What to do if your landlord is selling

The short version: your landlord is allowed to sell, but since 1 May 2026 they can no longer give you "no reason" notice. To make you leave in order to sell, they must use Ground 1A — at least four months' written notice, and not within your first twelve months. You have time, real rights, and more options than just leaving when you're told — including, increasingly, being paid to co-operate with the move.

If your landlord has told you they're thinking of selling — or you've been served formal notice — this guide is for you. We'll explain what the law says, what your landlord is and isn't allowed to do, and the options in front of you. Then we'll talk about a third path that suits a lot of people in this situation but doesn't get talked about much.

Take your time with it. There's no rush, and nothing your landlord has said or sent you needs an answer today.

The short answer

Your landlord is allowed to sell the property you live in. That's their right. What's changed — and changed significantly, as of 1 May 2026 — is how they're allowed to do it.

The old route, where a landlord could give you two months' notice with no reason needed, no longer exists. Section 21 has been abolished. To recover the property in order to sell it, your landlord now has to use a specific legal ground that comes with a four-month notice period and significant restrictions on what they can do afterwards.

You have more time than you might think, more rights than you might realise, and — increasingly — more options than just "leave when you're told to."

What's changed and why it matters to you

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. Most of its provisions for the private rented sector came into force on 1 May 2026.

The headline change is the abolition of Section 21 — the so-called "no-fault" eviction notice. For thirty years, a landlord on an assured shorthold tenancy could give two months' written notice without giving any reason. That route is closed. Every assured tenancy is now periodic (rolling month-to-month), and to recover the property a landlord must use one of seventeen specific grounds set out in the Act and the underlying Housing Act 1988.

For tenants in a property the landlord wants to sell, the relevant ground is Ground 1A — Sale of dwelling-house. This is the new headline route landlords use to recover a property in order to sell it. We'll come back to it in detail below, because the rules around it are the most important thing to understand.

What your landlord is and isn't allowed to do

Your landlord is allowed to:

• Decide to sell the property at any time, for any reason. They don't have to justify the decision to you.
• Market the property for sale while you're still living there. You'll see estate agents, viewings, and "For Sale" signs.
• Serve you formal notice under Ground 1A if they want to recover the property in order to sell with vacant possession.
• Show prospective buyers around the property, with reasonable notice to you (typically 24 hours, though this can vary by tenancy agreement).

Your landlord is not allowed to:

• Force you out without serving formal written notice in the prescribed form.
• Give you less than four months' notice under Ground 1A.
• Take possession in the first twelve months of your tenancy. (They can serve a notice earlier, but only if the four-month notice period would end at or after your twelve-month anniversary.)
• Re-let the property to a new tenant for twelve months after the date specified in your Ground 1A notice, if they end up not selling. (This is a major change. We'll come back to it — it's important.)
• Harass you, change the locks, cut off utilities, or pressure you to leave before your notice period ends. These are criminal offences under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.
• Charge you more than one month's rent in advance under the new rules.
• Increase your rent unfairly to push you out — challenges to rent increases now go to a tribunal, and the tribunal can only set the rent at or below market rate.

Ground 1A — the rule that matters most

This is the legal route your landlord will use to ask you to leave so they can sell. The key facts:

• They must give you at least four months' notice in writing, in the prescribed statutory form. (The old Section 21 notice was two months. Under Ground 1A it's doubled.)
• They cannot use Ground 1A to take possession in the first twelve months of your tenancy. The notice itself can be served before then — but only if the four-month notice period would end at or after your twelve-month anniversary. In practice, this means the earliest valid notice is served around month eight.
• The notice must specify the date by which they want vacant possession.
• After serving notice, if they then change their mind or fail to sell, they are prohibited from re-letting the property for twelve months from the date in the notice. They can't grant any tenancy of more than six months, and they can't market it for rent on any of the major portals.

That last point is the one most landlords don't fully appreciate, and it changes the maths considerably. A landlord who serves notice to sell, then doesn't sell, has a property that has to sit empty (or be sold at whatever price the market gives them within twelve months) — they can't simply put a new tenant in if the sale falls through. This is an important piece of leverage you didn't have under the old Section 21 regime, and it's part of why the tone of these conversations is starting to shift.

