Section 173 Notice Wales: The Six-Month Landlord Notice Explained

If you're a private landlord in Wales and you need to end a periodic standard occupation contract, section 173 of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 is almost certainly the route you'll use. It's the primary no-fault notice mechanism — and it requires a minimum of six calendar months' notice served on the prescribed Form RHW16.

That six-month notice period catches many landlords off guard, particularly those who remember the old two-month Section 21 notices under the Housing Act 1988. Section 21 is extinct in Wales. It was replaced entirely when the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 came into force on 1 December 2022.

How Section 173 Works

A section 173 notice is the no-fault termination route for periodic standard occupation contracts. "No-fault" means you don't need to prove the contract-holder has done anything wrong — you simply give the required notice on the correct prescribed form.

The key parameters:

• Form: RHW16 (Landlord's Notice of Termination — Periodic Standard Contract with Six-Month Minimum Notice Period)
• Notice period: Six calendar months minimum
• Initial bar: You cannot serve a section 173 notice during the first six months of occupation
• Court claim window: You must file your possession claim within two months of the notice expiry date
• Re-service bar: If you let the court claim window expire without filing, you're barred from serving another section 173 notice for six months

The combination of the six-month initial bar and the six-month notice period means a new contract-holder has a guaranteed minimum of 12 months' security of tenure.

Who Can Use Section 173

Section 173 applies to periodic standard occupation contracts — both new contracts created after 1 December 2022 and converted periodic contracts that were originally ASTs before that date. If your tenancy was running as a periodic AST on 1 December 2022, it automatically converted to a converted periodic standard contract and is now subject to the full six-month section 173 notice period.

There was a temporary transition window allowing two-month notices on converted contracts, but that ended on 31 May 2023. Since 1 June 2023, ordinary periodic standard contracts in Wales require the full six months. Schedule 8A contracts use the two-month Form RHW17 notice.

Section 173 does not apply to fixed-term contracts during the fixed term. For fixed terms of two years or more with a break clause, the landlord's route is section 194 (Form RHW24, also six months' notice). For contracts within Schedule 9B (supported accommodation, service occupancies), section 186 and Form RHW22 apply with a shorter two-month notice period.

The Preconditions That Block Your Notice

Before serving an RHW16 notice, you must satisfy every requirement in Schedule 9A. If any one of these is outstanding, the notice is invalid:

• For a new contract, written statement issued within 14 days of occupation; for a converted contract, the deadline was 31 May 2023 (late issue triggers a six-month delay before you can serve)
• Landlord address for service provided on Form RHW2
• Deposit protected in an approved scheme within 30 days, with prescribed information served
• No prohibited payments retained under the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019
• Active Rent Smart Wales registration (landlord) and licence (whoever manages the property)
• Valid gas safety record, EICR, EPC, and mains-powered interconnected smoke and CO alarms

Missing even one of these is an absolute statutory bar. The court won't simply overlook it — the notice is void.

Counting the Notice Period

The day you serve the notice is Day 0 — the six-month period starts the next calendar day. So a notice served on 10 October 2026 starts its count on 11 October 2026, making the earliest permitted possession date 11 April 2027.

Enter this date carefully in Part D of Form RHW16. Getting it wrong by even one day can invalidate the notice.

What Happens When the Notice Expires

If the contract-holder leaves by the possession date, the contract ends and you can take back the property. If they don't leave, you must file a possession claim in the County Court within two months of the expiry date. Miss that two-month window and the notice dies — plus you can't serve another section 173 notice for six months.

The court claim costs £415 (as of the July 2026 HMCTS fee schedule). For no-fault section 173 claims, you can use the accelerated possession procedure (Form N5B Wales), which is a paper-based process without a hearing.

Section 173 and Property Sales

Wales has no specific statutory ground for selling the property. If you need vacant possession to sell, section 173 is your route — serve the six-month notice on Form RHW16. The same applies if you want to move back in personally. Unlike in England, there are no dedicated owner-occupation or sale grounds in Welsh law.

For a complete walkthrough of the entire notice process — from the pre-service compliance audit through form selection, service rules, and the court claim — our Ending an Occupation Contract in Wales guide covers every step in sequence with printable checklists and worked timeline calculations.

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