Ground 7A: Serious Anti-Social Behaviour

Ground 7A is the mandatory ground reserved for the most serious anti-social behaviour cases — where the behaviour has already been through a separate formal process (a conviction, a closure order, or breach of an injunction or criminal behaviour order) before the landlord ever serves a Section 8 notice.

Statutory basis

Ground 7A is not a Renters' Rights Act 2025 creation — it was originally inserted into Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, and has applied to assured tenancies since October 2014. What the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed is the notice-period rule around it: the ground's old fixed minimum notice period was repealed from 1 May 2026 and replaced with the current position described below (no minimum notice period, but a 14-day restriction on when the court may act). Some commentary attributes the whole ground to the 2025 reform — it doesn't; only the notice mechanics changed.

The qualifying triggers

Ground 7A is made out where one of five statutory conditions is met, each requiring a separate legal process to have already run its course before the landlord serves notice — a criminal conviction, a court finding, or a closure order, rather than conduct argued for the first time in the possession claim itself. The five conditions, precisely:

• Condition 1 — the tenant, or a person residing in or visiting the dwelling, has a relevant conviction: an offence committed in, or in the locality of, the dwelling, or an offence elsewhere against a person residing in the locality or a person employed in connection with the exercise of a landlord's housing management functions.
• Condition 2 — a court has found, in proceedings for breach of an anti-social behaviour injunction under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, that the tenant or a person residing in or visiting the dwelling breached that injunction by conduct occurring in the locality of the dwelling, or by conduct elsewhere that caused nuisance or annoyance to a person residing in the locality. This is a finding of breach of an injunction specifically — not a free-standing finding of general anti-social conduct.
• Condition 3 — the tenant, or a person residing in or visiting the dwelling, has been convicted of an offence under section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (or section 339 of the Sentencing Code) for breaching a criminal behaviour order, where the breach involved conduct in the locality of the dwelling or conduct elsewhere causing nuisance or annoyance to a person residing in the locality. A conviction is required — a bare breach without conviction does not meet this condition.
• Condition 4 — the dwelling is or has been subject to a closure order, AND access to it has been prohibited for a continuous period of more than 48 hours under that order. Both limbs must be satisfied together; a closure order alone, without the 48-hour continuous prohibition, is not enough.
• Condition 5 — the tenant, or a person residing in or visiting the dwelling, has been convicted of an offence under section 80(4) or section 82(8) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, where the nuisance in question was noise emitted from the dwelling.

Every condition also has a built-in safeguard: none of them is met while an appeal against the underlying conviction, finding or order is still pending, or if that appeal succeeds.

Each condition carries its own statutory deadline for serving notice, described below — miss it, and Ground 7A is not available on that trigger even though the underlying conduct was real.

Service deadlines — a genuine claim-killer if missed

Ground 7A notices are time-limited by reference to the trigger relied on:

• Conditions 1, 3 and 5 (conviction-based): notice must be served within 12 months of the conviction, or if there was an appeal, within 12 months of the appeal being finally determined or abandoned.
• Condition 2 (court finding of injunction breach): notice must be served within 12 months of the court making the finding (or of a related appeal concluding).
• Condition 4 (closure order): notice must be served within 3 months of the closure order being made (or of a related appeal concluding).

A landlord who waits too long after the conviction, finding, or closure order — even where the underlying anti-social behaviour was serious and clearly proved — loses the ability to rely on Ground 7A for that trigger once the relevant deadline passes.

Mandatory or discretionary

Mandatory. Once a qualifying trigger is proved, the court must order possession — subject only to the 14-day rule described below.

Notice period — and the 14-day rule, precisely

This is the single most important mechanical point to get right about Ground 7A — and one that is commonly misstated in secondary commentary, so it is worth stating precisely here.

There is no minimum notice period. A landlord can serve a Ground 7A notice and issue court proceedings immediately afterwards — there is no waiting period equivalent to the 4 weeks or 4 months that apply to other grounds.