Your three options

Broadly, there are three paths from here.

Option one — wait for formal notice, then leave. If your landlord serves a valid Ground 1A notice, you have at least four months to find somewhere new. Your tenancy continues normally during that period — you keep paying rent, the landlord keeps their obligations to maintain the property, your deposit remains protected. At the end of the notice period you move out and the landlord proceeds with the sale.

This is the path of least resistance and it's what most tenants do. The downside: you pay all the costs of the move (deposits, agency fees on the new place, removal costs, potential rent increase on whatever you find next), absorb the disruption, and walk away with nothing for your inconvenience.

Option two — refuse to leave and contest the notice. You're entitled to stay until a court orders possession. If you don't leave at the end of the notice period, your landlord must apply to court for a possession order and, if necessary, instruct bailiffs to enforce it. The whole process typically takes between four and ten months on top of the notice period — and the court will only make an order if the notice was validly served and the ground is properly made out.

This is the right option in some circumstances — for example, if the notice is technically defective, or if you have nowhere else to go and need every week of additional time. But it's stressful, can damage your future references from this landlord, and ends with the same outcome: you leave.

Option three — agree to Umoja's co-operative exit. This is the path most people don't know exists. Instead of going through the notice-and-eviction process, you and your landlord agree a date for you to leave that suits both of you, in exchange for a financial reward to compensate you for the disruption. The landlord gets vacant possession on a known date (which they can guarantee to a buyer); you get paid to co-operate; the property is sold at full vacant-possession value rather than at the discount tenanted properties usually attract.

This third option is what Umoja exists to make work. We'll explain how in a moment.

Why Umoja's co-operative exit makes sense for everyone

Tenanted properties typically sell for around 20% less than the equivalent vacant property. The pool of buyers willing to take on a property with a sitting tenant is much smaller — most owner-occupiers are excluded entirely, and most lenders won't lend on a tenanted purchase to someone who plans to live there. So the landlord either accepts the discount or evicts you and waits months of empty property and lost rent before completing the sale at full price.

Either way, somebody loses money. Either the landlord absorbs the discount, or they absorb the void costs, or you absorb the disruption. Umoja's co-operative exit redistributes the situation: the landlord pays you a portion of the value they recover by selling vacant, and the rest of the value flows to them. You walk away with several months of rent as a cushion. They sell at full price on a guaranteed date. The buyer gets a clean purchase. Everyone is whole.

The key insight is that there's a sum of money sitting on the table — the difference between vacant-possession value and tenanted value — and the question is just who captures it. Under the old eviction route, none of it goes to the tenant. Under Umoja's co-operative exit, you get a share. That share is your reward for making the sale possible at the better price.

How Umoja works

Umoja is a platform that runs co-operative exits for landlords who want to sell. Here's how it works in plain terms:

Your landlord lists their property on Umoja and agrees an amount with us — the Umoja Fund — that determines the reward you can receive when you vacate, provided you've co-operated with the sale. They decide the amount; a typical starting figure is the equivalent of four months of rent. You sign an agreement that explains exactly what co-operation means (giving reasonable access for viewings, leaving on the agreed date, leaving the property in good condition) and what reward you'll receive.

You keep paying rent as normal. Your tenancy continues. The landlord markets the property for sale. When a buyer is found and a completion date is agreed, you and the landlord agree a date for you to leave — usually a few days before completion. On that date, you move out. On completion of the sale, Umoja rewards you in proportion to how well you've co-operated, and keeps a portion as our fee. If for some reason you don't co-operate (you refuse access for viewings, you don't leave on the agreed date), the portion that would have been your reward instead goes to a charity nominated at the start. It never goes back to the landlord.

That last point matters. The amount agreed at the start is a commitment. Whatever happens, the landlord cannot reclaim it. That structure is what makes the offer credible — there's no incentive for the landlord to engineer a reason to withhold your reward.

