Confusion over when to serve S21 or S8 Notice?

Hi Mike, have you entered the property since they left? Have any belongings been left? Have the keys been left?

Also, not sure why you want to serve a section 8. If you have already served a section 21 (no fault?) then you now need to go through the court possession process. Pointless seeking rent arrears as your unlikely to see them again. If you have served a valid notice (iaw the AST) then it's served! You don't need an acknowledgment.

Your understanding is wrong.

1. an AST arises only if there is no provision in the contract for the tenancy to continue on a periodic basis.
2. There is no such thing as a S21(4) notice.
You serve notice under S21. Do not quote what sub-section you are relying on, as that may limit your arguments in court.
3. "2 clear months" and "just 2 months" is the same thing.
4. For a tenancy that started at any time, once it has gone periodic LL can give 2 months' notice ending on any day (court decision).
5. S8 can be served at any time. The S8 form wording means "this is the wrong form if you intend relying on S21", not "you cannot use S8".

Mike,
Your questions although basic requirement knowledge for landlords, are really too complex for a forum post.
As a minimum, I'd suggest a one day Landlord Foundation course. ( claiming cost against your tax, naturally )

Thank you everyone for your replies, thanks Chris for the suggestion, I will look into this course, much appreciated, some of the things got clarified, the wordings on the form I downloaded after paying ten pounds for the service were misleading tbh.
I had given my tenant a 6 months AST, which began on 12th March 2017, so it ran out on 11th September last year, so basically they have not renewed it further so it has rolled into statutory periodic tenancy, I had not served them S21 notice but now they had been away for over 3 months ( having left UK on 2nd June 2018) and have not come back, nor tried to keep me updated if they intend to come back or not, though a week after they left, the tenant phoned me from Romania asking me to top up his mobile phone account for £10.00 which i did, so that proves he had my contact number, if he wanted to keep me informed of any changes to his trip plan, he would have done so by now, when he went he said he was going for 4 to 5 weeks, and will sort out my rent when he came back.
But this does not look like he is coming back anytime soon, he may well have abandoned the room leaving a few belongings, indeed as an HMO, I believe I am entitled to enter his room in his absence for maintenance purposes, and to ensure he left all appliances switched off, which he did not as he left a phone charger plugged in, I also found he had a 5 liter industrial can of solvent cleaner, in this summer's heat this could have caused problems or even a fire risk voiding my building insurance, needless to say I took it away and stored it in the garden shed.
He works on building site, has been bringing many tools home, storing it in his room and in some other places against HMO rules where all communal areas should be free of any objects, I had asked him that if he brought anything that cannot go in his room then he should not start bring half the building site to my house, my guess is these power tools are nicked from where he works including that 5liter can of highly inflammable industrial solvent cleaner.
He had given me verbal permission to enter his room for any emergency or maintenance purpose.
I cannot lose any more rent and wait any longer, therefore I tried calling his mobile phone but it seems to be dead, no ringing, I had sent him several text messages and some went through and some did not, he is now gone beyond a reasonable length of time without arranging any rent payments, I therefore texted him a final message that clearly stated that I was going to serve him a S8 Notice for possession of his room and will seek court order to evict him in his absence. This 2 week notice will expire on 13th September 2018 and I shall be filing an application with a court seeking possession his room, giving him opportunity to pay the outstanding rent contact me, but he failed so far.
I am therefore going to have to file a court application for a possession on S8 grounds. starting on or after 14th of September onwards.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 05/09/2018 - 23:52
Abandonment is a Very imprecise subject and tricky for landlords due to potential legal consequences for landlords if its mis-judged. That's why i say its necessary to get educated to a far higher level than'running a few comments by an online forum' if your knowledge level is at a certain level to start with.
Most professional advice on Abandonment is to 'play it safe' and follow the Section 8 rent arrears you refer to.

Chris I totally agree with you, abandonment is a tricky one, a straight forward S8 filing on rent arrears should do the trick.
I think I will just not assume they have abandoned. if they do come back before the court hearing date, and if they attend, then the court must issue a possession order if they still owe me more than 2 months rent unless they paid all outstanding rent before the court hearing date. my concern is with rent, so if they want to continue to stay there they can, long as they take more responsibility to pay rent on time in future, if not i can always serve them S21 in future. Chris please do tell me about this course how i can get to one and cost please.

Of course Chris, they could come back before the hearing date and claim they did not receive adequate notice!

I was also wondering if I am not dialling correctly, as far as I am concerned I know of another Romanian ex tenants who regularly calls and speaks to me and I call and speak to him using the same number format as stored in my mobile phone whether he is in UK or in Romania, the network automatically sorts out the country codes. I do not have to add the country code before the main number when calling him in Romania.
But I am just wondering whether this could be the reason and may be I shall try to call the current tenant again tomorrow by adding the country code first.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 06/09/2018 - 00:34
You can find Landlord Foundation courses run by the National Landlords Association all over the country on their web site.
I'd suggest you join to get access to telephone advice, all the forms required and discount on courses, etc.