If you are still searching for how to serve a Section 21, here is the short version: you cannot. Section 21 "no fault" possession was abolished on 1 May 2026 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. If you want your property back now, you use Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, and you need a specific legal ground to do it.
This page is for landlords caught in the switchover: you may have an old notice already served, or you might be trying to work out which route to take next. Below is what changed, the date your old notice stops working, and the grounds that replaced the old no-fault route.
What changed on 1 May 2026
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and the main tenancy reforms commenced on 1 May 2026 (see the Act at legislation.gov.uk). Three things happened on that date:
- Section 21 was abolished. There is no longer a way to end a tenancy without giving a reason.
- All assured shorthold tenancies became periodic. Fixed terms as a way to lock a tenant in have gone; tenancies now roll on a periodic basis, and tenants can leave with two months' notice.
- Possession runs only through Section 8 grounds. Every route now needs a stated ground, with its own notice period and its own evidence.
Your existing Section 21 notice: the 31 July 2026 cliff edge
If you served a valid Section 21 notice before 1 May 2026, it does not vanish overnight, but it has a hard stop. A pre-1-May-2026 Section 21 notice remains enforceable in court only until 31 July 2026. After that date the courts will not accept it, and you would have to start again under Section 8.
In practice this means: if you have a live Section 21 notice and the tenant has not left, you need your court possession claim lodged and progressing before 31 July 2026. Leaving it late is the single most common way landlords will lose the benefit of an old notice. Check the current transition guidance on gov.uk before you rely on any notice, as commencement details are still bedding in.
What replaced Section 21: the Section 8 grounds
Section 8 is not new, but the Renters' Rights Act expanded and reshaped it so that it covers the situations landlords used to handle with a no-fault notice. The grounds are either mandatory (if you prove the ground, the judge must grant possession) or discretionary (the judge decides whether it is reasonable).
The grounds you are most likely to use:
| Ground | Reason | Type | Notice period | Earliest you can use it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | You are selling the property | Mandatory | 4 months | After the first 12 months of the tenancy |
| 1 | You or a close family member will move in | Mandatory | 4 months | After the first 12 months of the tenancy |
| 8 | Serious rent arrears | Mandatory | 4 weeks | Any time |
| 8A | Repeated rent arrears | Mandatory | 4 weeks | Any time |
| 14 | Anti-social behaviour | Discretionary | Can begin immediately | Any time |
Two changes matter most for landlords who relied on Section 21.
First, selling and moving in are now explicit grounds (1A and 1). They replace the "I just want it back" flexibility of the old system, but they come with strings: four months' notice, and you cannot use either ground during the first 12 months of a tenancy. There are also restrictions on re-letting the property for a period after you claim on these grounds, so you cannot serve "to sell" and then quietly re-advertise it.
Second, the rent arrears ground is harder to reach. Under the reforms, mandatory Ground 8 now requires three months' arrears at both the date you serve notice and the date of the hearing, up from two months, and the notice period rose from two weeks to four weeks.
A worked example: getting your property back to sell
Say you own a flat in Leeds and you decide, once your tenant is settled, that you want to sell.
- Tenancy start date: 1 June 2026
- You cannot use Ground 1A (selling) in the first 12 months, so the earliest you can serve notice is 1 June 2027.
- Ground 1A needs four months' notice, so the earliest possession date you can put on the notice is around 1 October 2027.
- If the tenant does not leave, you then apply to court, which adds further time.
Under the old Section 21 route you could have served two months' notice at almost any point. The practical takeaway: build possession timing into your plans early, because "I want to sell this year" now realistically means planning 12 to 18 months ahead from the start of a tenancy.
A worked example: rent arrears
Your monthly rent is £1,200. To rely on mandatory Ground 8, the tenant must owe at least three months' rent, which is £3,600, both when you serve the four-week notice and again at the hearing. If the tenant pays £1,300 the day before the hearing to drop below the threshold, the mandatory ground can fail, and you would be relying on the discretionary arrears grounds instead. Keeping a clean, dated rent ledger is now the difference between a straightforward hearing and a lost one.
What to do now
- Have a live Section 21 notice? Get your court claim moving before 31 July 2026.
- Planning to sell or move in? Note the 12-month wait and four-month notice, and diarise the earliest lawful dates from the tenancy start.
- Chasing arrears? Track the balance to the day so you can prove the three-month threshold at both service and hearing.
- Keep records. Section 8 is evidence-led in a way Section 21 never was.
This is general information, not tax or financial advice. Possession law is changing quickly, so check the current position on gov.uk or take advice from a solicitor before serving any notice.
The headline has not changed much for good landlords: if you keep clean records, communicate early, and plan your timing, you can still get your property back. You just do it with a named reason now, not a blank one.
