For thirty-eight years, Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 was the workhorse of private-sector eviction. A landlord could end an assured shorthold tenancy by serving two months' notice and, if the tenant did not leave, obtaining a possession order through the accelerated procedure. No reason needed.

That route closed on 1 May 2026.

What replaced it

Possession is now only available through specific legally defined grounds, set out in the reformed Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988. There are mandatory grounds (the court must grant possession if you prove the ground) and discretionary grounds (the court may grant possession if it is reasonable).

The grounds that matter most to ordinary private landlords:

Ground 1 — Landlord moving back in

You or a close family member (spouse, civil partner, child, parent, sibling) intends to occupy the property as their only or main home. Four months' notice. You cannot have used Ground 1 to evict someone in the previous twelve months.

Ground 1A — Sale of the property

You intend to sell the property. Four months' notice. Critically: you cannot re-let the property within twelve months of recovering possession on this ground. If you serve notice to sell and then change your mind, you are out of the rental market on that property for a year.

Grounds 8, 10, 11 — Rent arrears

The mandatory rent arrears ground (Ground 8) still exists but the threshold has been raised. The tenant must now be in at least three months of rent arrears at both the date of notice and the date of the court hearing. Two months' notice required.

Ground 14 — Anti-social behaviour

This ground has been strengthened. The court must give 'particular regard' to the impact of the behaviour on others. Notice can be served immediately in serious cases, with court proceedings starting straight away.

Ground 4A — Student tenancies

A new possession ground for student lets in HMOs — you can recover the property for the next academic year by serving notice between June and September, with possession effective at the end of the tenancy academic year. There are strict notice requirements.

What the process actually looks like

Here is the practical sequence — a self-managing landlord trying to recover possession in 2026 will run through some version of this:

  1. Identify the correct ground. Picking the wrong ground means the case is thrown out. There is no general 'I want my property back' option any more.
  2. Serve the correct notice. Each ground has its own form, notice period, and content requirements. A defect in the notice means the case is thrown out.
  3. Wait the notice period. Most grounds require two to four months. The tenant can remain in the property and pay (or not pay) rent during this period.
  4. File at the County Court. If the tenant has not left, you issue possession proceedings. The accelerated procedure that used to apply under Section 21 is no longer available for most grounds.
  5. Court hearing. Listing times in London vary materially. We are seeing hearings 8 to 16 weeks after issue, depending on the local court's backlog.
  6. Possession order. If you win, the court grants a possession order — typically with 14 days for the tenant to leave.
  7. Bailiff/enforcement. If the tenant still does not leave, you apply for a warrant of possession. Bailiff lead times in London are currently 4 to 10 weeks.

End to end, on a contested case, a landlord is realistically looking at six to ten months from serving notice to physical recovery of the property. During that period, the tenant may stop paying rent, and the landlord is on the hook for council tax, utilities (if liable), and any deterioration.

What this costs

For a contested possession in London, a landlord who instructs a specialist housing solicitor should budget realistically as follows (these are rough working ranges — every case differs):

Add the rent foregone during the process — typically four to nine months at the property's market rate — and the all-in cost of a single contested possession in a £2,000-per-month London house can easily exceed £15,000 to £25,000 in cash and opportunity cost.

Where landlords are getting caught

Three patterns we are seeing already, just three weeks into the new regime:

Wrong notice for the ground

Landlords are using out-of-date Section 21 templates and old possession notice forms. The forms changed on 1 May. Anything issued on a pre-1-May template is defective.

Selling on Ground 1A and then changing their mind

Landlords serve notice under Ground 1A intending to sell, recover possession, then market the property to let when their sale falls through. This breaches the 12-month re-letting restriction and triggers a civil penalty of up to £40,000.

Trying to negotiate around the rules

'Mutual surrender' agreements where the tenant agrees to leave in exchange for a cash payment — these are still legal, but a poorly drafted surrender can expose the landlord to harassment or illegal eviction claims under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Get this in writing, get advice.

The strategic question

The shift is not that eviction is now impossible. It is not. The shift is that the cost and time risk of any difficult tenancy has materially increased. A bad tenant — non-paying, anti-social, or simply uncooperative — now ties up your asset for the best part of a year, with the legal bills you have to fund yourself.

For landlords with a single property, that risk can wipe out a year's profit. For landlords with three or four properties, the risk of one tenancy going wrong is structural rather than incidental.

This is exactly the risk Morgan Prescott takes off the landlord's hands. Under our guaranteed-rent arrangement, we are the tenant on paper. The eviction risk, the court risk, the rent-arrears risk all sit with us — and you receive a fixed monthly rent for one to two years regardless of what happens inside the property.

If you have a difficult tenancy on your hands, or you simply want to know whether the new regime is worth managing yourself, get in touch for a free 48-hour valuation.