Life After Section 21: What to Do Now if You Need to Gain Possession

Section 21 is now well and truly behind us all. The 31 July deadline has passed.

But what deadline was this?

It was the final date on which a landlord could start possession proceedings using a valid Section 21 notice – provided it had been served before 1 May 2026.

Since 1 August, those old Section 21 notices can no longer generally be used to begin possession proceedings. There is no general extension, and of course – as we have written about so many times previously – no new Section 21 notice can now be served.

The Renters’ Rights Act brought the long-anticipated end of those Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions in England. For most private assured tenancies, landlords who now need to recover possession must rely on Section 8 and one or more of its specified grounds.

Those grounds can include rent arrears, breaches of the tenancy agreement, a landlord or family member moving into the property, or the landlord intending to sell. The exact notice period and whether the court must grant possession will depend on the ground being used.

Nothing about Section 8 is new in principle. It has always existed alongside Section 21.

What has changed is that Section 21 is no longer available as what many, if not most, landlords considered the default option. For most new possession claims involving assured private tenancies, the landlord now needs to establish a valid Section 8 ground.

The reality is that many landlords have limited experience of how that works in practice.

And that’s what we intend to rectify today. We’re here to explain how Section 8 actually works.

If you need to recover possession of a rental property in 2026, here is what you need to know.

A different consideration

Section 21 did not require landlords to establish a particular reason for wanting possession. Once the relevant requirements had been met and the correct notice served, the landlord could generally begin the possession process when the notice period had expired.

Of course, most landlords used it legitimately – but it is not difficult to see how that process was particularly open to abuse.

Section 8 is, and always has been, quite different. It requires a landlord to rely on one or more specific grounds, and the court will need to consider whether the relevant ground has been established.

This is perhaps the biggest adjustment landlords need to make: Section 8 isn't simply Section 21 with a different form. The ground you rely upon, the information supporting it and the circumstances of the tenancy all matter.

That means the evidence matters.

There are numerous mandatory and discretionary Section 8 grounds – you can find the full list on the government website here – but rather than work through them all, let’s take rent arrears as an example.

Rent arrears is perhaps the issue that landlords fear most under the post-Renters’ Rights Act system.

For the mandatory rent-arrears ground, known as Ground 8, the tenant must generally owe at least three months’ rent, or 13 weeks’ rent where rent is paid weekly or fortnightly. That threshold must be met both when the notice is served and at the possession hearing.

Other arrears grounds may apply where the threshold for Ground 8 has not been reached, but those grounds are discretionary. In other words, the court will consider the circumstances and decide whether possession should be granted.

A landlord who can produce a dated schedule showing what was owed, what was paid and how the balance changed month by month will be in a much stronger position. It will also help to retain correspondence showing that rent was requested and that the tenant was given an opportunity to address the arrears.

A landlord who has kept little or no proper record may find it more difficult to prove the amount owed or establish the ground relied upon.

The same logic applies to correspondence. If a payment plan was agreed over the phone, or a warning was given verbally on the doorstep, that evidence may be much harder to prove later – if not practically impossible.

A written, dated record is considerably more useful, particularly when it is supported by bank statements, rent schedules or other contemporaneous documents.

Of course, a professional managing agent will have all this documented.

Or at least, they should do.

Precautionary steps that will help you if the time ever comes

Section 8 grounds-based possession claims are not new. But many landlords in the past, when faced with rent arrears, property damage or anti-social behaviour, relied on Section 21 as the quicker, simpler route to regain possession.

That option is no longer available for new claims involving assured private tenancies. Landlords will therefore need to identify the relevant Section 8 ground and follow the correct notice and court process.

Here is what that means:

Pull together everything you’ve got. Bank statements, rent schedules, text messages, emails, signed agreements and inspection reports should be gathered and retained in one organised file for each tenancy.
Log everything from today onward. Every payment, every message, every reminder and every inspection should be dated and saved somewhere secure and permanent – not just on a phone that might be replaced or in a WhatsApp thread that could be deleted.
Keep arrears live, not reconstructed. A running balance, updated as payments are made, will be far more reliable than a record recreated months later. It is especially useful when combined with contemporaneous records of the communications sent about the arrears.

This is not about assuming the worst about tenants. Most tenancies will never come anywhere near a possession hearing.

It is simply about protecting your interests and making sure that, if the need does unfortunately arise, the paper trail is there to support the case.

Under Section 8, the landlord must be able to show that the relevant ground applies; accurate records are central to doing that.

Section 21 placed considerable emphasis on landlords following a prescribed process and completing the necessary administrative requirements, including providing the relevant information, EPC and gas safety documentation.

Section 8 places greater emphasis on identifying the correct ground and producing evidence to support it – and that means documenting it all.

If you work with a letting agent that manages your property, you really should have access to the records you need: rental statements showing arrears, if rent is the issue, or inspection reports documenting significant damage, if the condition of the property is relevant to the claim.

A good managing agent will be worth its weight if a Section 8 possession claim does become necessary.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst: it has always been a useful philosophy. But in 2026, it rings truer than ever.