Section 8 Ground 1B: The Rent to Buy Sale Ground — Not Redevelopment

Ground 1B— formally, “sale of dwelling house that is part of Rent to Buy” — is a mandatory possession ground inserted into Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, in force since 1 May 2026. It applies to a specific type of social housing arrangement: a rent-to-buy tenancy, under which a tenant rents at a discounted rate for a fixed period while saving towards buying the home.

Once the period stated in the rent-to-buy agreement expires, and the tenant has not gone on to purchase, Ground 1B lets the landlord — who must be a private registered provider of social housing — recover possession so the property can be sold, let on a long lease, or re-let to someone else on a new assured tenancy.

This is the detail that trips up most people searching for this ground. Ground 1B is not available to ordinary private landlords, however genuine their reason for wanting possession. It is restricted, by the wording of the ground itself, to a private registered provider (PRP) of social housing — broadly, a registered housing association.

If you are a private landlord letting a standard assured shorthold tenancy, Ground 1B has no application to your situation at all, regardless of whether you want to sell, redevelop, or move in yourself. Each of those situations has its own, separate ground:

Rent to Buy is an affordable housing scheme run by social housing providers. A tenant rents a home, usually at a reduced rate compared with open-market rent, for a fixed period set out in the tenancy agreement. During that period the tenant is expected to build up savings, with a view to buying the property — often at a discount — once the period ends.

Ground 1B exists to deal with what happens if that purchase does not go ahead. Once the stated rent-to-buy period expires and the tenant has not bought the property, the provider needs a route back to possession so the home can be sold on the open market, let on a long lease, or handed to a new tenant under a fresh assured tenancy. That route is Ground 1B.

Ground 1B requires a minimum of 4 months' notice from the date the tenant receives the Section 8 notice, served on Form 3A. The old Form 3 has been invalid since 1 May 2026 — any notice served on it is defective.

As with other Section 8 grounds, the notice period runs from the date of receipt, not the date the notice is written or posted. For first-class post, allow the standard two working days for delivery before calculating the expiry date.