Ground 6B: Possession to Comply with Enforcement Action

Ground 6B is the mandatory ground a landlord uses where continuing to let the property would put them, or leave them, in breach of housing enforcement action already taken against them — a banning order, a licensing refusal, a prohibition order, or an overcrowding notice. It is easily confused with the separate, much narrower Ground 6A, described below — get the numbering right before you serve.

Statutory basis, and the Ground 6A/6B distinction

Both grounds were inserted into Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 by Schedule 1 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025, in neighbouring paragraphs — which is almost certainly why the two get conflated in secondary commentary. They cover entirely different situations:

• Ground 6A — "possession of alternative accommodation provided during redevelopment." This applies only to a relevant social landlord recovering accommodation it provided to a tenant on a temporary basis while redeveloping the tenant's original home, once suitable alternative accommodation becomes available. It has no application to private landlords and is not a general compliance ground.
• Ground 6B — "possession to allow compliance with enforcement action." This is the ground private landlords actually need when a housing-enforcement measure makes continuing the tenancy unlawful or impossible to comply with. It is the ground covered on this page.

Some secondary sources shorten Ground 6B's description to simply "compliance" and, in doing so, occasionally mislabel it as Ground 6A. Always check the ground number against the primary source — Schedule 1 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025 — before serving a notice, since citing the wrong ground number on Form 3A is itself a defect that can sink a claim.

What triggers Ground 6B

Ground 6B applies where any of a defined set of enforcement measures affects the property, including:

• A banning order under section 16 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 that the landlord would breach by continuing to let the dwelling.
• An improvement notice specifying overcrowding as a deficiency.
• A prohibition order under the Housing Act 2004.
• Refusal or revocation of an HMO or selective/additional licence where the property requires one.
• Occupation that would exceed a lawful occupancy limit.
• Circumstances requiring compliance with planning enforcement action.

The unifying feature is that a public enforcement measure — not the landlord's own commercial preference — makes continuing the letting incompatible with the law, and possession is needed to achieve compliance.

Mandatory or discretionary

Mandatory. Once the landlord proves the relevant enforcement trigger exists and applies to the property, the court must grant possession.

Notice period

4 months, in line with the other grounds in the mandatory cluster (Grounds 1, 1A, 4A, 6).

Evidence courts expect

• The enforcement instrument itself — a copy of the banning order, improvement notice, prohibition order, licence refusal/revocation letter, or planning enforcement notice — showing it is currently in force and applies to the specific dwelling.
• A clear explanation of why continuing the tenancy is incompatible with the enforcement measure — for example, that the licensing authority has refused an HMO licence and continued letting to the current number of occupants would be unlawful.
• Correct identification of Ground 6B (not 6A) on Form 3A.

Transitional position

Ground 6B is available on any assured tenancy from 1 May 2026 onward, wherever a qualifying enforcement measure is in force. Enforcement action taken before 1 May 2026 (for example, an HMO licence refused under the pre-reform regime) can still ground a Ground 6B notice served after that date, provided the enforcement measure remains current.

Common mistakes

• Citing Ground 6A instead of 6B, or vice versa — the single most likely drafting error given how closely the two grounds sit in the amending Schedule, and one that risks the notice being treated as defective for the wrong ground.
• Serving notice before the enforcement measure actually takes effect — for example, while a licence application is still pending rather than after a formal refusal.
• Treating Ground 6B as available for a landlord's own commercial or maintenance reasons unrelated to a genuine enforcement trigger — it is not a general-purpose "the property needs work" ground; Ground 6 (redevelopment) or Ground 13 (deterioration) may be more appropriate depending on the facts.

The cost of getting it wrong

As with every ground, serving notice without a reasonable belief it applies risks a civil penalty of up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 (as an alternative to prosecution) plus a possible rent repayment order of up to two years' rent, where the landlord acted knowingly or recklessly and the tenant left without a court order.

What happens next

If the tenant does not leave once the Form 3A notice expires, the landlord files Form N5 with Form N119 particulars of claim, court fee £415.

Related grounds and guides

For the full ground list, including the redevelopment ground this one is sometimes confused with, return to Section 8 Grounds for Possession. See also Houses in Multiple Occupation for the licensing framework Ground 6B most often intersects with, and How to Serve a Section 8 Notice for the serving process.