The Government has published updates to Section 8 and 13 forms for use in England – which are due to come into force from April 6th.

As both documents are prescribed forms, landlords of properties in England must start using them from April 6th onwards. If a judge or a tribunal spots out-of-date documents being used then possession hearings or rent increases could be thrown out.

The section 8 notice, or Form 3, is a prescribed notice used to gain possession from a tenant on the basis of grounds such as rent arrears or anti-social behaviour. The new update amends the form to mention the prescribed section 21 notice created by the government last October and adjust the notes on grounds for possession.

Form 4, or the Section 13 notice, is for use when a landlord wishes to increase the rent on a periodic tenancy without giving a new tenancy agreement.  Some small amendments were made to this document to fix some formatting errors and cross referencing issues in the explanatory notes.

Changes have also been made to Form 5 – for use with agricultural tenancies.

The RLA will be publishing the new section 8 and section 13 on April 5th for use the next day.

Article Source: Landlord News Hub