Section 21 notices, sometimes called no-fault notices, ended on 1 May 2026. Abide.Rent does not generate one and has no place to record one as newly served.
Who this is for: letting agencies, landlords and tenants.
Serve notice: Form 4A and Section 8.
What you are deciding
What to use now that a Section 21 notice is not available.
Your options
- Seek possession on a ground. Possession is sought with a Section 8 notice, which names the grounds relied on.
- An older Section 21 notice. Abide.Rent cannot tell you whether a notice served before 1 May 2026 can still be relied on. Take advice before acting on one.
A worked example
A landlord who would once have served a Section 21 notice to sell a flat now looks at Ground 1A. The tenancy began on Saturday 1 August 2026, so the ground is not available until Sunday 1 August 2027, and a notice served then by hand would give four months, to Wednesday 1 December 2027, before proceedings could begin.
What Abide.Rent does for you
- Generates Section 8 notices, with the notice period worked out from the grounds.
- Shows which grounds are not available for a tenancy, and why.
If something goes wrong
- You cannot find a Section 21 option
What to do: There is none: “Abide.Rent generates Form 4A and Section 8 notices only.”
Common mistakes
- Looking for Section 21 in the list of notices. It is not there.
- Assuming a ground applies because a Section 21 notice would have. Each ground has its own test.
What to do next
Keep reading
All help articlesMore in Notices
Bring past notices and dates onto the recordRecord a notice you served before you used Abide.Rent, a safety record you gave the tenant on paper, or a request received long ago, each with the day it really happened.
Following a tribunal referralFrom the tenant's application to the decision: record the directions, prepare and send your statement, and keep track of an inspection or hearing.
Record how a notice was servedRecord the method, the date and any tracking reference. Abide.Rent works out the date a posted notice counts as served.