By Summer 2025, the government hopes to establish a ban on ‘no fault’ evictions. The government published the Renters Rights Bill, setting out its plans for changes to renting in England.
The Bill has been introduced to Parliament and will now make its way through the Commons and the Lords. Further changes will likely be made before the Bill becomes law.
Abolition of Section 21 Notice and Changes to Possession
The main headline news in the Bill is the abolition of Section 21 notice and ‘no fault’ evictions.
The Bill provides that assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) will end and become periodic assured tenancies with a term of no more than one month. There is no transitional period for this—it is currently proposed that there will be a single date on which all existing ASTs will become assured periodic, whether the tenancy is still in its contractual fixed term or not— unless there are existing possession proceedings in the court. The date has not yet been set.
Tenants can end their tenancies at any time by giving two months’ notice—they will not be tied into a fixed term.
From the (to be) specified date, Section 21 notice will cease to apply, and a landlord can only legally regain possession of their property via Section 8 notice.
The existing grounds of possession, such as Ground 8 rent arrears and Ground 14 anti-social behaviour, will remain in force.
Increase to Arrears and Notice Period For Rent Arrears
Mandatory Ground 8 currently requires rent arrears of two months at the date the notice is served and the date of the possession hearing. The necessary period of arrears will increase to three months. The current notice period is two weeks, and this will increase to four weeks.
New Grounds for Possession
Two new grounds will be introduced. These are:
- Landlord wants to sell the property
- Landlord or landlord’s family member wants to live in the property
Both of these grounds require the landlord to give four months’ notice, which cannot be given in the first 12 months of the tenancy. There is also a restriction on the time in which the landlord can re-market or re-let the property – this will start from the date of service of the Section 8 notice and end 12 months from the date of expiry of the notice or 12 months from the date of the particulars of claim if a possession claim is issued.
A possession order will not be made (except on ASB grounds) where the landlord has not complied with the deposit protection requirements. However, there is currently no requirement in the Bill for landlords to provide gas safety certificates, EPC, or How to Rent Guide before serving notice.
What Does All This Mean For Possession Timescales?
Current possession timescales are difficult to predict as they very much depend on how busy the courts are. Generally, we advise landlords to allow 4-6 months from the date of serving notice to the date of possession for Section 21 notice and around 6-10 months from the date of service of notice to bailiff appointment for proceedings based on Section 8 notice.
However, these timescales can be extended if there are court delays or the tenant files a defence to the claim.
The previous government held off on implementing the changes it had proposed under the Renters Reform Bill because it said the court system wouldn’t be able to cope with the increased demand for hearings. There do not appear to be any plans to address this as part of the current reforms.
The court system is already overloaded. Currently, Section 21 accelerated possession claims allow claims to be decided on the papers. Under the new system, each possession claim will need a hearing. This will significantly impact court time and judicial availability, and we would expect to see severe delays in the court processing of possession claims.
This may be addressed before the Bill comes into effect (and we hope it will be), but if it is not, for claims based on the new grounds, you will need to allow four months for the notice period and then potentially around six to eighteen months for the possession proceedings.
Similarly, with rent arrears, you would need to allow an extended period for the possession claim. This may cause difficulties for many landlords, as a tenant stops paying rent, and then the landlord has to wait twelve to eighteen months or more to regain possession.
Next Steps
The government is pushing to get this into law quickly. Whether that will happen and whether there will be any significant changes to the Bill before it is implemented remains to be seen.
If you have a property that you let out and are considering regaining possession, you would be well advised to do so sooner rather than later. Doing so will help avoid either a court backlog as landlords try to get Section 21 accelerated possession claims through before the changes or having to serve a Section 8 notice with the longer timescales and difficulties this will involve.
This blog has focussed only on the impact of the Bill on possession. The Bill also contains further changes to landlord and tenant law, which we may cover in a separate post. We will continue to monitor the progress of the Bill through Parliament and will provide further updates.