A Ground 1A notice costs your landlord more than it costs you. The moment they post it, they are locked out of the lettings market: the twelve-month restricted period on re-letting and marketing runs from service, and ends twelve months after the possession date written in the notice. Practitioner analysis of section 16M(4) of the Housing Act 1988, as inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, puts the real exposure at sixteen months, four months of notice plus twelve, whether or not you leave, whether or not the sale happens, and whether or not the landlord thinks better of it and withdraws.
That asymmetry is your leverage. It is also the reason a lot of the notices landing on London doormats this summer are bluff, badly drafted, or both.
What a Ground 1A notice is
Section 21 is gone. Since 1 May 2026, when the main tenancy reforms of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 came into force and all assured shorthold tenancies converted to periodic assured tenancies, a landlord who wants you out has to name a statutory ground under section 8. Ground 1A is the new one for landlords who intend to sell.
Three features matter to you:
- It is mandatory. If the landlord proves the ground at a hearing, the judge has no discretion and must order possession. Fighting the merits of a genuine sale is a waste of your energy.
- It requires four months' notice, under the new section 8(4AA) inserted by the Act.
- It cannot be used to make you leave inside the first twelve months of the tenancy.
There is no accelerated procedure any more. If you stay past the notice date, the landlord has to issue a standard possession claim and wait for a hearing in a county court that is already slow. That is not a recommendation to sit tight; it is context for how much time you actually have.
The four defects worth checking this week
Get the notice out of the drawer and check it against this. A notice that fails on any of these points is not a notice, and the landlord has to start the four months again.
| Check | What the law requires | How it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Correct form | Section 8 notices served on private tenants from 1 May 2026 must use Form 3A. Shelter's legal guidance confirms Form 3A as the prescribed form, and practitioner commentary is blunt that the old Form 3 is no longer valid for private sector tenancies | An agent recycles a pre-May template, or serves something headed "Notice seeking possession" with no ground number at all |
| Four months | At least four months between service and the possession date in the notice | Landlord counts from the date they typed the letter, not the date it was delivered, and loses a week |
| Protected period | The possession date cannot fall within the first twelve months of the tenancy. The NRLA's guidance to landlords is explicit that 1 May 2026 did not reset the start date of existing tenancies, and that a notice served early must run longer so it expires after the twelve-month mark | This is the big one in the first wave. A notice served on 1 May 2026 expires in early September 2026. If your tenancy began in, say, November 2025, September 2026 is inside your protected year and the notice is worthless |
| Period-aligned date | For a periodic tenancy, the date in a section 8 notice has to line up with the end of a rental period rather than landing mid-month | Rent runs on the 5th, the notice demands possession on the 1st |
Add a fifth, cheaper check. For section 8 notices served on private tenants on or after 1 May 2026, Shelter's legal guidance sets out that the court cannot make a possession order while the deposit is unprotected, the scheme requirements have not been complied with, or the prescribed deposit information was never given to you. Dig out your deposit protection certificate. If it never arrived, say so in writing now.
While you are auditing paperwork: every landlord with a tenancy in existence on 1 May 2026 had to serve the government's Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet on each named tenant by 31 May 2026, with a civil penalty of up to £7,000 for failing to. If yours never did, that tells you something about how carefully the rest of the process has been handled. Our guide to what to look for in a tenancy agreement covers the other documents you should already hold.
Testing the sale claim for £3
Ground 1A turns on intention to sell. You cannot read a landlord's mind, but you can read the record.
Buy the title register. A full title register from HM Land Registry costs £3 as a downloadable PDF, with the title plan a further £3, or £6 for both. The owner is not told you have ordered it and does not need to consent. Check two things: that the name on the register matches the name on the notice (a notice served by someone who is not your landlord is not worth much), and what the charges register says about the mortgage. A landlord who has just remortgaged is not obviously a landlord about to sell.
Watch the portals. Set alerts for the address on Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, for sale and to let. Screenshot everything with the date visible. A genuine seller instructs an estate agent, books an EPC, and books photographs. That leaves a trail. Four months of silence followed by a fresh letting listing at a higher rent leaves a different one.
