No-Fault Eviction: What Replaced It in 2026

Ground 1 — landlord or close family moving in

gov.uk's landlord guidance states Ground 1 requires 4 months’ notice before applying to court, and adds a protection that didn't exist under the old section 21: “You cannot ask your tenant to leave for this reason within the first 12 months” of the tenancy. In practice that means a landlord cannot serve a Ground 1 notice at all until the tenancy has run for 12 months, then still has to give 4 more months’ notice on top — a minimum of 16 months from tenancy start to the earliest possible court date, not the same-day flexibility “no fault” used to allow.

Ground 1A — selling the property

Ground 1A works the same way for a genuine sale: 4 months’ notice, and gov.uk's guidance states the same 12-month protection — “You cannot ask your tenant to leave within the first 12 months of a new tenancy.” Both grounds are mandatory: if the landlord proves the ground and has followed the process correctly, the court must order possession — the judge doesn't weigh whether it's reasonable, unlike most of the discretionary grounds further down the list.

The 12-month re-letting restriction

The trade-off for making Grounds 1 and 1A mandatory is a restriction on what a landlord can do with the property afterwards. gov.uk's enforcement guidance describes it as a “12 month no relet and remarketing ‘restricted period’” that runs from using Ground 1 or 1A: a landlord who re-lets or re-markets the property within that 12-month window — without having taken all reasonable steps not to, and without a specific exception applying — commits an offence. This is treated as one of the more serious breaches: gov.uk's civil penalties guidance lists it in the same upper tier as knowingly relying on a ground that wouldn't succeed, with a maximum civil penalty of £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution, and repeat or knowing misuse carrying the same maximum. A landlord who genuinely moves in or genuinely sells has nothing to fear from this rule — it's aimed squarely at using “I'm moving in” as a pretext to get a sitting tenant out and re-let at a higher rent within the year.

Other “non-fault” grounds, briefly

Grounds 1 and 1A aren't the only ones that don't depend on anything the tenant did wrong. Ground 6 (redevelopment) and Ground 2 (the mortgage lender is selling, usually after repossession) are also mandatory grounds unrelated to tenant conduct, each requiring 4 months’ notice per gov.uk's table — see the full list on our section 8 grounds page. None of these carry the same explicit 12-month tenancy-age or re-letting restriction that Grounds 1 and 1A do; those two rules are specific to the “landlord wants the property back for themselves or a buyer” situation the old section 21 most often covered.

What this means in practice

A landlord who genuinely needs to move in, or genuinely wants to sell with vacant possession, still can — just not on day one of a new tenancy, and not with same-day notice. The realistic minimum, from signing a new tenancy to a possible court date on Ground 1 or 1A, is now roughly 16 months (12 months before the ground can be used, plus 4 months’ notice), assuming nothing is contested. Anyone weighing up whether to let a property at all, given that commitment, may find it useful to run the numbers on our rental yield calculator and check the allowable-expenses position on our expenses guide before deciding.

read 12 September 2026: Grounds for possession: guidance for landlords and letting agents (GOV.UK) · Civil penalties under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 and other housing legislation (GOV.UK) · Repossessing your privately rented property after 1 May 2026 (GOV.UK)