Section 21 Abolished: What Landlords Should Do Now

Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 allowed a landlord to end an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) without giving the tenant any reason at all, provided the correct form and notice period were used. This is why it became known as the "no-fault" eviction route: a landlord did not need to prove rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, or any other ground — they simply had to follow the procedure correctly.

Section 21 notices were served on Form 6A, generally required at least two months' notice, and — crucially — could be enforced through the accelerated possession procedure: a largely paperwork-only county court process that, in many cases, did not require a hearing at all. This made Section 21 the fastest and most predictable way for a landlord to recover a property, and by far the most commonly used possession route in England for over three decades.

That speed and certainty came at a cost for tenants: a landlord could end a tenancy for any reason, or no reason, including — campaigners argued — in response to a tenant raising a repair complaint. This tension between landlord flexibility and tenant security sat at the heart of the debate that ultimately led to Section 21's abolition.

The push to abolish Section 21 spans two governments. The Conservative government's 2019 manifesto pledged to end "no-fault" evictions, leading to the Renters (Reform) Bill, which fell when Parliament was dissolved ahead of the 2024 general election. The incoming Labour government reintroduced the policy as the Renters' Rights Bill in September 2024, which became the Renters' Rights Act 2025 on receiving Royal Assent on 27 October 2025.

The stated policy aim was to give tenants greater security of tenure without removing a landlord's ability to recover their property for genuine reasons — selling, moving back in, serious arrears, or antisocial behaviour. Rather than abolishing possession altogether, the Act channels every possession claim through Section 8 and a defined, evidence-based list of grounds, removing only the no-reason-required route.

Section 21's abolition is the headline change, but it sits inside a much wider package of reform. The most relevant changes for landlords, alongside the end of no-fault eviction, are:

For most landlords, the practical day-to-day impact is dominated by two things: the change to how a tenancy ends (covered in detail below), and the new paperwork obligations that came with the 1 May 2026 commencement date — most urgently, the Information Sheet deadline of 31 May 2026.

Nothing replaces Section 21 directly — there is no new "no-fault" mechanism. Instead, two structural changes together form the replacement system:

In practical terms, this means a landlord seeking possession for a reason that would previously have justified a quick, no-questions-asked Section 21 notice — such as wanting to sell, or simply wanting the tenancy to end — must now identify a specific ground (most often Ground 1A for selling, or Ground 1 for moving in), give a longer notice period, and be ready to support that ground with evidence if the case is contested.

Section 8 itself is not new — it has existed alongside Section 21 since the Housing Act 1988. What has changed is its role: it is now the onlypossession route, and the Renters' Rights Act 2025 expanded and re-priced almost every ground within it.

Three features define how Section 8 works in practice:

• Mandatory vs discretionary grounds. Mandatory grounds (Part 1 of Schedule 2) require the court to order possession once the conditions are proved — there is no test of reasonableness. Discretionary grounds (Part 2) require the court to decide whether possession is reasonable in the circumstances.
• Form 3A. Every Section 8 notice served from 1 May 2026 must use the new prescribed Form 3A, which replaced the previous Form 3 and sits alongside (rather than instead of) the abolished Form 6A used for Section 21.
• Standard court process, not accelerated possession. The accelerated possession procedure was specific to Section 21. Section 8 claims proceed under Part 55 of the Civil Procedure Rules and, where the ground is disputed, typically require a court hearing at which the landlord must prove the ground relied on.

For most landlords, the single biggest practical shift is the move from "serve notice, file paperwork, get possession" under Section 21, to "identify a ground, gather evidence, serve notice, and be prepared to prove the ground in court" under Section 8.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 did not invalidate Section 21 notices served before the commencement date outright. Instead, Schedule 6 to the Act created a tightly time-limited transitional window.

If proceedings are not issued by the applicable deadline, the Section 21 notice simply stops being usable. The tenancy does not end — the landlord must instead identify a Section 8 ground and start the process described in this guide from scratch, including serving a fresh Form 3A notice and observing whatever minimum notice period applies to the ground used.

A tenancy with a pre-commencement Section 21 or Section 8 notice still being acted on also has a knock-on effect: it remains an assured shorthold tenancy, rather than converting to an assured periodic tenancy, until those proceedings conclude — which is usually treated as the point a bailiff enforces any possession order, or the claim is otherwise resolved.