What changed under the Renters' Rights Act 2025

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026 and represents the biggest change to private renting law in England in decades. Here's a plain-English summary of what actually changed for landlords.

Section 21 "no-fault" evictions are gone

The single biggest change: Section 21 has been abolished entirely. Landlords can no longer end a tenancy simply by giving notice without a reason. Every possession claim now has to be based on a specific ground under Section 8 — there's no more "no-fault" route.

Section 8 is now the only route to possession

With Section 21 gone, Section 8 has become the sole mechanism for regaining possession of a let property. To reflect this, the grounds available under Section 8 were substantially expanded and, in places, rewritten — there are now considerably more grounds than the 17 that existed previously, covering a wider range of specific situations landlords might face.

All tenancies are now periodic

Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies, in the form landlords have used for years, are no longer available for new tenancies — tenancies are now periodic from the outset, rather than running for a fixed term before rolling over.

The mandatory/discretionary structure remains, just bigger

The basic architecture landlords will already be familiar with — some grounds mandatory, some discretionary — hasn't changed in principle. What's changed is the detail: new grounds have been added, some existing grounds have been adjusted, and notice periods vary considerably more by ground than they used to.

What this means practically

• If you're used to using Section 21 as your default route, that option is gone — every case now needs a specific, provable ground.
• It's worth getting familiar with which grounds actually fit your typical situations, since the "just serve notice, no reason needed" approach is no longer available.
• Because the framework is still relatively new, it's worth treating any possession case as one to check carefully against current guidance, rather than relying on how things worked before 1 May 2026.

For the official, up-to-date position, gov.uk's guidance for landlords and letting agents is the primary source worth checking directly.