The Renters’ Rights Bill is set to bring about some of the biggest changes to residential tenancy related law in the last 50 years with it set to gain Royal Assent later this year.
With discussions returning to the House of Lords on 14th October 2025 for consideration of the House of Commons’ latest amendments, the fresh legislation plans to revolutionise tenants’ rights to remain in possession by abolishing fixed term assured shorthold tenancies, section 21 notices, and introducing measures to limit rent increase and hefty penalties for those who don’t comply with the new law.
As part of a short series, Knights Senior Associate, Anna Gora, takes an in-depth look at some of the key changes within the impending Bill.
“It’s more important than ever for landlords to be proactive in light of the removal of section 21 notices.”
“Firstly, given the wide-ranging and varied nature of the changes set to be implemented as part of the Renters’ Rights Act, to try and address all of them in a single post would be truly mind-blowing.
“Each topic covered in this series will be important for landlords and tenants alike to be aware of – with some leading to huge changes to the current ways of working.
“In this post, I will consider the abolition of a non-fault eviction under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 and whether residential landlords are still allowed to issue possession proceedings after the Act has come into force.
“To put it simply, a landlord will find it much harder to regain possession of a property once a fixed term tenancy has expired as the section 21 notice will cease to exist once the Act is in place. Instead, landlords will need to establish one of the specified grounds in section 8 to regain possession.
“September 2025 saw focus return to the Bill within the House of Commons to allow for the consideration of those amendments recommended by the House of Lords. The Bill will return to the House of Lords this month for further consideration. These processes take time, and it is still unclear what side of the New Year these changes will come into force.
“Any delay is welcome for many residential landlords as it gives them the additional time needed to get their ducks in a row. Being proactive is key to managing these changes with minimal impact and residential landlords should be taking steps now if they wish to take advantage of the eviction powers they still have.”
Can I still issue a claim for possession based on a section 21 notice after the Act has come into force?
“Provided that you’ve issued a valid section 21 notice before the Bill came into force and taken the necessary steps within the statutory deadline then the short answer is, yes. However, once the Act comes into force, landlords will no longer be able to bring possession proceedings based on the “no-fault” notice procedure - unless they can rely on the statutory transitional provisions. This is regardless of when the tenancy was granted.”
To take advantage of the transitional provisions (as currently amended), residential landlords must:
- Serve a valid section 21 notice before the Bill comes into force; and
- Request the court to issue the claim for the proceedings (which is less onerous than “to commence/issue proceedings”) before the earliest of the following dates:
- where two months’ notice is required, six months from the date of service of the section 21 notice
- where more than two months’ notice is required, four months from the expiry date of the section 21 notice
- three months from the commencement date of the new law.
“Once the earliest of these dates has passed it will no longer be possible to rely on the section 21 notice if possession proceedings have not already been requested.
“The first two dates are not new as they reflect the current deadlines for issuing proceedings. However, the deadline at (c) can catch out the unwary, especially if the Bill comes into effect very shortly after the date of service of a section 21 notice.”
What does this mean for residential landlords?
“It is more important than ever for residential landlords, who wish to recover possession based on a section 21 notice, to ensure they can serve a valid section 21 notice before the Bill comes into force - as they will not have a second bite at the cherry.
“Landlords also need to remember that there could be delays in serving a valid notice if additional steps need to be taken before a valid section 21 notice can be served, for example an annual gas certificate has not been provided to the tenant. Once the notice is served, landlords need to keep an eye on the commencement date of the Bill and remember that the deadline for requesting the court to issue proceedings might be shorter than the usual six-month window.
“Proactivity is the key.”
Anna Gora is a Senior Associate in the Knights Dispute Resolution team based in Leicester.