Evicting a tenant after the Renters' Rights Act

If you’re a private landlord in England and you’ve read older guides about evicting a tenant (an earlier version of this page among them), most of what they say about section 21 notices and accelerated possession is now out of date. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 changed the rules on 1 May 2026, and this page describes the position as it stood in October 2026.

This page is for landlords only. I don’t do possession work myself, and my usual colleagues for it at Nexa Law are Rachel Garton and Alistair Haggerty. If you send me the details I’ll introduce you to whichever of them is best placed, and they’ll act for you from there and quote their own fee. There’s more about my Nexa colleagues here. If you’re a tenant facing eviction, my colleagues can’t act for you, and Citizens Advice or Shelter is the right place to go.

The end of section 21

Since 1 May 2026, a private landlord in England can’t use section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 to recover possession. Existing assured shorthold tenancies became assured periodic tenancies on that date, which means they roll on from period to period with no fixed end date, and the tenant stays until they give notice or you obtain possession on one of the statutory grounds. The commencement and transitional rules are in the commencement regulations.

If you served a section 21 notice, or an old-style section 8 notice, before 1 May 2026, the last date for starting court proceedings on it was 31 July 2026 (or earlier, depending on the notice). Claims issued in time carry on, but otherwise that notice can no longer be used and you start again under the new rules. The government’s guidance on notices given before 1 May 2026 has the detail.

Section 8 grounds for possession

Every possession claim against an assured tenant now needs a reason the law recognises, set out in a section 8 notice on the prescribed form (Form 3A), with the correct notice period. The government’s grounds for possession guidance lists them all. Some grounds are mandatory, meaning the court must order possession if you prove the ground, and others are discretionary, where the judge decides whether an order is reasonable. The grounds which landlords use most are set out below.

The first is rent arrears. The mandatory ground (ground 8) now needs at least three months’ rent unpaid where rent is paid monthly, or 13 weeks’ where it’s paid weekly or fortnightly, whereas it was two months under the old rules. The arrears have to be at that level both when you serve the notice and on the day of the hearing, and the notice period is four weeks. A tenant who pays the arrears down below the threshold before the hearing defeats the mandatory ground, which is why notices normally rely on the discretionary arrears grounds (10 and 11, also four weeks’ notice) as well.

The second is where you want to sell or move in. Grounds 1 and 1A let you recover the property because you or a close family member want to live there, or because you want to sell. Both are mandatory, both need four months’ notice, and the notice can’t expire during the first 12 months of the tenancy.

The third is breach of the tenancy and antisocial behaviour. Breach of a term of the tenancy is a discretionary ground with two weeks’ notice. For antisocial behaviour you can apply to the court as soon as the notice has been served, though the court can’t make a possession order for 14 days.

Deposit and notice requirements

The court will only make a possession order if any deposit was protected in an approved scheme and the prescribed information was given, or the deposit has since been returned (the antisocial behaviour grounds are an exception). The notice has to be on the right form, state the ground fully and give the right notice. The government’s guide to repossessing your property after 1 May 2026 warns that a claim can be dismissed or delayed if the notice is incomplete or inaccurate. If a claim is dismissed you have to serve the notice again and wait again, so it’s cheaper to have the notice checked before it goes out.

Court proceedings and eviction

If the tenant hasn’t left when the notice expires, you issue a possession claim in the county court. A claim based only on rent arrears can be made through Possession Claim Online, and other claims are made on paper. The accelerated, paper-only procedure that went with section 21 isn’t available for these tenancies, so you should expect a hearing. If the court makes an order and the tenant still stays, you apply for a warrant and court bailiffs carry out the eviction. You mustn’t change the locks or remove a tenant yourself, which is a criminal offence.

Unpaid rent can be claimed in the same proceedings, or pursued separately as a debt. It’s worth checking your address for service too, as I’ve written about why a missing section 48 notice can mean rent isn’t legally due at all.

All of this is the law in England. Wales has its own legislation, and Scotland and Northern Ireland are different again, so please say where the property is when you get in touch. Commercial premises work differently as well, and for the end of a business lease there’s a page on dilapidations.

What to send

• The tenancy agreement and the date the tenancy began
• The deposit protection certificate and prescribed information
• A rent statement showing the arrears, if that’s the problem
• Any notice already served, and a line on why you need the property back

Next steps

Send me the details and I’ll put you in touch with Rachel or Alistair, who’ll tell you which ground fits and what it will cost.