Section 21 a. for the Housing Act 1988 is all about regaining possession of the house by the landlord. It is also known by the name of section 21 possession notice or s21 a notice to quit tenancy. The Act clearly states that under the Assured Short hold Tenancy the landlord has full right to regain the possession of the property as soon as the period ends. At the end of the tenancy period, according to section 21 a, the landlord is authorized to serve the tenant with a notice to evacuate the place without giving any reason.

There are two types of notices under section 21.Such as:

• Section 21(a) is used to gain possession where the tenancy is periodic.
• Section 21(b) is used to gain the possession where the tenancy is for a fixed term and the tenancy is at the end.

It is clear according to this section that landlord has full right to gain the possession but for that he or she has to follow the right legal procedure that is to serve the section 21 a notice to the tenant living at the property. The notice served should be in writing instead of informing the tenant orally. Usually the section 21 possession notice has two sections. Each section comprises different set of procedure to be followed. The first section describes the procedure to be followed if the notice is served before the end of fixed term while the second section of the notice describes the procedure if the notice is served after the fixed term is ended.

The landlord cannot take the possession under section 21 during the first six month of the original tenancy. There is no specific time when one has to issue this notice; the timing of issuing this notice of possession is totally dependent up on the will of the landlord. If landlord wants to regain the possession of the house before the end of period of tenancy, that is possible too. The landlord just needs to highlight the conditions that are not met by the tenant which otherwise he agreed up on in the agreement. To regain the possession before the end of term the landlord has to serve tenant with the section 8 notice to quit first though.

According to the section 21 possession notice, the ideal time a landlord should serve the notice is two months prior the fixed term ends. The two months for the tenant starts when he or she receives the mail or notice in writing. The two months does not start the day landlord have posted the notice! It is necessary that landlord should ensure that at what date the tenant has received the notice otherwise he can take stand that he or she has not received the notice.

There are multiple law firms and agencies that can prepare the format of notice for you; if you do not have time you can always purchase the template of the notice over the World Wide Web. The templates are easy to edit and even a novice can do it on its own. It is very important that the notice should be served to tenant before the court order reaches the tenant regarding regaining the possession of the property in question. As soon as the fixed term period of the tenancy ends the property is held by the tenant under statutory periodic tenancy until the agreement is renewed by the both parties.

Miriam Taylor working for Net Lawman UK for providing best quality legal documents, agreements and free legal information for: Section 21 notice, S21 a, Notice to quit and Section 21(b)