Section 21 Notice to Quit: Abolished, and the Transitional Deadline Has Now Passed

Section 21 no longer exists, and the transitional window for old notices has closed. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished Section 21 "no-fault" eviction from 1 May 2026. Landlords who had already served a Section 21 notice before that date were given a strict grace period to take it to court — but that grace period ended on 31 July 2026, which has now passed. If you have not already issued a court claim on an old Section 21 notice, it has lapsed and cannot be used. From this point forward, for every landlord, the only lawful route to possession of a rented property in England is a Section 8 notice relying on a statutory ground.

Key takeaways

• Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 was abolished on 1 May 2026 by the Renters' Rights Act 2025. No new Section 21 notice can be served, and the accelerated (no-hearing) possession procedure was retired at the same time.
• Assured shorthold tenancies no longer exist. Every AST automatically became an open-ended assured periodic tenancy on 1 May 2026.
• The transitional deadline for old Section 21 notices was 31 July 2026, and it has passed. A Section 21 notice served before 1 May 2026 could only be used to start court proceedings by the earlier of six months from the date of the notice, or 31 July 2026. That window is now closed.
• Claims already issued survive. If a landlord asked the court to issue a claim form on or before 31 July 2026, that case continues to its conclusion — it does not need to be restarted under Section 8.
• Everyone else must use Section 8. There is no fallback to Section 21 for anyone now, regardless of when their original notice was served, unless proceedings were already in the court system by the deadline.
• Ground 8 rent arrears threshold is now three months' (13 weeks') arrears, with four weeks' notice — up from two months and two weeks under the old rules.

What Section 21 was, and why it is relevant history

From 1988 until 30 April 2026, Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 let a landlord of an assured shorthold tenancy recover possession without giving any reason — the so-called "no-fault" route. A landlord who met the procedural conditions (deposit protection under the Housing Act 2004, a valid gas safety certificate, a current Energy Performance Certificate, the government's "How to Rent" guide, and the prescribed Form 6A) could give at least two months' notice and, in most cases, use the accelerated possession procedure, which did not require a court hearing.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 ended this. Section 21 and the accelerated procedure were repealed, and every residential possession claim in England now requires the landlord to establish a ground under Section 8. This page exists to explain what happened to notices that were served under the old law before the change, and what the position is now that the transitional window has closed.

If your query is about serving a fresh eviction notice today, you want our Section 8 guide or the full list of grounds for possession, not this page — Section 21 is not an option, whatever your circumstances.

The legal framework: what changed, and when

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent in 2025. Its substantive changes to private tenancies — including the abolition of Section 21 — were brought into force for private-sector assured tenancies on 1 May 2026 by The Renters' Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/421). From that date:

• Chapter 1 of Part 1 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (tenancy reform for assured tenancies) came into force.
• Schedule 1 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025 substituted a new Schedule 2 into the Housing Act 1988, rewriting the statutory grounds for possession.
• Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 and the accelerated possession procedure were repealed.
• Every assured shorthold tenancy converted automatically into an assured periodic tenancy, and new lettings from that date are assured periodic tenancies from the outset — fixed-term ASTs are no longer available.

This is a legal requirement, not guidance a landlord can choose to follow or ignore: from 1 May 2026, a court cannot make a possession order on the basis of a Section 21 notice served on or after that date, because the power to serve one no longer exists in law.

The transitional rules: a closed chapter, not a live deadline

This is the part of the old guidance that most needed correcting, and it is worth being precise, because the position has moved from "upcoming deadline" to "closed door."

If a Section 21 (or Section 8) notice was validly served before 1 May 2026 and was still valid immediately before that date, the notice itself did not become void overnight. But it came with a hard stop on how long it could be used. According to gov.uk's official transitional guidance (updated 1 August 2026):

• For a Section 21 notice served before 1 May 2026: proceedings had to be issued by whichever date came first — the time left on the notice itself, or 31 July 2026.
• For a Section 8 notice served before 1 May 2026: proceedings had to be issued by whichever date came first — 12 months after the date the notice was given, or 31 July 2026.