Section 7(5D) of the Housing Act 1988 adds a separate, narrower restriction: where Ground 7A and/or Ground 14 are the ONLY grounds the court finds established, a possession order made on that basis cannot take effect within 14 days of the notice being served. This is a restriction on when the order takes effect, not on whether or when the court can make it — the court can make the order straight away; it simply cannot come into effect inside that 14-day window. And critically, if the claim also succeeds on some other ground the court finds established, section 7(5D) does not apply at all.

Do not describe Ground 7A as having a "notice period of 14 days," "two weeks' notice," or a rule that "the court cannot make a possession order until 14 days have passed" — none of these are correct. The correct description is: no notice period; and, only where Ground 7A and/or 14 are the sole grounds established, the possession order cannot take effect until 14 days after service.

Deposit-protection exemption

Section 215 of the Housing Act 2004 otherwise prevents the court making a possession order at all unless the deposit is protected in an authorised scheme and the prescribed information has been given — but that compliance is tested at the time the court makes the order, not before the notice is served, so a late-protected deposit can still be cured before the order is made. Grounds 7A and 14 go a step further: an order made on either of those grounds is exempt from the deposit-protection condition entirely, whether or not any other grounds for possession are also met — a recognition that the urgency of serious ASB cases should not be blocked by an unrelated administrative failure.

Evidence courts expect

• Documentary proof of the qualifying trigger — the conviction record, the court's finding, the closure order itself, or the injunction/CBO plus evidence of its breach.
• A clear connection between the person and conduct and the dwelling or its locality — the trigger must relate to the property in question, not conduct entirely disconnected from it.
• Proof the notice was served within the relevant deadline for that trigger (12 months for conviction/finding-based conditions, 3 months for the closure-order condition).
• Correct notice mechanics and timing — Form 3A identifying Ground 7A, with proceedings not seeking a possession order before the 14-day mark has passed.

Transitional position

Ground 7A applies to conduct and triggers arising on or after 1 May 2026 in the same way as any other ground under the reformed Schedule 2. A conviction, closure order, or injunction/CBO breach that occurred before 1 May 2026 can still support a Ground 7A notice served after that date, since the ground looks at whether the trigger currently exists and is connected to the property, not when the underlying conduct took place.

Common mistakes

• Misstating the notice period. This is the single most common error in secondary commentary on Ground 7A. Always describe it as "no notice period, 14-day restriction on the court's power to order possession," never as a fixed notice period.
• Missing the service deadline for the trigger relied on. A conviction or closure order that is genuine and serious becomes useless for Ground 7A purposes once the 12-month or 3-month window (as applicable) has passed.
• Attributing the whole ground to the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Ground 7A predates the reform by over a decade; only its notice-period rule was changed in 2025.
• Trying to use Ground 7A without a formal trigger already in place. Ongoing anti-social behaviour that has not yet resulted in a conviction, court finding, closure order, or injunction/CBO breach does not meet Ground 7A's conditions — Ground 14 (discretionary, broader, no prior formal process required) may be the appropriate ground instead.
• Assuming the deposit exemption applies to every ground. It is specific to Grounds 7A and 14 — other grounds still require deposit-protection compliance as a precondition.

The cost of getting it wrong

As with every ground, citing Ground 7A without the qualifying trigger genuinely in place 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

Because there is no minimum notice period, the landlord can file Form N5 with Form N119 particulars of claim as soon as the Ground 7A notice is served — court fee £415. The 14-day restriction (where it applies) affects only when a possession order made on Ground 7A or 14 alone can take effect, not when the claim itself can be issued or heard. Given the seriousness of the underlying conduct in Ground 7A cases, courts often prioritise listing, but the overall timeline still typically runs to weeks rather than days.

Related grounds and guides

For the discretionary anti-social behaviour ground that does not require a prior formal trigger, see Ground 14: Anti-Social Behaviour or Nuisance. For the full ground list, return to Section 8 Grounds for Possession. For serving the notice correctly, see How to Serve a Section 8 Notice.