Grounds for possession under the Renters' Rights Act in 2026

Since 1 May 2026, a landlord in England can recover possession of a rented home only by proving a specific legal ground under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988. Section 21 no-fault eviction has been abolished, every tenancy is now a periodic assured tenancy, and the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 has rewritten the list of grounds in Schedule 2, adding new ones, raising some thresholds and lengthening most notice periods. This article sets out each ground, says whether it is mandatory or discretionary, and gives the notice period that applies, with the figures verified against the government’s grounds guidance current at June 2026.

What changed on 1 May 2026

The headline change is that Section 21 no-fault eviction has gone. A landlord can no longer end a tenancy simply by giving notice without a reason. Because every tenancy is now periodic from the start, there is no fixed term to wait out before recovering possession, so fixed-term tenancies were abolished and the only route to possession is a valid Schedule 2 ground served on the prescribed form.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 reshaped the whole tenancy system, and the possession rules sit inside the new tenancy landscape under the Act. Several grounds are new, others have been amended, and the notice itself is now the prescribed Form 3A. Serving notice is a separate task from choosing the ground, so once you have settled on the right ground you can turn to how to serve a valid Section 8 notice.

Mandatory and discretionary grounds: the distinction that governs everything

Whether a ground is mandatory or discretionary changes everything about how a claim runs. On a mandatory ground, the court must make a possession order once the landlord proves the ground and there is no valid defence. On a discretionary ground, the court grants possession only if it also decides that doing so is reasonable, weighing the tenant’s circumstances against the landlord’s, and it can suspend the order on terms. The definitional reference for mandatory and discretionary grounds sits in our dictionary; the practical point is that mandatory grounds give more certainty, while discretionary grounds demand stronger evidence and carry more risk of a refused or suspended order.

Two rules apply across the board. First, a court cannot make a possession order at all unless the deposit is protected in a government-approved scheme. Second, a landlord may rely on more than one ground in a single notice, which is common where arrears sit alongside a tenancy breach.

Mandatory grounds for possession

When a mandatory ground is proved, the court must order possession. The grounds most relevant to a self-managing private landlord are set out below.

A further set of mandatory grounds exists mainly for specialist and social landlords, including sale by a mortgage lender (Ground 2), the ending of a superior lease (Grounds 2ZA to 2ZD), agricultural, employment and supported-accommodation grounds (Grounds 5 and 5A to 5H), decant accommodation (Ground 6A), compliance with local-authority enforcement action (Ground 6B), and the death of the tenant (Ground 7).

Ground 1: occupation by the landlord or family

Ground 1 applies where the landlord, or a close family member, needs to move into the property as their only or principal home. The family members covered are broadly drawn, including a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner, and a parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild, with half-blood relations treated the same as whole-blood. The notice period is four months, and the ground cannot be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy.

Ground 1A: sale of the property

Ground 1A is the new ground that lets a landlord recover the property in order to sell it, the closest replacement for the old no-fault route for a landlord leaving the sector. The notice period is four months, and, like Ground 1, it cannot be used in the first 12 months. A landlord considering this route should read our guide to selling a rental property, because the restricted re-letting rules described below carry real financial risk if the sale does not proceed.

Ground 8: serious rent arrears

Ground 8 is the main mandatory arrears ground, and from 1 May 2026 the threshold rose from two months to three months’ unpaid rent for a monthly tenancy, or thirteen weeks for weekly or fortnightly rent. The arrears must reach that level both on the day the notice is served and on the day of the hearing, so a tenant who pays the balance below the threshold before the hearing defeats the ground. Crucially, where the shortfall exists only because a Universal Credit housing payment has not yet been paid to the tenant, that amount is left out of the calculation. The notice period is four weeks. Many landlords pair Ground 8 with the discretionary arrears grounds as a fallback, and the full arrears recovery process and the court timelines for arrears possession are worth reading alongside this ground.

Across the portfolios managed on August, the single most common reason a Ground 8 claim stumbles is a rent record that cannot prove the three-month threshold at both dates to a court’s satisfaction. A running, date-stamped ledger is the evidence the judge will want to see, which is why it helps to keep a clear, date-stamped record of every rent payment from the first day of the tenancy rather than reconstructing it later.

Ground 7A: severe antisocial or criminal behaviour

Ground 7A applies where the tenant, a member of their household or a visitor has been convicted of a serious offence, has breached an antisocial behaviour order, or where the property has been subject to a closure order. It is one of the few grounds with no minimum notice period, so the landlord can apply to the court straight away, although the court cannot make a possession order until 14 days after notice is given.

Ground 7B: no right to rent

Ground 7B applies where the Home Office has notified the landlord that a tenant or occupier has no right to rent under immigration law. The notice period is two weeks. This is a different ground from the antisocial-behaviour grounds, and it is worth noting because the old numbering led many guides to mislabel it.

Ground 4A: student HMOs

Ground 4A applies to student HMOs let to full-time students where the landlord needs the property back for a new group of students in line with the academic year, between 1 June and 30 September. The notice period is four months, and the landlord must have flagged before the tenancy started that the ground might be used.

