The Renters’ Rights Act 2025: what do you need to know?

How will the Act affect the enforcement of landlords’ obligations and tenants’ rights when it takes effect in May 2026?

Current Position

Section 21: No-Fault Possession

At present, landlords of assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) may recover possession without alleging tenant fault by serving a Section 21 notice (under the Housing Act 1996). They do not have to prove they require possession to sell, occupy or maintain.

But over time, Parliament has grafted onto the s 21 route a series of compliance conditions. These “technical bars” mean that a Section 21 notice is invalid unless the landlord has first complied with obligations such as:

• Protecting the tenant’s deposit in an authorised scheme and serving prescribed information (Housing Act 2004).
• Refunding prohibited fees or excess deposits (Tenant Fees Act 2019).
• Licensing the property where required under HMO or selective licensing regimes (Housing Act 2004, ss.75 and 98).
• Providing a valid gas safety certificate and EPC (Gas Safety Regulations 1998, EPC Regulations 2012, Deregulation Act 2015).
• Serving the government’s “How to Rent” guide, Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015, reg 3.
• Complying with retaliatory eviction restrictions, which bar Section 21 where the local authority has served an improvement notice, Housing Act 1988 s.33–34; Deregulation Act 2015.
• Observing timing rules, such as not serving within the first 4 months of the tenancy and using notices within 6 months of service.

In effect, Section 21 possession has become a compliance minefield. Many landlords have found themselves unable to recover possession for minor paperwork failings. This has been a feature of defended possession actions along with counterclaims for damages and set-off for disrepair,

Section 8: Fault-Based Possession

By contrast, Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 allows possession on specified grounds (rent arrears, breach of covenant, landlord’s own occupation, redevelopment). The rules here are much narrower. There is no equivalent “technical invalidity” regime: the notice is valid provided the correct form and notice period are used. The real battle lies in court, where the landlord must prove the relevant ground. Some grounds are mandatory (e.g. Ground 8, 2 months’ rent arrears), others discretionary.

The only indirect compliance issue arises from Section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987: if the landlord has not given a valid address for service in England or Wales, no rent is lawfully due. This prevents reliance on rent arrears grounds until the defect is remedied.

The Renters’ Rights Act

Abolition of Section 21

The headline reform is the abolition of Section 21. All new private sector tenancies will become open-ended assured tenancies. Landlords will need to rely on Section 8 grounds, to be expanded to include new situations such as:

• Intention to sell the property.
• Landlord or close family member moving in.
• Major renovation works requiring vacant possession.
• Repeated rent arrears.

This reflects a policy shift: possession should follow only where there is a clear justification, not as a matter of landlord convenience.

Removal of Most “Technical Bars”

The Act strips away the familiar “invalidity” rules. Failure to provide a gas safety certificate, EPC, “How to Rent” guide, or to hold an HMO licence will no longer invalidate a possession notice. Nor will retaliatory eviction rules apply.

Instead, Parliament intends such obligations to be enforced through alternative routes:

• Local authority penalties, improvement notices, and banning orders.
• Rent Repayment Orders (RROs) allowing tenants to reclaim rent where the landlord has breached key obligations.
• The Decent Homes Standard and the extension of Awaab’s Law to private renting, imposing time limits for remedying health hazards such as damp and mould.

Preserved Invalidity Rules

Only 2 obligations continue to act as structural preconditions to possession:

1. Deposit Protection – landlords cannot seek possession unless the deposit is protected in an authorised scheme or repaid.
2. Tenant Fees Act Compliance – landlords cannot seek possession if prohibited fees or excess deposits have not been refunded.

This reflects the government’s view that financial fairness sits at the heart of the tenancy agreement, and that these protections should remain a gateway requirement for possession.

Comparative Summary

The reforms can be distilled as follows:

Issue	Current Effect on s.21	Current Effect on s.8	Position under Act
Deposit protection	Bars notice	No	Still bars possession
Prohibited fees	Bars notice	No	Still bars possession
HMO licensing	Bars notice	No	No longer a bar
Gas Safety Certificate	Bars notice	No	No longer a bar
EPC	Bars notice	No	No longer a bar
“How to Rent”	Bars notice	No	No longer a bar
Retaliatory eviction	Bars notice for 6 months	No	No longer a bar
Timing rules	Apply	N/A	Abolished (all periodic)
Section 48 (landlord address)	Rent not due until complied	Prevents arrears grounds	Unchanged
Equality Act 2010	Indirect	Indirect	Still indirect; new ban on discrimination against tenants with children or on benefits

Wider Implications

For Landlords

The removal of Section 21 reduces flexibility. Landlords wishing to sell with vacant possession, move in themselves, or redevelop will still have routes under the new Section 8 grounds — but they must now evidence genuine intention and wait out minimum periods (often 12 months).

The compliance burden shifts away from possession procedure and into substantive regulation enforced by local authorities.

Private landlords of assured tenancies will, under the Renters’ Rights Act, have a new route to obtain possession of property to sell with vacant possession, even where tenants are not in default and the property is not in need of renovation.

For Tenants

Tenants gain security of tenure: they can no longer be evicted without cause.

However, they lose the protective “technical bars” that previously shielded them from eviction when landlords failed to comply with safety or information duties.

Their remedies will lie in enforcement by councils and tribunals, not in defending possession claims.

The success of the Act therefore depends on local authority resourcing and tenants’ willingness to pursue RROs or complaints.

For Developers and Lenders

Developers will still be able to recover possession for sales or redevelopment, but the process will be slower and more evidentially demanding than under Section 21.

Lenders and receivers may welcome the clarification that possession can still be sought where it is unlawful for the tenancy to continue, such as when an HMO licence has been refused or revoked.

How will landlords and tenants be affected by the Renters Reform Act when it is implemented?

The Renters’ Rights Act redraws the legal map of possession in the private rental sector. It sweeps away Section 21 and with it a host of technical traps that have long frustrated landlords.

In their place comes a more streamlined system: open-ended tenancies, expanded fault-based grounds, and targeted preservation of deposit and fee compliance as the only true “bars” to possession.

The trade-off is clear. Tenants gain greater substantive security but must rely on regulators rather than the courts to enforce safety, standards, and information rights.

Landlords face tighter scrutiny from local authorities but a simpler possession regime. Whether this recalibration delivers the promised “fairer, more secure, and higher quality” rental market will depend not on the drafting of the Act, but on the resources devoted to its enforcement.