Section 21 (Form 6A) notice checklist

Read your notice to make sure it meets your needs. Check that you have met all of the requirements for serving a valid Section 21 Notice. Check that: 

• the property's address and postcode are correct

• all of the names in the notice are spelt correctly

• the tenancy you’re attempting to end is an AST

• you’ve not done any of the things that may invalidate a Section 21 Notice. Read the FAQ ‘What can invalidate a Section 21 Notice?’ for more information, and

• you’re providing a long enough notice period and you’re not serving the notice too early in the tenancy. Read the FAQ ‘When can I serve a Section 21 Notice?’ for more information

1. Either the landlord or the landlord's agent must sign the notice. The person who signs the form should include their address and telephone number. 

2. Either: 

   1. Sign your notice online using RocketSign and then print it, or 

   2. Print your Section 21 Notice and sign it on paper.

You must correctly serve (ie deliver) your Section 21 Notice or it won’t be valid. To correctly serve a Section 21 Notice, the landlord must either: 

• serve the notice themselves or have their agent serve it, or

• serve the notice physically (ie on paper), unless the tenant expressly agrees to receive a Section 21 Notice by email and acknowledges that they have received it. You should ideally serve the notice either: 

  • by post, or

  • by hand. Posting the notice into the mailbox of the rented property yourself gives you the security of knowing when the notice gets to the tenant and removes the risk of the notice getting lost of delayed in the post

Landlords must also follow any further requirements for service that are set out in the tenancy agreement (eg a tenancy agreement may require that any notices associated with the tenancy are served by registered post).

A copy of your Section 21 Notice will be stored automatically in your Rocket Lawyer account ‘Dashboard’.

You should also download and securely store a copy of your Section 21 Notice for your records. 

You should also securely store any proof of service, for example: 

• Royal Mail receipts

• statements from witnesses that watched you hand deliver the notice

• emails or text messages from tenants acknowledging that they’ve received the notice

Make sure you have proof of service. Either: 

• ask your tenant to acknowledge that they received the Section 21 Notice, and on which date

• prove that the notice was served using a recorded (ie tracked) delivery service, which gives you proof of delivery, or

• deliver the notice to the tenant’s address in person and take somebody with you to witness that you've delivered the notice. Ask your witness to sign a note stating the time and date that you delivered the notice. A witness should be independent (ie somebody who doesn’t have an interest in the tenancy and who isn’t ‘on your side’). They should: 

  • be at least 18 years old

  • have mental capacity, and

  • not be related to you

Note that the date the service of the notice is the date that the tenant receives the notice. Alternately, if the tenant doesn’t acknowledge service but you correctly delivered the notice, the date you prove they should reasonably have received it will be the date of service. This means that any time before the notice gets to the tenant is not included in the notice period set out in the notice.