Section 21 Is Gone. Here's What Every Portfolio Landlord Needs to Do Now

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The Renters' Rights Act has abolished no-fault evictions, converted all tenancies to periodic agreements, and tightened the rules on rent reviews. If you're self-managing five or more properties, here's a practical breakdown of what's actually changed — and where to focus first.

After years of consultation, parliamentary ping-pong, and industry lobbying, the Renters' Rights Act received Royal Assent and its core provisions are now in force. For portfolio landlords, the changes are more operationally significant than any single piece of legislation in a generation.

The headline is simple: Section 21 "no-fault" evictions no longer exist. But the practical implications run deeper than most landlords have yet prepared for.

What's actually changed

No more fixed-term tenancies

All new tenancies must now be periodic from the outset — typically rolling month-to-month. Existing fixed-term tenancies convert to periodic agreements when they reach their original end date. This means the concept of a "lease expiry" as a natural exit point no longer exists.

For portfolio landlords, this is a meaningful operational shift. The end of a fixed term was historically a low-friction moment to regain possession, renegotiate terms, or part ways with a difficult tenant without needing to prove fault. That option is gone.

Section 21 is repealed

Previously, a Section 21 notice allowed landlords to recover possession without proving fault — a relatively straightforward process provided the paperwork was in order. Section 21 has now been repealed entirely.

To recover possession, landlords must rely on Section 8 grounds. Some grounds have been strengthened, and new grounds have been introduced — but all require court proceedings if contested by the tenant.

Rent increases require a formal process

Under the Act, landlords can only increase rent once per year and must use the Section 13 notice procedure. Tenants have the right to challenge any increase they consider above market rate at the First-tier Tribunal, which will assess it against comparable local rents.

Informal rent reviews agreed verbally or by email are now legally unreliable. The notice requirements must be followed precisely, or the increase does not take effect.

What this means for portfolio landlords specifically

Documentation has never been more important

Under the old regime, a landlord could recover possession via Section 21 even if their records were imperfect — the process was relatively forgiving. That safety net is gone.

Under Section 8, every ground must be evidenced. Rent arrears need a clean payment record showing exactly when rent was due, when it was received, and the running balance. Tenancy breaches need documented evidence. Prior communication needs to be logged and retrievable.

For a landlord managing ten or more properties, keeping this documentation manually — across spreadsheets, email threads, and bank statements — is a real operational risk. One poorly documented tenancy could mean the difference between a straightforward possession claim and a contested hearing with no supporting evidence.

Rent review discipline

The once-per-year limit and the Tribunal challenge right mean landlords need to be systematic:

• Know the last rent review date for each tenancy
• Issue Section 13 notices correctly, with the required advance notice period
• Have a defensible basis for any increase, grounded in comparable local market rents

A landlord who has been informally adjusting rent every two or three years — or not at all — needs to establish a proper process. Falling behind market rate compounds over time and is increasingly difficult to reverse without Tribunal risk.

The new Section 8 grounds — what's actually usable

The loss of Section 21 has been partly offset by strengthened and new Section 8 grounds. The most practically relevant for portfolio landlords:

• Ground 1A (selling the property): Landlords can recover possession to sell, subject to four months' notice and restrictions on re-letting within three months of sale completing.
• Ground 1 (moving in): Landlords or close family members moving in as their only or principal home. Four months' notice required.
• Mandatory Ground 8 (arrears): Strengthened — three months of arrears at the point of the court hearing now triggers mandatory possession, up from two months under the old rules.
• Ground 6A (repeated arrears): A new ground covering tenants who have fallen into arrears on at least three occasions in a three-year period, regardless of whether those arrears were subsequently cleared.

These grounds are genuinely usable. But they require correct evidence, strict notice periods, and often court proceedings if the tenant disputes the claim. The process is slower and less predictable than Section 21 was at its best.

Where to focus your attention right now

1. Audit your payment records

For each property in your portfolio: what does your rent payment history look like? When was rent last due, and when was it received? If the honest answer is "somewhere in my bank statements," that needs to change before you need that information in a court setting.

2. Establish rent review dates and a process

If you haven't reviewed rent in over a year, or if you've been doing so informally, you need to formalise this now. Section 13 notices have specific requirements and notice periods. Getting it wrong doesn't just invalidate the increase — it can weaken your Section 8 position if you later need to pursue possession.

3. Know your grounds for each tenancy

For each property in your portfolio, understand which Section 8 grounds would apply if you needed to recover possession, and what evidence you would need to produce. This isn't about expecting problems — it's about understanding your position clearly before a situation develops.

4. Check your compliance documents

The existing compliance requirements for valid Section 8 proceedings remain in place: gas safety certificate served, EPC provided, current How to Rent guide issued and updated where required. These need to be airtight for every property. A missing document can render a valid ground unenforceable until the deficiency is remedied.

The opportunity most landlords are missing

The Renters' Rights Act gets framed almost entirely as a problem for landlords. But there is a real operational advantage available to portfolio landlords who respond systematically.

The landlords who will struggle are those who continue managing reactively — chasing rent manually, losing track of review dates, keeping records inconsistently across multiple tools. The Act makes those habits genuinely expensive: a missed notice period, a poorly documented arrears history, or an informal rent agreement can each have serious consequences.

The landlords who manage it well will be those who treat their portfolio like a business: standardised processes, clean records, documented communication, systematic rent reviews. In a market where a significant proportion of private landlords are selling up in response to the legislative changes, that operational discipline is a competitive advantage.

A significant number of rental properties are leaving the sector. For landlords who stay and operate well, reduced supply and growing demand from displaced tenants is the other side of the same coin.