The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished no-fault eviction from 1 May 2026, and every landlord who needs their property back must now follow a different route.
What Was Section 21 and Why Does It Matter?
If you have been a landlord for any length of time, you will know the name well. For those less familiar, it is worth a brief explanation. A section 21 notice was a tool under the Housing Act 1988 that allowed a landlord to end an assured shorthold tenancy without giving a reason, provided the correct notice period was observed and certain procedural requirements were met. Tenants sometimes called it a "no-fault eviction" because the landlord did not need to prove any wrongdoing.
From 1 May 2026, section 21 no longer exists. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 removed it entirely, and any notice served on or after that date must follow the new rules. If you are wondering what is a section 21 because you recently received advice to serve one, please do get in touch with us straight away, because that route is now closed and acting on outdated information could cost you time and money.
What the Renters' Rights Act 2025 Puts in Its Place
The Act converts all assured shorthold tenancies into periodic assured tenancies. In practical terms, this means there is no longer a fixed-term end date that you can use as a trigger for possession. Instead, you must rely on one of the statutory grounds for possession set out in the revised Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, as amended by the 2025 Act.
The grounds are grouped into two categories:
- Mandatory grounds, where the court must grant possession if the ground is proved. These include rent arrears above a specified threshold, the landlord or a close family member genuinely intending to move into the property, the landlord intending to sell, and certain antisocial behaviour findings.
- Discretionary grounds, where the court weighs up the circumstances and may refuse possession even if the ground is technically made out. Persistent late payment of rent and lesser breaches of the tenancy agreement fall into this category.
Each ground carries its own notice period, and some cannot be used straight away: for example, the grounds for moving in and selling (Grounds 1 and 1A) cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy. Getting the right ground, and the right notice, is essential before anything else happens.
The New Notice Requirements
Landlords still serve a section 8 notice, but on the new prescribed form (Form 3A), and section 8 itself has been substantially updated by the 2025 Act. The notice must clearly state the ground or grounds being relied upon, include the specific details required for each ground, and give the correct notice period.
Notice periods vary depending on the ground. Some mandatory grounds, particularly those involving significant rent arrears or serious antisocial behaviour, carry shorter notice periods. Grounds relating to the landlord wishing to sell or to move in a family member require longer notice, currently set at four months in most cases, to give the tenant reasonable time to find alternative accommodation.
A notice that contains errors, omits required information, or uses an out-of-date form is likely to be invalid. Accuracy at the outset protects your position throughout.
What Happens After Notice: The Court Process
If the tenant does not vacate by the date specified in the notice, the next step is an application to the County Court for a possession order. Claims based only on rent arrears can be made online through the court's Possession Claim Online service; claims on other grounds use the paper court forms.
Every possession claim now goes to a hearing, because the accelerated paper procedure ended with section 21. On a mandatory ground, the court must make a possession order if the ground is proved. For discretionary grounds, the court will consider the tenant's circumstances as well as yours, and decide whether it is reasonable to grant possession and on what terms.
Once a possession order is made, if the tenant still does not leave, a warrant of possession must be applied for so that county court bailiffs can carry out the eviction. This is a separate step and has its own processing times, so factoring this into your timeline from the start is sensible.
How Our Landlord and Tenant Team Handles This for You
We work with landlords across the full possession process from the moment you first tell us about the situation. We will assess the facts, identify the strongest available ground or grounds, prepare the correct notice with all the required particulars, and serve it properly. Errors at the notice stage are a common reason possession claims are delayed or fail, and our team takes care to avoid them.
Once notice has expired without the property being vacated, we prepare and issue the court application on your behalf, compile the evidence bundle, and correspond with the tenant's solicitors if they have instructed someone. We attend hearings with you where needed, and once an order is obtained, we can progress the warrant application to bring the matter to a conclusion.
We also advise on the ancillary issues that often arise alongside possession, including rent arrears claims, deposit disputes, and the condition of the property. Our aim is to handle the legal work thoroughly so that you can focus on your wider plans for the property.
If you need to recover possession of a property, or you are unsure whether the ground you have in mind applies to your situation, please call our team. We work from our Hull office at 2 Parliament Street and also see clients in Hornsea and, by appointment, Bridlington. Call 01482 228808.