The one date that decides everything
If a landlord serves you a Ground 1A notice to sell, the twelve-month ban on re-letting the flat does not start when you hand back the keys. Under section 16M of the Housing Act 1988, as inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, the restricted period begins on the day the notice is served and ends twelve months after the earliest date for possession proceedings written into that notice. Since Ground 1A carries a four-month notice period, a landlord who serves one has taken the flat off the rental market for roughly sixteen months, whether the sale happens or not, and whether you leave or not.
That is a serious commitment. Plenty of small landlords and high-street agents serving these notices have not worked it out. Which is why a good number of the notices landing on London doormats this autumn are worth reading very slowly before you start packing.
What Ground 1A actually requires
The Act came into force on 1 May 2026. Assured shorthold tenancies converted to assured periodic tenancies, Section 21 disappeared, and the NRLA confirms that the transitional window for acting on pre-Act notices closed on 31 July 2026. A landlord who wants their flat back to sell now has one route: a Section 8 notice citing Ground 1A.
Four conditions apply, and all four must hold.
Ground 1A is unavailable in the first twelve months of the tenancy. Tanfield Chambers puts the notice period at four months from service, under the new section 8(4AA). The ground is mandatory, so if the landlord proves it the court must order possession, but Warners Solicitors makes the point that the court still has to be satisfied the landlord genuinely intends to sell, and there is no case law yet on what evidence clears that bar. And after relying on the ground, the landlord cannot re-let, licence for money, or market the property to let during the restricted period.
Note the phrase "relying on". Property118's reading of section 16M(4) is that the clock is triggered by service, not by success. A landlord who serves Ground 1A, changes their mind and withdraws the notice is still inside the restricted period.
Reading the notice line by line
Since 1 May 2026, the prescribed form is Form 3A. The NRLA is explicit that the old Form 3 is now invalid for private lets, and that the landlord must insert the full legal text of each ground relied on for the notice to be valid. Work through your notice against this list.
| What to check | What a valid notice looks like | If it is wrong |
|---|---|---|
| The form | Form 3A, the version on GOV.UK dated 1 May 2026 | A notice on the old Form 3 is not a valid Section 8 notice |
| Ground wording | The full statutory text of Ground 1A reproduced, not paraphrased or summarised as "landlord selling" | Arguably not a valid notice; raise it in writing |
| Earliest date for proceedings | At least four months after the date of service | Notice cannot support a claim before that date |
| Tenancy age | The earliest possession date must fall more than twelve months after the tenancy began | Ground 1A is unavailable; the notice fails on its face |
| Tenant names | Every tenant on the agreement, spelled correctly | A notice omitting a joint tenant is vulnerable |
| Address | The full address of the let, including flat number | Errors are fixable by the landlord but buy you time |
| Service | Delivered in a way your agreement permits, with a date you can identify | If the landlord cannot prove service, the clock has not started |
| Court window | Proceedings must be issued within twelve months of service | After that the notice expires and they start again |
Two extra checks that catch agents out. First, the ground has to be Ground 1A alone or Ground 1A properly pleaded alongside others. A notice that cites "Ground 1A" and then describes the landlord's daughter moving in is describing Ground 1, a different ground with different evidence. Second, count from the start of your tenancy, not from 1 May 2026. Conversion did not reset anything. If you moved in during 2023, you are long past the protected period, and the argument is about the notice, not the calendar.
What to send the agent this week
Keep it short, dated and in writing. Something like: "Please confirm which prescribed form was used for the notice dated [date], the date and method of service, and the earliest date for possession proceedings stated in it. Please also confirm whether the landlord has complied with the requirement to provide the government Information Sheet."
That last point has teeth. The NRLA notes that landlords had to give existing tenants the official Information Sheet within one month of commencement, a deadline of 31 May 2026, with a civil penalty of up to £7,000 for missing it. Most small landlords did not. It does not invalidate a Ground 1A notice, but it tells you what sort of landlord you are dealing with, and it gives your borough's tenancy relations team something to act on.
Ask for everything by email. Verbal assurances from a letting agent have a habit of evaporating when the property goes under offer. Our guide to what a tenancy agreement should actually say covers the clauses that matter here, particularly access for viewings.
Sitting tight, and what it costs
A Ground 1A notice is not an eviction. It is a document that lets the landlord ask a judge for one, after four months. Only a county court bailiff or High Court enforcement officer can remove you, and putting you out any other way is unlawful eviction, now punishable by a local authority civil penalty of up to £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution.
