The short version: Section 21 — the "no reason needed" notice landlords have relied on for thirty years — no longer exists. Every tenancy is now a rolling periodic tenancy, and recovering a property requires a specific statutory ground. For landlords who want to sell, that's Ground 1A: four months' notice, none of it usable in the tenant's first year, and a twelve-month re-let penalty if the sale doesn't happen. This is a genuine shift in the balance of a tenanted sale, and it's worth understanding properly rather than assuming it works roughly like the old system with a longer notice period bolted on.
What actually changed
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and most of its provisions for the private rented sector came into force on 1 May 2026. The headline change is the end of Section 21: landlords can no longer end an assured shorthold tenancy simply by giving two months' notice without a stated reason.
Every tenancy that existed under the old fixed-term system converted to an open-ended periodic tenancy. There's no fixed end date to plan around any more, and no notice route that doesn't require a specific, evidenced ground.
The ground that matters if you're selling
For a landlord who needs the property back to sell it, the relevant ground is Ground 1A — Sale of dwelling-house. It replaces the old approach of simply timing a Section 21 notice around a sale.
The requirements:
- Four months' written notice, in the prescribed statutory form. Double the old Section 21 minimum.
- Not within the tenant's first twelve months. The notice can be served earlier, provided the four-month period doesn't expire before their twelve-month anniversary.
- A genuine intention to sell. The ground exists because you intend to market and sell the property — it isn't a general-purpose route to ending a tenancy for any reason.
- The re-let restriction. If you serve notice and then don't sell, you can't re-let the property for twelve months from the date specified in the notice.
That last point is the one that catches landlords out, because it doesn't map onto anything in the old system. Under Section 21, if your plans changed after serving notice, you simply... changed your plans. Under Ground 1A, serving notice and then not selling has a real, enforced cost attached.
Other grounds, briefly
Ground 1A is the relevant one for a sale, but it's not the only route available depending on your circumstances — there are separate grounds for a landlord or their close family moving in, for significant rent arrears, and for a handful of other specific situations, each with its own notice period and evidence requirements. If your situation isn't a straightforward sale, it's worth checking which ground actually fits rather than assuming Ground 1A applies by default.
Why this is a bigger shift than "longer notice"
It's tempting to read all this as "the same as before, just slower." That undersells what's actually changed.
Under Section 21, a landlord held all the leverage: notice could be served for any reason, timed to suit a sale, with no downside if plans shifted. Under the current rules, serving notice is a genuine commitment. Miscalculate — a buyer falls through, a chain collapses, you decide to hold the property after all — and you're not neutral. You're looking at up to a year of a property that legally can't earn rent.
That changes the incentives on both sides of a tenanted sale. A landlord who serves Ground 1A has, in a real sense, committed to making the sale work. Which is part of why the co-operative alternative — agreeing a date directly with your tenant rather than serving formal notice at all — has become a more attractive first move for a growing number of landlords, not a fallback for when the legal route fails.
What this means practically
If you're planning to sell a property with a tenant in it, three things are worth doing before you serve anything:
Check the twelve-month clock. If your tenant has been in the property less than eight months, you may not even be able to serve a valid Ground 1A notice yet with a four-month period that clears their anniversary.
Have a realistic buyer and timeline before you serve notice, not just an intention to sell — the re-let ban means the cost of being wrong has gone up substantially.
Consider whether you need to serve notice at all. If your tenant is broadly cooperative and you're both just navigating who moves first, an agreed departure date — with a financial incentive for your tenant to co-operate — can get you to the same outcome without the notice period, the re-let risk, or the possibility of a contested case.
See what happens if your tenant doesn't leave voluntarily once notice is served, or run your own numbers to compare a tenanted sale against a vacant one.
Common questions
Do I need a solicitor to serve a Ground 1A notice?
It isn't a legal requirement, but the notice must be in the prescribed statutory form and validly served — a defective notice can be challenged and effectively restarts your clock. Given the stakes (a wrong step costs you months, not days), most landlords take advice at this stage even if they haven't needed to before.
Does Section 21 abolition apply to all tenancies?
It applies to assured shorthold tenancies in the private rented sector, which covers the great majority of standard lettings. Certain tenancy types (some company lets, holiday lets, and a handful of other categories) sit outside the assured tenancy framework and follow different rules — if you're unsure which applies, that's worth checking specifically for your situation.
Can I still increase rent to encourage a tenant to leave?
Rent increases are now challengeable at tribunal, and the tribunal can only set the new rent at or below the genuine market rate — it can't be used as a mechanism to price a tenant out. Using a rent increase as an indirect eviction route is both against the spirit of the rules and unlikely to work as intended.
What if my tenant already had a fixed-term tenancy when the Act came into force?
Existing tenancies converted automatically to periodic tenancies when the relevant provisions came into force on 1 May 2026 — there was no need for landlords or tenants to take any action, and no new agreement was required for the conversion to take effect.
Is Ground 1A the same as the old "landlord wants to sell" reason under Section 21?
No — under Section 21 you didn't need to state a reason at all; the notice was valid regardless of your actual intentions. Ground 1A specifically requires a genuine intention to sell, and comes with a longer notice period and a re-let restriction that Section 21 never had.