31 July 2026 has now passed. Gov.uk's own guidance states this in terms: "You can no longer apply for a possession order using a section 8 or section 21 notice which you gave to your tenant before 1 May 2026. 31 July 2026 was the last date on which you could make an application." Practically, that means:

• If you served a Section 21 notice before 1 May 2026 and did not ask the court to issue a claim form on or before 31 July 2026, that notice is now spent. It cannot be revived, extended, or reused. You must start again using a Section 8 notice and a current statutory ground.
• If you did ask the court to issue a claim form on or before 31 July 2026, your case continues — the deadline only closed off the starting of new claims, not claims already under way. You do not need to do anything differently because of the passed deadline itself, though the usual possession-hearing process still applies.
• There is a narrow exception for tenants who entered a formal debt "breathing space" shortly before a Section 8 notice based on rent arrears would have expired — the government's guidance extends the time limit in that specific scenario. This does not apply to Section 21 notices, and if you think it might apply to a Section 8 case, take advice on your circumstances rather than relying on a general date.

There is no route back to Section 21 for anyone at this point, no matter when their original notice was served. The only exception to "start again under Section 8" is a claim that was genuinely issued by the deadline and is still working its way through the court.

What replaces Section 21: Section 8 and the amended grounds for possession

Since 1 May 2026, the only way to recover possession of a residential property let on an assured tenancy in England is a Section 8 notice supported by one or more of the grounds set out in the amended Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 (as substituted by Schedule 1 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025). Government guidance lists 37 named grounds, split into two categories:

• Mandatory grounds — if the landlord proves the ground, the court must order possession. These include the landlord's own legitimate reasons for wanting the property back (Ground 1: the landlord or a close family member needs to move in; Ground 1A: the landlord intends to sell) and the most serious tenant-default situations (Ground 8: serious rent arrears; certain anti-social behaviour and immigration-status grounds).
• Discretionary grounds — the court decides whether it is reasonable to grant possession, even where the ground is proved. These cover lesser rent arrears (Grounds 10 and 11), breach of the tenancy agreement (Ground 12), and deterioration of the property or furniture (Grounds 13 and 15), among others.

The grounds used most often by private landlords:

Ground	What it covers	Minimum notice
1	Landlord or a close family member needs to move in. Cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy	4 months
1A	Landlord intends to sell the property. Cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy; a 12-month restriction on re-letting applies once the tenant leaves	4 months
8	Serious rent arrears — 3 months' (or 13 weeks') rent owed both at the date of the notice and at the hearing; Universal Credit delays disregarded	4 weeks
10	Some rent lawfully due is unpaid (discretionary)	4 weeks
11	Persistent delay in paying rent (discretionary)	4 weeks
12	Breach of a term of the tenancy agreement (discretionary)	2 weeks
13	Deterioration of the property's condition (discretionary)	2 weeks
14	Nuisance, annoyance, or illegal/immoral use of the property (discretionary)	None — proceedings can start immediately
17	Tenancy obtained by a false statement (discretionary)	2 weeks

This is not the full list — see our complete grounds-for-possession guide or gov.uk's grounds guidance for every ground, including those specific to social housing, students, and agricultural tenancies.

Every claim now requires a court hearing. The accelerated possession procedure that allowed Section 21 cases to be decided on paperwork alone was retired along with Section 21 — Section 8 claims have always required a hearing, and that has not changed.

Practical implications for landlords

• Possession is no longer passive or automatic. A landlord must identify and evidence a specific ground before serving notice — there is no general-purpose route.
• Documentation still matters. Deposit protection, gas safety certificates, EPCs, the "How to Rent" guide, an EICR where required, and a clear paper trail (rent ledgers, correspondence, incident logs for anti-social behaviour claims) remain essential to a successful claim.
• Notice periods are generally longer. Most of the grounds a landlord would reach for first — moving in, selling, redevelopment — now require four months' notice, against the old Section 21 default of two months.
• The 12-month protected period applies to Grounds 1 and 1A. Neither can be used to end a tenancy within its first 12 months, and a notice under either ground cannot expire before that 12-month point.
• The court will not grant possession unless the deposit position is resolved — the deposit must have been protected in a government-approved scheme and the required information given to the tenant, or the deposit already returned, or any dispute about it already decided, settled, or withdrawn.
• Court hearings are now mandatory for every claim, which has practical consequences for timescales — budget for county court possession lists that are typically backlogged, and expect the process from notice to vacant possession to take considerably longer than it used to under the accelerated Section 21 route.