Discretionary grounds for possession

On a discretionary ground, the court grants possession only if it considers it reasonable, so evidence and context carry more weight than on a mandatory ground.

Two of these reward a quick word of caution. Ground 11 is the route for persistent late payment where there is a clear, documented pattern rather than a single late month. Ground 17, the false-statement ground often relied on after fraudulent references, is discretionary, not mandatory, so the court still decides whether possession is reasonable even once the false statement is proved.

Is there a Ground 8A for repeated arrears?

No. A mandatory “Ground 8A” for repeated or intermittent arrears appeared in the earlier Renters (Reform) Bill, but it did not make it into the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 and does not exist in the law that took effect on 1 May 2026. The government’s grounds guidance runs straight from Ground 8 to Ground 9, and the prescribed Form 3A contains no Ground 8A. Where a tenant repeatedly falls into and clears arrears, the available route is discretionary Ground 11 for persistent delay, usually pleaded alongside Ground 8 or Ground 10. Several commercial guides still list Ground 8A, so it is worth checking any source against the government grounds guidance before relying on it.

Notice periods for each ground

Notice periods changed significantly under the Act, and an error in the period or the expiry date is one of the most common reasons a claim fails at court. The table below collects the periods for the grounds a private landlord is most likely to use.

Across the self-managing landlords we work with, miscounting the expiry date is a more frequent cause of a wasted notice than choosing the wrong ground, because the period runs from the date of service rather than the date the notice is written. Check the period for the specific ground, and recheck the expiry date, before serving.

The 12-month protected period and restricted re-letting

Grounds 1 and 1A come with two constraints that catch landlords out. First, neither ground can be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy, so the earliest possession date in the notice must fall more than a year after the tenancy began. Second, once a landlord has used Ground 1 or Ground 1A, a restricted period of 12 months runs from the possession date stated in the notice, during which the landlord must not re-let the property, except to a qualifying family member, and must not market it or authorise anyone else to market it.

Breaching the re-letting rules, or using a ground without a genuine intention behind it, is treated seriously. A tenant or local authority can apply for a rent repayment order of up to two years’ rent where a landlord has misused a ground or let or marketed the property during the restricted period, and using a ground without reasonably believing possession can be obtained on it is itself an offence. The practical lesson is to use Ground 1A only where a sale is genuinely intended.

What happens after you serve notice

Serving a valid notice starts the clock but does not end the tenancy. If the tenant has not left by the time the notice expires, the landlord applies to the court for a possession order, and only an order enforced by county court bailiffs gives the legal right to recover the property. A possession order is what actually ends the tenancy once the ground is proved.

The notice itself must be the prescribed Form 3A. Where the claim rests only on arrears grounds, it can be issued through Possession Claims Online; otherwise it goes in on the standard possession claim forms with proof of service, the tenancy agreement and the evidence for each ground. The court cannot make an order at all unless the deposit was protected. From notice to enforcement, even a clear arrears case now commonly takes several months, because the accelerated route that accompanied Section 21 no longer exists, and how long eviction takes in 2026 sets that timeline out in full.

Attempting to remove a tenant without following this process is illegal eviction, which carries criminal and civil liability including unlimited fines and damages.

The evidence each ground needs

Contested claims now turn on documentation rather than assertion, so the evidence is worth assembling before the notice goes out. Arrears grounds need a complete rent ledger that shows the threshold met at both the service and hearing dates. Breach and deterioration grounds need a baseline, which is where a thorough check-in record and dated inspection notes earn their place. Antisocial behaviour grounds need incident logs, dates and, where relevant, police reference numbers. For any discretionary ground, thin evidence tends to produce a suspended or dismissed order rather than outright possession.

The landlords who fare best keep all of it in one place rather than across email, paper and memory. It helps to keep notices, inspection reports and correspondence in one place so that the evidence for a claim can be produced as a single, dated record if a tenancy ever reaches that point. The fuller definitional reference for the grounds for possession sits in our dictionary for anyone who wants the bare legal definition rather than the practical walk-through above.

Frequently asked questions

Can a landlord still evict a tenant without a reason in 2026? 

No. Section 21 no-fault eviction was abolished on 1 May 2026. Every possession claim must now rely on a specific Schedule 2 ground under Section 8, and the landlord must prove that ground to the court.

Can a landlord evict a tenant in order to sell or move in? 

Yes, using Ground 1A to sell or Ground 1 to move in or house a close family member. Both need four months’ notice, neither can be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy, and a 12-month restriction on re-letting and marketing follows their use.

How much rent arrears are needed before a landlord can use Ground 8? 

Three months’ unpaid rent for a monthly tenancy, or thirteen weeks for weekly or fortnightly rent, and the arrears must still meet that level at the court hearing. Arrears caused solely by a delayed Universal Credit housing payment are left out of the calculation.

Is Ground 8A a real ground? 

No. It was proposed in the earlier Renters (Reform) Bill but was not enacted. Repeated arrears are dealt with under discretionary Ground 11. If you want to act on the current rules with the records already in place, you can start for free.

Disclosure: this article is for general information and is not legal advice. Landlords facing possession proceedings should take independent legal advice on their specific circumstances.