Section 21 Is Gone for Good: What Comes Next for Landlords

31 July 2026 is the last date in the Section 21 story. Any Section 21 notice, or old-style Section 8 notice, served before the Renters’ Rights Act commenced on 1 May only survives if a court claim has been issued on it by 31 July, or within six months of service if that came first. After that it is void. If one is sitting in a drawer waiting for a decision, it is now just paper.

From 1 August the old regime is finished. Every possession case in England runs through the new Section 8 grounds. We covered the Act itself in our working guide for West Yorkshire landlords in June; this is the follow-up we promised on what comes after.

Possession from 1 August, in practice

The mandatory arrears ground now needs three months of arrears (thirteen weeks on a weekly tenancy) both when the notice is served and at the hearing, with four weeks’ notice. Selling the property, or moving yourself or close family in, needs four months’ notice. Antisocial behaviour can still move immediately. The full picture, ground by ground, is in our guide to how possession works under the Act.

Two practical points matter more than the grounds themselves.

The first is speed at the start. Three months of arrears must exist before notice can even be served, so a landlord who reacts in month two has lost nothing, and a landlord who reacts in month four has added a month to an already long road. Chasing in week one of a missed payment is the whole game; our approach is in the guide to rent arrears and what to do.

The second is paperwork. A tribunal or judge sees the notice, the dates, the arrears schedule and the tenancy file. A wrong form or a short notice period does not weaken a case, it kills it, and you start the clock again. The evidence file is now the asset.

The database is next

The Act’s next stage is the private rented sector database, a national register of landlords and their properties. It is in beta testing with real landlords now, rolls out regionally from late 2026, and becomes mandatory across England during 2027. The annual fee has not been set; ignore any figure you see quoted, because the government has not published one.

The part worth taking seriously is how it is enforced. Registration is being wired to possession: once the database is mandatory in an area, an unregistered landlord generally cannot be granted possession at all, and the civil penalties run up to £7,000 for a first breach and £40,000 for serious or repeat ones. The same tiers already applied to the information sheet every landlord had to give existing tenants by 31 May. Compliance and possession are no longer separate subjects.

Further out

The landlord ombudsman is expected to become mandatory around 2028. Awaab’s Law will extend to private rentals at a date still to be set. And the confirmed energy standard, EPC C by 1 October 2030 with a £10,000 cost cap, is the one with real money attached, because on solid-stone Yorkshire terraces the works want planning years ahead, not months.

None of this needs panic. It needs a system: arrears chased early, notices done once and done right, records that would stand up in front of a judge, and a diary that knows what commences when.

What to do this month

Check whether you are holding any notice served before 1 May; it is almost certainly void now, and any new action starts under the new rules. Look at your arrears process and be honest about how fast it really moves. Get the tenancy file for each property to the point where you could hand it to a solicitor tomorrow.

Or hand the whole lot to us. This is the work full management exists for, switching from another agent takes about a month and costs nothing, and if you just want a second opinion on a possession problem you are mid-way through, ask. We will tell you straight what we would do.

Rules change. This is based on GOV.UK guidance and the government’s implementation roadmap as of July 2026, not legal advice; take proper advice before serving or relying on any notice.