Section 21 did not end in May. It ended on 31 July.

If you are a landlord in England and you still think of 1 May 2026 as the day no-fault eviction died, you are three months out of date. The ban started on 1 May, but any section 21 notice you had already served stayed usable in court until 31 July 2026. That tail has now closed. From 1 August there is no section 21 route left at all, for anybody, whatever the date on the notice in your drawer.

That matters because a lot of landlords served a notice in April, assumed they had bought themselves some breathing room, and have not looked at it since.

The short version

• Section 21 was banned for new notices on 1 May 2026, when the Renters' Rights Act came into force in England.
• A notice served before 1 May could still be taken to court, but the claim had to be made no later than 31 July 2026.
• After 31 July, the section 21 process cannot be used at all. Every possession claim now runs through a section 8 ground.
• Most existing assured shorthold tenancies automatically became assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026. You did not have to do anything, and neither did your tenant.
• If you want the property back to sell it or move in, you now need a ground, 4 months' notice, and you cannot use it in the first 12 months of the tenancy.

What actually changed on 31 July

The section 21 court process stopped existing. Government guidance puts it plainly: where a notice was served before 1 May 2026, "any court possession proceedings must be made in line with the usual rules and no later than 31 July 2026", and after that date "the landlord will not be able to use the section 21 process and must use the new grounds for possession".

So the practical test is not whether your notice is still within its own validity window. It is whether you got a claim in front of a court before the end of July. If you did not, the notice is now waste paper and you start again on a section 8 ground.

This is the bit that catches people out, because a section 21 notice used to feel like a slow-burning option you could hold and use later. That is exactly the property it no longer has.

Every route now runs through a ground

Possession is now reason-based. You need a ground that fits your actual situation, and you need to be able to evidence it. The grounds cover things like rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, damage to the property, and the landlord needing to sell or move in.

Two consequences are worth being blunt about.

First, "I would like the property back" is not a reason. It never really was a legal reason, but section 21 meant you never had to articulate one. Now you do.

Second, the evidence burden has moved to you at the start rather than at the hearing. A ground you cannot document is a ground you cannot use.

Our complete guide to section 8 notices after the reform walks the grounds one by one, including which are mandatory and which are discretionary.

Selling or moving in: the 12-month rules

If your plan is to sell the property or move into it yourself, three rules now bind you together.

You cannot use those grounds in the first 12 months of the tenancy. Tenants have a protected period at the start, and it applies regardless of what the tenancy agreement says.

You must give 4 months' notice when you do use them. That is a long lead time, and it needs to be in your planning rather than discovered late.

And you cannot market or re-let the property for 12 months after using a moving or selling ground. This is the one that surprises people. If you take the property back to sell it and the sale falls through, you are not free to put it straight back on the rental market.

Taken together, these turn "get the property back" from a two-month administrative task into something closer to a year-long decision. Plan accordingly.

Rent arrears changed too, in both directions

The mandatory arrears threshold went up from 2 months to 3 months, and the notice period went up from 2 weeks to 4 weeks.

Read that carefully, because it cuts against the landlord in the short term. A tenant who is two months down is no longer at the mandatory threshold. You have longer to wait and then a longer notice to serve on top.

The practical answer is that arrears management now starts much earlier than it used to. By the time the ground is available, the debt is larger. Our landlord action guide on rent arrears covers the earlier interventions that actually recover money, which are mostly not legal ones.

One thing you may already have missed

Landlords and letting agents had to give existing tenants a government-produced Information Sheet explaining the changes before 31 May 2026. If that did not happen, it is worth putting right now rather than discovering it as a side argument in a possession hearing later.

Common questions

My section 21 notice has not expired yet. Can I still use it?

No. Expiry of the notice is not the test any more. If a possession claim was not made by 31 July 2026, the section 21 route is closed and you need to serve a section 8 notice on a ground instead.

Did my tenancy change without me doing anything?

Almost certainly yes. Most existing assured shorthold tenancies automatically became assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026. There was no form to file and no action required from either side.

Does any of this apply in Scotland or Wales?

No. The Renters' Rights Act applies to England. Scotland has its own private residential tenancy regime, covered in our guide to the private residential tenancy in Scotland, and Wales operates under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act.

Can I still put the rent up?

Yes, but through the statutory route and not in the first 12 months of a new tenancy. The mechanics and the notice you have to use are in our guide to rent increases under the new law.

Is a fixed term still worth anything?

Not in the way it used to be. The system is periodic now, so a written agreement matters for the terms it sets rather than for locking in an end date. Our guide to what a tenancy agreement must include covers what still needs to be in there.

The bottom line

The section 21 era ended in two steps, and most of the coverage only reported the first one. The ban landed on 1 May 2026 and the transitional tail closed on 31 July. From here every possession claim in England needs a ground, evidence, and in the sell-or-move-in case a four month notice and a twelve month wait before you can even start.

If you have a property you expect to want back in the next year, work backwards from that timeline now rather than when you need it. Start with our complete guide to section 8 notices after the reform.