Ask the agent, in writing, in flat language. Email, do not phone. Something like: "Thank you for the notice dated X. Please confirm the ground relied on, the date of service, which sales agent has been instructed, and whether the property is being marketed with the tenancy in place or with vacant possession." Note the last part. Selling with you still in the flat to another landlord is entirely lawful and requires no notice at all, which means an agent who cannot say who is selling it, or who says "we'll market it after you go", is worth pressing. Keep the thread. It becomes your evidence.
What the re-let restriction actually forbids
During the restricted period the landlord must not re-let the property on a tenancy of 21 years or less, must not licence it for money, and must not market it to let or authorise anyone else to do so. Letting to a qualifying family member is the exception. Airbnb is not.
Breach is a criminal offence under the new section 16J, punishable on summary conviction by a fine, and a local housing authority can impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 instead if satisfied beyond reasonable doubt. Government guidance and the Act itself are read differently on the lower tier: some commentators report guidance pointing to £7,000 for re-letting after a Ground 1A notice, with up to £40,000 where a court has granted possession on the ground. I would not build a plan on the difference. Both numbers are large enough to concentrate a landlord's mind.
Separately, a tenant or a local authority can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order. The Act doubled the maximum to two years' rent and extended the application window from twelve to twenty-four months. The tribunal has to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offence happened, but no criminal conviction is needed first. In London terms, two years' rent on a one-bedroom flat is a life-changing sum, and the twenty-four month window means you can move out in September, see the flat re-advertised in January, and still act.
So: if you leave, keep watching the listing. That is the whole strategy.
The notice date is not a move-out date
A section 8 notice does not end your tenancy. It gives the landlord permission to start court proceedings once it expires. Until a judge makes a possession order and a bailiff or High Court enforcement officer executes a warrant, you are a tenant with a tenancy, and your rent stays payable at the normal rate.
Practical consequences:
- Do not hand back keys on the notice date because the letter looked official. If you go, you go because you chose to.
- Do not stop paying rent. Ground 8 arrears are mandatory and the threshold, now three months for monthly rent, is a much faster route to a possession order than Ground 1A.
- If you are asked to sign a "surrender agreement" or deed of surrender, that is you giving up your tenancy voluntarily. Take advice before signing anything.
- Ask your council's housing options team what a possession order means for your homelessness application before you leave voluntarily, not after.
When serving your own notice beats waiting
Section 20 of the Act lets a tenant serve two months' notice to quit from day one of the tenancy. It must be in writing, but the landlord cannot dictate the form, so email or text is valid. The notice has to expire at the end of a rental period, which in practice means giving between two and just under three months unless your dates align neatly. If your pre-May 2026 agreement allowed shorter notice, government guidance indicates that shorter period can still apply, so read your old clause before assuming two months.
Go early if: you have found somewhere, you want to control the leaving date, or you want out before the autumn market tightens. Two months of your own notice inside a four-month Ground 1A window costs you nothing and buys you a clean exit date.
Wait if: you need the extra time, you suspect the notice is defective, or your household includes anyone whose housing options depend on how the tenancy ends. Waiting is not free, though: expect an awkward reference conversation, and budget for a fresh deposit and first month up front before your old deposit returns. Our guide to what agents can legally demand up front sets out the Tenant Fees Act 2019 limits.
If you have joint tenants, take advice first. A notice from one joint tenant can end the tenancy for everybody.
Where to take a bad-faith notice
Start with your borough. Every London council has a private sector housing or tenancy relations function, and these are the officers who investigate marketing and re-letting breaches and issue civil penalties. Report in writing, attach your dated screenshots and the notice, and ask for a case reference. Councils now have expanded enforcement powers and a duty to report on enforcement activity, which makes a documented complaint harder to file and forget.
Then get free specialist advice: Shelter and Citizens Advice both take housing cases, and if a possession claim is issued there is free legal help attached to possession proceedings at court regardless of your means. London Renters Union operates local branches if you want organised support rather than advice alone.
Rent repayment order applications go to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), the same body that hears rent challenges, and the process will feel familiar if you have read our guide on challenging a rent increase at the tribunal.
One diary entry to make today: the possession date on your notice, plus twelve months. That is roughly when the restricted period ends and the flat can lawfully appear on the portals again. Anything before it, and you have a case.