The Renters' Rights Bill will abolish 'section 21 notices', the 'no-fault eviction' notice served by landlords on residential tenants in England.
The Bill has now passed through committee stage in the House of Lords and is expected to become law this summer. So, when will the last section 21 notice be served on a tenant?
Commencement order
When the Bill is finally passed and becomes an Act of Parliament that will not immediately abolish section 21 notice. The relevant parts of the Bill will not come into force until a 'commencement order' is made by a Government minister.
In theory this could be done any time after the bill receives Royal Assent, but the Government has previously stated that ensure that landlords, letting agents and tenants are notified about the changes and given sufficient time for landlords and tenants to prepare before bringing the reforms into force.
Opinions differ on how much time is required, but many informed commentators are now suggesting that it is too late now for the implementation of the abolition of section 21 notices to happen by October 2025.
A popular guess for the implementation date is 1 April 2026, but this is speculation – we do not know yet.
A commencement order could specify different dates for private and social tenancies. The minutes of a meeting of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee suggest that Government has decided to proceed with scrapping section 21 notice in the private sector first, but keeping them for assured shorthold tenancies granted by social landlords during a transitional period.
Staged introduction
Ministers have made clear that they favour a 'big bang' implementation where the tenancy reforms come into effect instantly for all existing and new tenancies in the private rented sector. This is quite different to the approach taken to the various minor reforms which took place over recent years.
If 1 April 2026 is the commencement date, the last day for service of a section 21 notices (in the private sector at least) would be 31 March 2026 (but see below).
Lobbying in support of a phased introduction for certain sectors continues – and proceedings in Parliament do not necessarily tell us whether Government will heed those calls or not. But a robust majority in the House of Commons means Government has no real need to make concessions.
Section 21 notices after implementation
The Government's stated intention is that no more section 21 notices can be served after the commencement date. For several reasons, some more sensible than others, even if a big bang implementation is adopted in the private sector as planned, there will still be some section 21 notices served after that date.
Invalid Notices
It's inevitable that some landlords will just get mixed up and serve section 21 notices long after they have been legally abolished.
Section 21 notices as contractual break notices
Sometimes landlords use an assured shorthold tenancy agreement template where in reality the agreement is 'common law tenancy' or 'non-Housing Act tenancy'. In that situation sometimes we see a contract which specifies that the landlord can terminate the fixed term early by serving a section 21 notice. If that is what the contract says, a landlord who wants to rely on that clause will just have to find a way to "serve a section 21 notice" even after they have been formally abolished. This is going to create an awful lot of confusion on the handful of occasions when it is required.
Serving valid notices after commencement
This is a bit of an anomaly – one for pedants and housing law enthusiasts only.
It appears that a landlord will be able to serve a valid section 21 notice after commencement date if they have served a valid notice shortly before commencement date. This is because the effect of serving a notice shortly before commencement date (say on 27 September 2025 if 1 October 2025 is commencement day) is that the tenancy would be within scope under the transitional provisions in Schedule 6 to the Bill. The effect of those provisions is that the tenancy will continue to be an assured shorthold tenancy for a period of time. This is to allow the landlord to obtain a possession order relying on the section 21 notice served before the commencement date.
So, I think – but treat this eccentric idea with caution and take specific advice before relying on this – a landlord could serve another valid section 21 notice up to a month after commencement date, provided they had already served a valid section 21 notice before commencement date. There's no obvious practical reason to do this, other than perhaps the dubious honour of serving the last ever valid section 21 notice.
Social Landlords
The minutes of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee meeting on 7 March record:
"It was proposed that no CPR changes are required for this stage, because the existing rules need to be retained for social landlords. This will mean that they can continue to issue assured shorthold tenancies and evict tenants via Section 21, which will require the accelerated possession process."
Assuming this is correct, for an indefinite amount of time social landlords will continue to serve section 21 notices in the limited circumstances that they currently are able to do so. That is sure to disappoint campaigners who hoped for an immediate total ban on section 21 notices. Private landlords may also perceive this as unjustified special treatment for the social sector.
What next for the Bill?
The Bill will now progress to Report Stage in the House of Lords for further debate and votes on amendments.
Originally published 28 May 2025
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
