Section 21 is gone: what Section 8 possession actually requires now

Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 let a landlord recover possession without giving a reason. It ended for new tenancies on 1 May 2026, and the deadline for starting court proceedings on a notice served before that date was 31 July 2026. That date has passed. Every remaining section 21 notice has lapsed and cannot be relied on.

Possession now runs entirely through Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 — and section 8 has never been a formality.

What changed, precisely

Section 21 required a valid notice, a protected deposit, prescribed information, a gas certificate, an EPC and the How to Rent guide. Get those right and the court had no discretion: possession followed.

Section 8 requires a ground. You must name it, prove it, and give the notice period that ground carries. Some grounds are mandatory — prove them and the court must order possession. Others are discretionary, and the judge decides whether it is reasonable.

That is the real change. Not "you can no longer evict", but "you can no longer evict without a reason you can evidence in front of a judge".

The grounds landlords actually use

Ground 8 — serious rent arrears (mandatory)

At least three months' arrears — thirteen weeks where rent is weekly or fortnightly — at both the date of the notice and the date of the hearing. Four weeks' notice.

The double test is where claims fail. A tenant who pays enough to drop below the threshold on the morning of the hearing defeats the mandatory ground, even if they were months behind when you served. Grounds 10 and 11 (some arrears, persistent late payment) remain available but are discretionary.

Grounds 1 and 1A — moving in, or selling (mandatory)

Four months' notice. Neither can be used in the first twelve months of a tenancy, and both carry a twelve-month restriction on re-letting afterwards. Recovering possession to sell and then quietly re-letting is precisely what that restriction exists to prevent.

Ground 14 — anti-social behaviour (discretionary)

Proceedings can begin immediately, but discretionary means the judge weighs it. Contemporaneous evidence — dated logs, correspondence, police or council references — is the difference between an order and a wasted hearing.

Three practical consequences

• Record-keeping stopped being optional. Under section 21 your paperwork had to be right at the start. Under section 8 it has to be right throughout, because the ground is proved with evidence from the tenancy itself.
• Notice periods vary by ground. Four weeks for ground 8, four months for grounds 1 and 1A. If you are unsure of the period for a specific ground, check it rather than assume — serving short restarts the process.
• Licensing still bites. Being unlicensed no longer bars a claim the way sections 75 and 98 barred section 21, but bringing possession proceedings on an unlicensed property invites the licensing question into the courtroom, and a rent repayment order counterclaim with it. See rent repayment orders.

What did not change

Deposit protection, prescribed information, gas and electrical safety, the licensing regime — all untouched by the Act. The obligations that made a section 21 notice valid are still obligations; they simply no longer gate a route that no longer exists. We cover the rest in what the Act did not change.