What the conversation with your landlord might look like

If your landlord hasn't yet served you formal notice, you have time and space to suggest this route. Most landlords would prefer it — it's cheaper, faster, and avoids the courtroom risk — but they often don't know it exists.

You don't need to argue or persuade. A short message is enough:

Hi [landlord's name],

Thanks for letting me know you're thinking of selling. I want to help this go smoothly for both of us if I can.

I came across a service called Umoja that runs co-operative tenant exits for situations exactly like ours — the landlord pays the tenant a reward for co-operating with the sale, and the property gets sold at full vacant-possession value rather than at the tenanted discount. Most landlords come out ahead, and the tenant gets paid for the disruption rather than just absorbing it.

Their site is umojauk.app — worth a look. Happy to talk it through with you whenever suits.

That's it. The landlord either looks into it or doesn't. If they do, they sign up at umojauk.app/landlords and the platform walks them through the rest. If they don't, you're no worse off than you were five minutes ago.

We've drafted that message above so you can copy and adapt it. It's deliberately calm. Tenants who lead with grievance tend to get nowhere; tenants who lead with practical suggestion tend to get listened to.

What to do this week

If you've been told the landlord is thinking of selling but no formal notice has been served:

• Check your tenancy agreement for the start date. Ground 1A cannot give your landlord possession before your twelve-month anniversary, and any notice that purports to do so is invalid.
• Check that your deposit is protected in one of the three official schemes (TDS, MyDeposits, DPS). If it isn't, your landlord is restricted in their ability to serve possession notices.
• Send the message above, or one like it, to your landlord. The earlier in the process you suggest a co-operative route, the more likely the landlord is to take it seriously — once notice has been formally served, it gets harder to redirect.
• Save this guide. If your landlord wants more information, the link to share is umojauk.app.

If you've already been served formal notice:

• Check the notice carefully. It must be in the prescribed statutory form, must give at least four months from the date of service, and must specify Ground 1A as the basis. A defectively served notice is invalid and the four months doesn't start running.
• Check the date the notice expires. The notice's possession date cannot fall within your first twelve months. If it does, the notice is invalid.
• Check that the notice could be served at all — a Ground 1A notice cannot be served if your deposit isn't protected.
• You still have time to suggest a co-operative exit. A landlord who has served Ground 1A notice has committed to either selling or losing twelve months of letting income. They have a strong incentive to make the sale work, and a co-operative exit makes the sale more likely to complete on time.

A note on getting advice

Nothing in this article is legal advice. We've been careful with the law, but every tenancy is different and the facts of your situation may turn on details we haven't covered. If you're unsure, free advice is available from Citizens Advice, Shelter, and your local council's housing options team. For complex situations — tenancies that started before 1989, social housing, supported accommodation, anything involving alleged anti-social behaviour — speak to a solicitor or housing adviser before acting.

For everything else, the principle is simple. Your landlord has every right to sell. You have the right to a calm, dignified exit. Increasingly, you have the right to be paid for co-operating with the sale. None of those things are in conflict.

If your landlord wants to sell, you don't have to be the person who absorbs all the cost of that decision.

Common questions

Can my landlord make me leave so they can sell?

Yes, but only by following the proper process. Since 1 May 2026 they must serve a valid Ground 1A notice — at least four months in writing, on the prescribed form — and they cannot take possession within your first twelve months. An informal request to leave is not a notice and doesn't oblige you to go.

How much notice do I get if my landlord is selling?

At least four months, under Ground 1A. The full timeline is usually longer — commonly eight to twelve months from notice to actually having to leave, because the landlord has to go to court if you don't leave voluntarily.

Do I have to move out as soon as my landlord says they're selling?

No. Your tenancy continues until a valid notice period ends (and, if it comes to it, a court orders possession). You keep paying rent and your deposit stays protected throughout.

Can I be paid to leave?

Increasingly, yes. A co-operative exit lets you agree a move-out date in return for a cash reward for co-operating with the sale — so you leave with a cushion rather than absorbing the cost of the move yourself. It's your choice to suggest it, and the landlord's to accept.

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