Three Months Without Section 21: What's Actually Happening in the Courts

Section 21 has been gone for three months. The 31 July deadline for landlords who had already served a pre-abolition notice has now passed too, so from 1 August every new possession case in England runs on Section 8, and only Section 8. Real, if still early, data is starting to show how that is actually playing out. It is not the full official picture yet, but there is enough here to be genuinely useful.

A Quick Recap, for Anyone Catching Up

Section 21 "no fault" evictions were abolished on 1 May 2026 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Every assured shorthold tenancy became a periodic tenancy overnight, and landlords lost the ability to serve a new Section 21 notice from that date.

Landlords who had already served a valid Section 21 notice before 1 May kept a narrow transitional window. They had until 31 July 2026 to get a court claim issued using that notice. That date has now passed. Any Section 21 notice not converted into an issued claim by then has lapsed and cannot be revived. If you are still working through the practical filing steps for an older notice, our earlier guide covers Form N5B, the documents you need, and the six-month rule that sometimes bites earlier than the headline deadline.

From here on, every new possession case starts under Section 8, using one of the grounds set out in the Housing Act 1988 as amended by the Renters' Rights Act. Our Section 8 grounds guide covers the mechanics ground by ground. This article is about what is actually happening now that landlords have had three months to use the new system.

What Landlords Are Actually Using Section 8 For

The honest answer is: we do not have a full official breakdown yet. What we do have is early caseload data from Landlord Action, the eviction specialist run by Paul Shamplina, covering cases it has handled since 1 May.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has Section 21 actually gone for good?

Yes. Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Landlords who had already served a valid Section 21 notice before that date had until 31 July 2026 to start court proceedings using it. That deadline has now passed. Any possession case started from 1 August 2026 onwards must use Section 8, on a specific legal ground.

What ground are most landlords using to get their property back?

Early caseload data from letting and eviction specialist Landlord Action shows rent-related grounds, primarily Ground 8 for arrears, as the single most commonly used category overall. Ground 1A, which covers a landlord's intention to sell, featured in around 30% of the cases it handled. Ground 1, for a landlord or family member moving in, featured in around 8%. This is one firm's caseload, not an official national breakdown.

How long does a Section 8 possession claim take in 2026?

Based on Ministry of Justice court timeliness data reported by the National Residential Landlords Association, the median time from claim to warrant of possession is now 15.3 weeks, up from 14 weeks over the same period in 2024. The median time from claim to actual repossession is 27.4 weeks, up from 24.4 weeks. Individual cases vary significantly by court and by whether the claim is contested.

Have official government statistics confirmed the picture since Section 21 ended?

Not fully. The most recent official quarterly figure from the Ministry of Justice covers January to March 2026, before Section 21 was abolished, and recorded 22,733 possession claims issued, a 5.9% rise on the previous quarter. The next quarterly release, covering April to June 2026, had not been published as of mid-August. Until it lands, the clearest post-abolition picture comes from industry sources such as Landlord Action and the NRLA rather than a full official release.