increase risk to you and to us and might lead to us declining to offer a CFA. With the passage of time memories can/will also fade, and evidence can be lost or destroyed. Acting promptly can therefore be important.

We need to assess your position with you before being able to confirm funding.

Does the opponent own property in England and Wales?

We want to ensure we can force your opponent to pay if they refuse to pay. If your opponent has assets, usually property, we can have greater confidence of recovering money, property, or assets (or all the above), for you. Otherwise there can be risk that you have a good claim with good prospects of success, but if your oppoennt doesn’t own anything, you might not recover damages or losses.

We need to assess your position with you before being able to confirm funding.
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Based on the form, we think there is a good prospect we will be prepared to offer you a No Win No Fee agreement (CFA). Please confirm your contact details and a member of our team will contact you usually within 1 hour during usual business hours.

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Residential Possession Services

Our fixed fee covers all of our services for residential possession:

  • Complete review of all tenancy documents
  • Advising on any problems or issues so that a valid notice can be served
  • Resolving the problems
  • Drafting notices and serving on tenants
  • Drafting claim for possession
  • Reviewing any defences received
  • Drafting any witness evidence
  • Attending hearing, or instructing advocate to attend
  • Corresponding with tenant as necessary
  • Applying for County Court Bailiff

Fixed Fee: £2,500 plus vat and court services

Court Fees: £355 and £130 (subject to change by the court)

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“This is a fantastic little firm who go and beyond to support you. I was successful in a previous litigation. The tenacity and effort was tremendous from everyone there. There’s an enormous amount of business acumen. On previous advice, a pragmatic approach taken, I was so grateful that it led me to apply my own commonsense in doing the right thing, even if it was to not take up further dispute. Really smart people and outstanding service!!!”
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I dealt with Fiona on a HMO issue and dispute i was having with a tenant. Many other companies had said they were too busy or couldn’t have been less interested. I then came across Fiona who was unbelievably helpful from the get go and gave such useful advice. Within an hour of my enquiry she had got in touch. She followed up immediately with an email following our call. 5* service. I will definitely be using her services again in the future.
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Eviction Services
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