Section 21 is gone. Your paperwork is now your possession case

On 1 May 2026 the Renters' Rights Act 2025 switched on. Every assured shorthold tenancy in England became an assured periodic tenancy overnight, fixed terms stopped existing, and the section 21 "no-fault" notice — the tool that ended most tenancies for four decades — became impossible to serve.

The headline has had plenty of coverage. What matters now, three months in, is the practical consequence most write-ups undersell: possession has become an evidence exercise. A judge, not a form, decides whether you get your property back — and judges decide on records.

What actually changed on 1 May

Your old tenancy agreements survive, but any term that contradicts the Act — the fixed term, the rent review clause, the pet ban — simply stopped applying. If a tenancy never had a written agreement, the Act required a written statement of its terms by 31 May 2026; if that passed you by, do it now rather than never.

One transition note: a section 21 or section 8 notice served before 1 May 2026 can still support court proceedings under the previous rules for a limited period. If you are sitting on one, take advice immediately — the window closes, and an expired notice is just paper.

Grounds need proof, and proof means records

Under section 8, every route to possession runs through a ground: rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, breach of tenancy, selling the property, moving yourself or family in. The government's own guidance is blunt about the mechanics: if the tenant does not leave, "a landlord will need to provide evidence in court to prove the relevant ground applies."

What that means per ground:

• Arrears — a dated rent schedule: what was due, what arrived, when. A bank statement plus a spreadsheet you built the week before the hearing is weaker than a ledger kept as it happened.
• Selling or moving in — these grounds cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy, and courts will expect signs the intention is genuine: an estate agent's instruction, a memorandum of sale, correspondence.
• Breach or damage — the inventory, the check-in photos, the dated complaint emails, the contractor's invoice for the repair.
• Disrepair defences — tenants facing possession increasingly raise counterclaims. Your answer is the maintenance trail: the annual gas safety record, the five-yearly EICR, the invoices showing you fixed what was reported.

The compliance gate

The Act also makes possession conditional on your own compliance. A deposit that was never protected blocks a possession order. And once the Private Rented Sector Database goes live — the government's roadmap schedules its rollout from late 2026 — an unregistered property blocks possession too, except on the antisocial-behaviour grounds.

In other words: the certificates and registrations were always legal duties; now they are also the key that unlocks the court process. A landlord with perfect grounds and imperfect paperwork loses twice.

Rent increases: one lever, once a year

Rent review clauses died on 1 May. The only mechanism now is a section 13 notice on Form 4A: once per year, at least two months' notice, and no higher than open-market rent. Tenants can refer the increase to the First-tier Tribunal, which makes your comparables — advertised rents for similar local properties, kept when you set the figure — worth filing alongside the notice itself.

This is the shape of the whole regime: every action a landlord takes now generates a document that may need to be produced later, sometimes years later. The landlords who will find the new system manageable are the ones whose records accumulate as a side effect of normal life rather than a panicked reconstruction. Photograph the certificate, the notice, the invoice when it happens — KeepUp reads the dates, files it by property, and it is simply there the day a ground needs proving.

The full detail — including the pet rules, the new ombudsman and the discrimination provisions — is in the government's guide to the Act. Our landlord compliance calendar covers the recurring dates that have not changed.