The timetable is worth knowing before you decide. Summarising the Ministry of Justice possession statistics for early 2026, OTS Solicitors reports a median of 26.4 weeks from landlord claim to repossession, and notes that London alone accounted for 31 per cent of landlord claims and possession orders in that quarter. Let Alliance's Q1 2026 Courtwatch, an industry rather than official source, puts the average London wait at around twelve months and the average landlord loss per case at £27,436, with Croydon, Romford, Uxbridge and Kingston upon Thames the next worst.
Add four months' notice to a London court queue and the realistic outer limit is well over a year. That is your negotiating position, and any competent landlord's solicitor already knows it.
One rule while you sit tight: pay the rent, on time, in full. LetSense's summary of the changes confirms the Ground 8 threshold is now three months' arrears, but it must be met at the notice date and again at the hearing. Ground 8 is far easier for a landlord to prove than a genuine intention to sell. Do not hand it over.
Negotiating for time, money and a reference
If the notice is valid and the sale looks real, the sensible play is to trade cooperation for terms. Things worth asking for, in writing:
- A payment for allowing viewings. You are not obliged to admit anyone unless your agreement provides for it, and even then access must be reasonable. Viewings on a Saturday morning are worth something to a seller.
- A rent-free final month, or a contribution to moving costs, in exchange for a fixed vacating date the landlord can give to a buyer.
- A written landlord reference and a confirmation that you left with no arrears. This is the item London agents actually check.
- Early release from the deposit, agreed before you go, with the deductions itemised. The deposit is protected in a scheme; the timing of its return is negotiable, the scheme's dispute process is not.
Be careful what you sign. Under the new section 16J(1), it is an offence if a tenant gives up the tenancy within four months of a landlord serving notice on a ground the landlord knew, or was reckless as to whether, they could not make out. A surrender agreement does not extinguish that. And under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, an agent cannot charge you an "early termination fee" beyond the landlord's genuine loss, a point our piece on what London agents can legally demand up front sets out in more detail.
Leaving on your own terms instead
Under the Act, a tenant on an assured periodic tenancy can end it with at least two months' written notice expiring at the end of a rental period. That is your escape hatch. If you have found somewhere and the market suits you, serving your own notice gives you control of the date and avoids any argument about the landlord's notice at all.
Two cautions. On a joint tenancy, notice from one tenant can end the tenancy for everyone, so get all names on it. And check whether your pre-May 2026 agreement allowed shorter notice: mydeposits takes the view that where an older agreement permitted less, landlords should honour it.
The enforcement routes almost nobody uses
Six months later, the flat you were told was being sold appears on Rightmove at £250 more a month. This is the situation the Act was written for.
Nearly Legal's analysis of the redress provisions sets out that re-letting or marketing inside the restricted period is an offence under the new section 16J(2), that misuse of a possession ground is an offence under section 16J(1), and that the maximum rent repayment order has risen from one year's rent to two. You apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) yourself. Your local authority can also apply, and can impose civil penalties: The Independent Landlord's summary of the statutory guidance gives starting points of £6,000 for the lesser breaches and £25,000 for the serious ones, with a £40,000 ceiling.
Evidence is the whole game, and it is easy to collect:
- Screenshot the new listing with its URL and date, including the portal's "listed on" line.
- Save the property's listing history on the portal, which usually shows the previous let and the asking rent.
- Buy the title register from HM Land Registry to see whether the flat was in fact sold, and to whom.
- Keep your original notice, the tenancy agreement, and proof of every rent payment. The order is calculated on rent you actually paid.
- Report it to your borough's private rented sector or tenancy relations team as well as applying yourself. The two routes run in parallel.
If your dispute is about rent rather than possession, the tribunal route is different again; see our guide to challenging a London rent increase.
Where the exits are concentrated
Small-landlord sales follow capital values, not rents. The ONS Price Index of Private Rents for July 2026 recorded a 5.9 per cent annual fall in Inner London house prices in the twelve months to May 2026, with Westminster and Tower Hamlets among the local authorities showing large falls, against Outer London slipping only 0.3 per cent. On the rental side the same series had UK average rents at £1,388 in June 2026, up 3.3 per cent, while London's annual rent inflation in April 2026 was the lowest in the country at 2.0 per cent.
Falling values and flattening rents are what push a leveraged landlord with one or two flats towards the door. Expect Ground 1A notices to cluster in the ex-new-build blocks of Tower Hamlets and the Isle of Dogs, in Westminster's smaller flats, and along the outer reaches of the Northern and Piccadilly lines where 2016-vintage buy-to-lets are now refinancing at rates that no longer work.
If you get one, read the form before you read the covering letter. The covering letter is written by an agent. The form is written by Parliament, and it is the one that has to be right.