No More Section 21: The Grounds That Can Still Evict You

The most useful clause in the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is not the one that killed Section 21. It is the re-letting ban that follows a possession order. Tanfield Chambers' analysis of the new section 16E explains that a landlord who takes your flat back in order to sell it cannot then let it on any tenancy of 21 years or less, grant a licence for money, or even market it for letting, until twelve months after the earliest possession date named in the notice. That turns a landlord's stated reason into a prediction you can check on Rightmove in August. And per a written answer from the housing minister reported by Property118, knowingly or recklessly misusing a ground can draw a civil penalty of up to £40,000 or prosecution.

So the question after a notice lands on the mat is no longer "can they do this". It is "which ground, and does it survive contact with the evidence".

What changed on 1 May 2026

Section 21 went on 1 May 2026. On the same date, as the NRLA sets out, almost every existing assured shorthold tenancy in England converted automatically into an assured periodic tenancy: no fixed term, no end date, no renewal to sign.

Two consequences people underrate.

First, you can now leave any time on two months' notice. If you are on a converted tenancy that used to have nine months left on it, that dead weight is gone.

Second, every eviction now needs a ground under Section 8, served on the prescribed Form 3. Fraser & Co's summary of the penalty regime is blunt about the alternatives: ending a tenancy orally, by a notice to quit, or by relying on a ground the landlord does not reasonably believe applies is itself a breach.

There is one live piece of the old regime left. Osbornes Law reads the transitional rules as giving landlords until 31 July 2026 to issue court proceedings on a Section 21 notice served before commencement. After that the notice is unenforceable. If you were served last spring and nothing has happened since, check the date on the notice.

Your landlord also owed you a copy of the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet 2026 by 31 May 2026. Osbornes puts the penalty for missing that at up to £7,000 per tenancy. It is not a defence to a possession claim, but it tells you something about how carefully your landlord is being advised.

The grounds that actually get used

There are 37 grounds. Four of them account for most of what London renters will see.

Mandatory means that if the landlord proves the ground and the paperwork is right, the court must order possession. Discretionary means the judge weighs whether it is reasonable, which is where your conduct, your children's schools and the landlord's behaviour all become relevant.

Ground 1 and 1A are the replacements for the old no-fault route, and both carry four months' notice, per the NRLA's guidance on the two grounds. Ground 1 needs the landlord or a close family member to actually move in. Ground 1A needs an intention to sell.

Ground 8 is the one that has quietly moved in tenants' favour. Cornerstone Barristers notes that the mandatory arrears threshold rose from eight weeks or two months to 13 weeks or three months, and that the notice period doubled from two weeks to four. Keystone Law's summary adds the detail that matters if you are on Universal Credit: arrears unpaid only because your housing element had not yet arrived are disregarded in the calculation.

The structural weakness of Ground 8 is that the arrears must be at or above the threshold both on the day the notice is served and on the day of the hearing. Pay enough to drop below three months before you walk into court and the mandatory ground fails. The landlord may still run the discretionary arrears grounds, but the judge then has a choice.

Ground 4A is the student one. Trowers & Hamlins sets out the conditions: the tenancy must not have been entered into more than six months before the tenants were entitled to occupy, four months' notice is required, and the possession date must fall between 1 June and 30 September. The University of Birmingham's landlord FAQs confirm it only applies where the entire household is full-time students, and purpose-built student accommodation and university halls sit outside the regime altogether. A landlord also has to have flagged before the tenancy started that the ground might be used. If nobody mentioned Ground 4A when you signed, that is worth raising.

The first twelve months

Neither Ground 1 nor Ground 1A can be used to make you leave in the first twelve months of a tenancy. The NRLA's reading of government guidance is that the four months' notice can be served during that period, as long as it does not expire before the twelve months are up. In practice that means the earliest a brand new tenant can be required to leave for a sale is month thirteen, and a notice can legitimately turn up in month nine.

Work out your own date now. For a tenancy that converted on 1 May 2026, the relevant start date is the original tenancy start, not the conversion. Dig out the agreement and write the date on a note in your phone. If a Ground 1A notice arrives with a possession date inside that first year, the notice is defective on its face and you should say so in writing before anything else.

Testing a notice you do not believe

Four checks, all doable in an evening, most of them for less than a tenner.

The title register. HM Land Registry sells the title register for any address in England and Wales for £7, and there is a free property summary alongside it. It gives you the registered proprietor and whether there is a charge on the property. Two things to look for: whether the person who signed the notice is actually the owner (agents get this wrong on portfolios held in company names), and whether the "close family member" moving in under Ground 1 fits the relationship the Act allows. If the landlord bought last year with a buy-to-let mortgage and is now claiming an urgent need to move in, that is a question worth putting in writing.

Portal history. For Ground 1A, the sale should be visible. A property genuinely going to market gets an EPC ordered, an agent instructed and a listing. Screenshot the Rightmove and Zoopla pages for the address now, before the notice expires, and set a calendar reminder for three, six and nine months after the possession date. If the flat reappears as a let inside the restricted period, that is the breach, and it is enforceable by the local authority.

Licensing. Most London boroughs run selective or additional licensing schemes, and the registers are public and searchable on the council's website. If your flat is an unlicensed HMO in a borough that requires a licence, that does not stop a possession claim, but it opens the door to a rent repayment order and gives the council's private rented sector team a reason to take your call.

The Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker. The Greater London Authority runs a public database naming landlords and agents who have been prosecuted or hit with civil enforcement for housing offences. It was the first of its kind in the country. Search the landlord's name and the agent's before you respond to anything.

If the ground turns out to be fabricated

Do not leave because a notice says so. A Section 8 notice is a step, not an eviction. The tenancy ends when a court orders possession and, if you still do not go, when bailiffs attend.

Leaving early can also cost you a remedy. The Independent Landlord's summary of the penalty regime describes a specific offence under the new section 16J(1): where a tenant moves out within four months of a notice the landlord knew, or was reckless about whether, could not have obtained possession. The statutory guidance starting point for that penalty is £25,000, against a general starting point of £6,000 for lesser misuse. Tenants can apply for a rent repayment order in these cases too. So if you do move out under a notice you believe was bogus, keep every document; the claim survives your departure.

If it reaches a hearing, go. Free advice is available from the duty scheme at the county court on the day, and possession hearings are one of the few areas where turning up unrepresented is genuinely better than not turning up. Bring the title register, your listing screenshots, the tenancy agreement showing the start date, and any messages where the landlord or agent said something inconsistent with the ground on the notice. On a mandatory ground the judge cannot weigh your circumstances, but they can and do refuse a claim where the ground is not proved or the notice is defective.

What to do this week

Ask your agent, in an email rather than on the phone, for three things: written confirmation of your tenancy start date, confirmation of whether any pre-tenancy notice was given about Ground 4A, and confirmation that the Information Sheet was served. Email creates a record; a phone call creates a memory.

Then read your agreement again with fresh eyes, because half its clauses no longer bind anyone. Our guide to what to look for in a tenancy agreement covers the terms that still have teeth. And if the response to all this is a sudden rent increase, that is a separate fight with its own forum: see how to challenge a London rent increase at the tribunal, noting that the tribunal cannot now set your rent higher than the figure in the landlord's notice.