Worked examples

Example 1 — notice served in March 2026, no claim issued. A landlord served a Section 21 notice on a tenant on 10 March 2026. Six months from that date is 10 September 2026, which is later than 31 July 2026 — so the applicable cut-off was 31 July 2026. The landlord did not issue a court claim by that date. The notice has now lapsed. The landlord must serve a fresh Section 8 notice, citing a specific ground (for example Ground 1A if the plan is to sell), and give the correct notice period for that ground before any new claim can be issued.

Example 2 — notice served in early February 2026, claim issued in July. A landlord served a Section 21 notice on 2 February 2026. Six months from that date is 2 August 2026 — later than 31 July 2026, so 31 July 2026 was still the operative cut-off. The landlord issued a claim form with the court on 28 July 2026, three days before the deadline. That claim remains valid and will proceed through the normal court process to a hearing, even though the general deadline for starting new claims has since passed.

Example 3 — arrears case starting today. A tenant has been in arrears for four months as of August 2026. Because the arrears exceed the three-month Ground 8 threshold, the landlord can serve a Section 8 notice citing Ground 8 (mandatory) and, as a fallback, Grounds 10 and 11 (discretionary), giving four weeks' notice. If the tenant pays enough to bring the arrears below three months before the court hearing, Ground 8 will fail on that date even though it applied when notice was served — this is why landlords are advised to plead the discretionary grounds alongside Ground 8.

Risks and common mistakes

• Assuming an old Section 21 notice is still usable. It is not, unless a court claim was already issued by 31 July 2026. Relying on a lapsed notice wastes time and, if a claim is attempted on it now, will fail.
• Confusing the Section 21 deadline with the Section 8 deadline. Pre-1-May-2026 Section 21 notices had a six-months-or-31-July-2026 cut-off; pre-1-May-2026 Section 8 notices had a 12-months-or-31-July-2026 cut-off. Both are now closed, but the calculation differs and matters for anyone checking whether their specific claim was issued in time.
• Serving a Section 8 notice without correctly evidencing the ground. Mandatory grounds still require proof; discretionary grounds require the court to be persuaded it is reasonable to grant possession. Weak or undocumented grounds are a common reason for possession claims to fail or be adjourned.
• Getting the notice period wrong. Where more than one ground is cited, the longest applicable notice period generally governs the whole notice — using the shorter period for the wrong ground can invalidate it.
• Not checking the deposit position before serving notice. A court will not grant possession where deposit protection requirements have not been met and the position has not been resolved, regardless of which ground is relied on.

Related guidance

• Renters' Rights Act 2025 — full guide
• Section 8 notice template
• Section 8 grounds for possession — full list
• Rent arrears possession guide
• How to serve a Section 8 notice
• When should a landlord use a Section 8 notice?
• Section 21 eviction — common questions
• Section 21 notice checklist (for historic notices)

If you need to start a possession claim now, our Section 8 notice document is drafted to reflect the law as it stands post-Renters'-Rights-Act, with guidance on selecting the right ground and notice period for your situation.

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Reviewed by Bradley Askew, Solicitor (non-practising), England & Wales. Reviewed and updated 4 August 2026.

This is legal information, not legal advice. It explains the law of England & Wales in general terms as at the date above and does not take account of your specific circumstances. Reading it does not create a solicitor–client relationship. Tenancyagreementservice.co.uk is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. If your Section 21 notice or possession claim is close to a deadline, or your circumstances are disputed, get advice on your specific situation before relying on any date, notice period, or ground summarised here — always check the current position against gov.uk's guidance, which is updated as the transitional rules are applied in practice.