A notice landlords have relied on for almost forty years
Since the Housing Act 1988 created the assured shorthold tenancy, English landlords have had a reliable shortcut whenever a tenancy stopped working for them: the Section 21 notice. Give two months' written warning, no reason required, and the courts would eventually grant possession. It has been the default exit route for landlords selling up, moving back in, or simply wanting a change of tenant — and it is also the reason so many tenants have hesitated before asking their landlord to fix a leaking roof or a broken boiler, for fear of a "revenge eviction" the following month. Letting agents in cities such as Manchester and Bristol have quietly told clients for years to keep quiet about damp rather than risk it. The Renters' Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent last autumn, switches that notice off for good. By the time you read this, the transition is well under way across every assured shorthold tenancy in England, old and new alike. Landlord groups such as the National Residential Landlords Association and tenant groups such as Shelter have spent months briefing their members on the detail, because the commencement date leaves little room to sort out problems case by case once it lands.
This is not a minor tweak to a form letter. It rewrites the basic power balance in the private rented sector, and it does so in one go rather than through a gentle phase-in for new lets only. Existing tenancies convert automatically on the commencement date set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government — landlords do not get to choose whether to opt in, and there is no grandfathering clause protecting tenancies signed before the Act. If you are a landlord with a portfolio of let properties across England, or a tenant currently on a rolling AST, the practical detail matters more than the headline.
What replaces the assured shorthold tenancy
Every assured shorthold tenancy in England converts to a single type of periodic tenancy with no fixed term. Gone is the twelve-month contract that automatically became a rolling periodic tenancy once it expired; there simply isn't a fixed term to negotiate any more. Tenants can leave with two months' notice whenever they choose, which is actually more flexibility than most ASTs granted during the fixed period. Landlords lose the certainty of a guaranteed twelve-month income stream, which is precisely why mortgage lenders who specialise in buy-to-let products have been quietly rewriting their underwriting criteria over the past year.
There is no longer a fixed term to negotiate.
That single change ripples through everything else. Break clauses, a staple of longer ASTs used by landlords who wanted an exit option mid-term, no longer have anywhere to attach themselves. Deposit protection rules under the Housing Act 2004 still apply in full — a custodial or insured scheme within thirty days, the prescribed information served on time — but the tenancy itself now behaves like the periodic tenancies that already existed at the tail end of most ASTs, just without ever having a fixed term first.
Section 8 becomes the only route to possession
With Section 21 gone, landlords who want their property back have exactly one legal mechanism left: a Section 8 notice citing one or more of the statutory grounds under Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988, as expanded and renumbered by the new Act. The two grounds landlords will use most often are Ground 1 (the landlord or a close family member wants to move in) and the newly created Ground 1A (the landlord intends to sell). Both require four months' notice rather than two, and — this is the detail that catches people out — neither ground can be used within the first twelve months of a tenancy starting. A landlord who buys a property with sitting tenants and decides within the first year that they'd rather sell with vacant possession will find that door closed. Every ground now has to be proven, and a judge, not a form letter, decides whether the stated reason holds up. It stands to reason that more tenants will contest a Section 8 notice in front of a judge than ever bothered arguing against an unchallengeable Section 21 — there's actually a defence worth mounting this time. That alone changes how quickly a landlord can realistically expect to regain a property, even with a watertight case.
Arrears grounds have actually been tightened in landlords' favour, which is worth sitting with for a moment, because it cuts against the popular framing of this Act as uniformly pro-tenant. Ground 8 (mandatory eviction for serious rent arrears) now requires three months of arrears rather than two, and the notice period stays at four weeks — a small win buried inside a much larger set of restrictions, and one that landlord associations have been reluctant to publicise because it complicates a simpler narrative.
