Don’t Fall Into the 30th April Trap if You are a Landlord

24 Feb 2026

Most landlords are aware that the New Renters’ Rights Act 2025 comes into force on the 1^st May 2026. The Act has a number of provisions which will impact landlords, but the most important one is that possession proceedings, under what is known as “S21” will be abolished. The only way a landlord will be able to gain possession from 1^st May is to serve a S8 notice.

The trouble with S8 is that the landlord has to prove the ground upon which they are relying and none of the grounds are a simple way to “just get possession back”. S21 by contrast was often referred as “accelerated possession”, because it was quick and the landlord did not have to prove anything, other than give 2 months’ notice. After 1^st May, possession proceedings will become more expensive to bring and take longer to resolve, and as tenancies will no longer end at a fixed date, but continue endlessly until either the tenants leaves or you gain possession through s8, many landlords are thinking carefully about what to do.

At the moment therefore, you have until the 30^th April 2026 to serve your S21 proceedings. All notices after that must be under S8. If you serve the S21 notice before that deadline, then you must issue proceedings at a court by no later than 31^st July 2026. Miss either of these deadlines, then you cannot use S21.

However, there is a trap here for the unwary or for those who leave things to the last minute. The S21 notice has to be served by 30^th April, that is actually received by the tenant by that date. Putting the notice in the post on that date is not good enough because the tenant will not receive it in time. Therefore, think of the 27^th April as the real deadline date.

Similarly, the court must issue the proceedings by 31 July 2026. That is not the same as giving them to the court, it is a formal bureaucratic step, and all courts are all running substantial backlogs at the moment, and the fact that they are, will not save you if they do not have the papers in time. Here you should think of the deadline as being 23^rd July at the latest.

The lesson is, think about this now and do not leave things too late.