Ground 7A: serious antisocial behaviour or crime

Ground 7A is the mandatory Section 8 ground for serious antisocial behaviour or crime in England. It applies once a court has convicted someone of a serious offence, found a breach of an antisocial behaviour injunction or order, or made a closure order. There is no minimum notice period, but you must serve within strict deadlines and copy the legal wording exactly.

What Ground 7A means in plain English

Any one of five conditions is enough:

1. the tenant, someone living at the property or a visitor was convicted of a "serious offence" (listed in Schedule 2A to the Housing Act 1985), committed in or near the property, against neighbours, or against you or your housing-management staff;
2. a court found that an antisocial behaviour injunction under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 was breached;
3. there was a conviction for breaching a criminal behaviour order;
4. a closure order was made that stopped access to the property for more than 48 hours;
5. there was a conviction for breaching a noise abatement notice or order.

The full wording sets out whose conduct counts for each condition. None of these counts while an appeal is pending, or if the appeal succeeds.

These rules apply to private assured tenancies in England only. Wales (Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016), Scotland and Northern Ireland have different law.

Who can and can't use it

Private landlords can use Ground 7A. What you can't do is use it on suspicion, complaints or police reports alone. Without a court outcome, look at Ground 14 for nuisance and antisocial behaviour, where the court decides whether possession is reasonable. Many landlords rely on both. For the full process, see evicting a tenant for antisocial behaviour.

Ground 7A service deadlines and notice period

Ground 7A has no minimum notice period. The date in Form 3A question 2.1 can be the day you serve, even if the notice also relies on grounds that would normally need longer. If only Grounds 7A or 14 are proved, though, the court can't make the order take effect within 14 days of service. The court also can't dispense with the notice for Ground 7A, so you must serve one.

The real time limit is the deadline to serve:

Condition	Serve the notice within
1, 2, 3 or 5 (conviction or court finding)	12 months of the conviction or finding, or of the final appeal
4 (closure order)	3 months of the closure order, or of the final appeal

For example, if a fictional tenant was convicted on 3 September 2026 and didn't appeal, serve by 2 September 2027 to be safe. If a closure order was made on 20 October 2026, serve by 19 January 2027. See Section 8 notice periods if you add other grounds.

How to complete Form 3A for Ground 7A

Question 4.2: which wording to use

Official sources currently disagree about the Ground 7A text:

• The Crime and Policing Act 2026 will amend Ground 7A, adding respect orders and changing the definition of "relevant proceedings". Those changes were not in force when the Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026.
• legislation.gov.uk still shows the older wording, with those changes listed as not yet applied.
• GOV.UK's "Form 3A: Legal wording for possession grounds" document mixes the two: its definition of "relevant proceedings" follows the new wording, while condition 2 keeps the old one.

It isn't settled which version is legally in force today. The safe approach is to copy the wording from GOV.UK's legal wording document exactly, word for word, because Form 3A tells you to use it. Courts accept ground wording that is substantially to the same effect. Our notice builder inserts that GOV.UK text verbatim. Check GOV.UK for an updated version on the day you serve.

Question 4.3: your explanation

Explain which condition applies, the date of the court outcome, and that no appeal is pending. A short example for a fictional landlord:

Ground 7A, condition 1. On 3 September 2026 at Example Crown Court, the tenant, Lee Carter, was convicted of an offence listed in Schedule 2A to the Housing Act 1985, committed in the communal hallway of the building on 14 June 2026 (certificate of conviction attached). No appeal has been lodged. This notice is served within 12 months of the conviction.

Our guide on how to fill in Form 3A covers the other questions.

Evidence to gather

• A certificate of conviction, or the court order recording the finding of breach.
• For condition 4, the closure order showing access was prohibited for more than 48 hours.
• Evidence that no appeal is pending, or the date of the final appeal.
• Evidence linking the offence to the property or the people protected, such as the charge sheet or a police letter.

What the court does

Ground 7A is mandatory. If a condition is proved, the court must order possession, subject to the limits in section 7 of the Housing Act 1988 and any human rights defence. The possession date is usually within 14 days, or up to 6 weeks for exceptional hardship. Unlike most grounds, the deposit protection rule doesn't block an order on Ground 7A. See the possession hearing for what to expect.

Pitfalls and penalties

Watch out: missing the service deadline is fatal. A closure order gives you only 3 months.

• Appeal pending. A conviction under appeal doesn't count yet. Wait for the outcome, then serve within the deadline.
• Paraphrased wording. Summarising the ground instead of copying it risks an invalid notice, and serving a defective notice can attract a penalty of up to £7,000.
• Taking matters into your own hands. Changing the locks or forcing the tenant out without a court order risks prosecution, or a council penalty of up to £40,000, for unlawful eviction.

What to do next

Get the certificate of conviction or the order, diary the service deadline, then prepare Form 3A. Our builder sets the date and inserts GOV.UK's Ground 7A wording exactly. Then compare options in the full list of Section 8 grounds.