- Ground 1 — landlord or close family moving in, four months' notice, twelve-month protected period
- Ground 1A — landlord intends to sell, four months' notice, twelve-month protected period, cannot re-let for twelve months afterwards
- Ground 8 — serious rent arrears (three months or more), four weeks' notice, mandatory if proven
- Anti-social behaviour and serious breach grounds remain broadly as before, and a court can still grant possession on discretionary grounds where it considers it reasonable to do so
Rent increases get a ceiling — of sorts
Landlords can now only raise rent once every twelve months, and only through a formal Section 13 notice giving at least two months' warning. Rent review clauses buried in old tenancy agreements no longer do the job on their own; the statutory notice route is now the only valid mechanism. If a tenant thinks the proposed rent is above the going market rate for a comparable property in the area, they can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) before the increase takes effect, and the tribunal's decision applies from the date of the hearing rather than being backdated to the original notice date.
Landlords who have been in the habit of nudging rents up every few months to keep pace with a fast-moving local market will need a different approach. Building a realistic annual increase into your budgeting now is the sensible move — trying to catch up with a single steep rise once a year, hoping the tribunal doesn't intervene, is a false economy that tends to end with void periods and a legal bill.
The database, the ombudsman, and the paperwork you can't skip
Every landlord letting residential property in England will need to register on the new Private Rented Sector Database and join a government-approved Ombudsman scheme, extending redress that letting agents have needed since 2014 to landlords directly for the first time. Skipping registration isn't a paperwork oversight you can fix later — it blocks a landlord from serving a valid Section 8 notice at all, which means an unregistered landlord effectively cannot recover their own property through the courts until the record is put right.
Fines for non-compliance are set locally by trading standards teams rather than fixed nationally, and local authorities have been given stronger enforcement powers to match, including civil penalties that can run well into five figures for serious or repeated breaches. If you manage your own lettings rather than using an agent, this is the one item on the list that has an actual deadline attached to it and no informal grace period.
Pets, bidding wars, and the end of blanket "no DSS" refusals
Tenants gain a statutory right to request a pet, and landlords cannot refuse unreasonably — though a landlord can require the tenant to take out pet damage insurance as a condition of saying yes. Separately, the Act bans landlords and agents from asking for or accepting offers above the advertised rent, closing off the informal bidding wars that became common in high-demand areas such as Bristol, Manchester and parts of London during periods of tight supply. And discrimination against tenants receiving housing benefit or Universal Credit, or against tenants with children, is now explicitly unlawful — not just discouraged good practice, but grounds for a claim.
For landlords managing existing tenancies right now
Get your compliance paperwork in order before you need it, not after a dispute forces you to discover a gas safety certificate lapsed eight months ago. Register on the Private Rented Sector Database as soon as it opens for your area rather than waiting for a reminder — a Section 8 notice served while your registration is pending is a notice a tenant's solicitor will challenge, and that argument alone can add months to a straightforward case. If you are planning to sell a tenanted property within the next year, Ground 1A is now your only clean route to vacant possession, so check the twelve-month rule against your actual completion timeline before you commit to a sale date with a buyer.
For tenants under the new rules
You no longer need to weather a cold flat through winter rather than risk annoying a landlord who might serve notice out of irritation — that particular calculation has changed. If your landlord raises the rent, check the figure against comparable lets on Rightmove or Zoopla before you accept it; a tribunal challenge costs nothing to lodge and the worst outcome is the tribunal agreeing with the original figure. Keep every email and repair request in writing, because a dispute over a Ground 1 or Ground 1A notice will often turn on whether the landlord's stated reason for wanting the property back holds up against the actual paper trail.
What this settles, and what it doesn't
The Renters' Rights Act closes the loophole that let a small minority of landlords use Section 21 as a workaround for tenants who complained too much. It does not, on its own, fix the supply problem behind England's rental market — the number of available lets in cities such as Leeds and Bristol has been tight for years, and removing Section 21 doesn't build a single new home. Landlords who were already running a decent, well-maintained let with fair rent reviews will notice remarkably little change to how they operate day to day. The ones who relied on the threat of a no-fault notice to avoid repairs, or to push out a tenant rather than negotiate, have lost that option permanently — and for the sector as a whole, that's the point of the Act, not a side effect of it.