Selling a tenanted property: Ground 1A and the 12-month restrictions

Scope: England. Wales retains section 173, which is a materially easier route to vacant possession — see the divergence map. Verified against the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (c.26) and gov.uk possession guidance on 10 August 2026.

Selling used to be simple: serve section 21, get vacant possession, market an empty house. Section 21 is gone. There are now two routes, and choosing between them is a commercial decision to make before you instruct an agent.

Route one — sell with the tenant in place

The tenancy continues and the buyer becomes the landlord. Nothing needs to be served, nothing needs to be proved, and no notice period applies.

What transfers:

• the tenancy on its existing terms, including the current rent;
• the obligation to protect the deposit — it must be transferred to the buyer within the scheme and fresh prescribed information served by the new landlord. This is the step most often missed on completion, and it exposes the buyer to the one-to-three-times penalty;
• any outstanding compliance position — an unlicensed HMO does not become licensed by being sold;
• the tenant’s history: arrears, disputes, notices already served.

The buyer is an investor, not an owner-occupier, so the market is narrower and the price usually reflects it. Against that: rent continues throughout, and there is no four-month void.

Route two — Ground 1A, vacant possession

Ground 1A is mandatory: the landlord intends to sell the freehold or leasehold interest, or grant a lease of more than 21 years.

Four months' notice

Not in the first 12 months

The notice may be served earlier, but it cannot expire before the first 12 months of the tenancy have run. Early in a tenancy that means giving considerably more than four months.

And you cannot re-let for 12 months afterwards

Having used Ground 1A (or Ground 1), you must not market or re-let the dwelling within the restricted period of 12 months, and must not authorise anyone else to, unless an exception applies or you took all reasonable steps not to.

That restriction is the heart of the ground. It exists precisely to stop "selling" being used as a route to a vacant property and a new tenant at a higher rent, and it is an enforcement priority rather than a technicality.

The commercial arithmetic

Ground 1A costs you at least four months of notice, plus void, plus a marketing period — and if the sale falls through, you are still barred from re-letting for the balance of the twelve months. A collapsed chain does not restore your right to let.

Selling with a tenant costs you a narrower buyer pool and probably some price. It costs no void and carries no re-letting bar.

For many landlords the honest answer is that selling tenanted is now the default, and vacant possession is worth pursuing only where the price differential is large and the sale is genuinely likely to complete.

Marketing honestly

• Do not market as vacant while a tenant is in place and the notice has not expired.
• Viewings need the tenant’s agreement. A right of entry for viewings does not override their right to quiet enjoyment; 24 hours’ notice is the floor, not a licence to attend.
• Disclose the tenancy to buyers: terms, rent, deposit scheme, compliance documents, any notices served.
• Do not serve Ground 1A without the intention. The ground requires a genuine intention to sell, and the re-letting restriction is what tests it afterwards.

What to have ready either way

1. Tenancy agreement and any variations.
2. Deposit protection certificate and prescribed information, with dates.
3. Gas, EICR and EPC, in date.
4. Licence, where the property is licensable.
5. Rent account and any notices served.

A buyer’s solicitor will ask for all of it, and a gap here delays completion more often than anything structural.

Information tool, not legal advice. Take advice before serving notice or agreeing a sale.