Welcome to Issue 002. Quick note before we get into it. If Issue 001 felt like a fire alarm, this one is the opposite. It’s a story, with a lesson at the end. The kind of thing I wish someone had told me earlier in my landlording career.
Right, into it.
The handshake
Late last year, I had a tenant in one of my flats who wanted to leave. He had been with me for about three years, no arrears, no problems, paid like clockwork. Decent bloke. New job in a different town, new chapter, sensible reasons.
We met at the property. He told me his plan. I said no problem, give me eight weeks’ notice in writing and we’ll part on good terms, deposit back in full assuming the place is in the state I’d expect.
He nodded. We shook hands. End of meeting.
A week later he sent me a friendly text confirming he’d be out by the end of the following month.
Most landlords I know would have taken that text and got on with re-letting. I served a Section 21 the next day.
Why I served notice on a tenant who was already leaving
Three reasons.
The first was simple insurance. People change their minds. Job offers fall through. Family circumstances shift. The friendly text I had was not a tenancy agreement, it was a sentence on a phone. If he had changed his mind in the following six weeks, I would have had no paper notice running, no possession date in the post, no certainty.
The second reason was the regulatory clock. By late 2025 it was already obvious the Renters’ Rights Act was going to land in 2026 and that Section 21 would be on the way out. I did not know the exact commencement date. I did know that whatever notice I served before commencement would be valid under the old rules, and that the old rules were the friendlier ground for a no-fault exit. So I served while I still could.
The third reason was the alternative. He was a perfect payer. If he had decided to stay and dig in, I had no Section 8 ground that would have got him out cleanly. No arrears, no nuisance, no breach. The discretionary grounds are a slow road and not certain. Section 21 was the only quick lever I had, and I wanted that lever cocked and ready, not in the cupboard.
So the eviction notice landed on his doormat the day after we shook hands. I dropped him a brief text the same evening saying it was procedural, nothing personal, and that I was glad to have him as a tenant. He understood. He left two weeks earlier than he’d originally said. Deposit back in full. Property re-let inside three weeks.
The lesson
Paper beats handshake.
That isn’t cynicism. The tenant was a good one. We had a clean ending. I would happily have him back if he ever moved back to London. None of that changes the fact that the only document I held during those six weeks of notice was a friendly text message, and a friendly text message is not a notice.
If he had changed his mind on day forty, I would have been six weeks behind where I needed to be, with a freshly-commenced Renters’ Rights Act on the horizon and an even smaller toolkit. The Section 21 cost me nothing. It bought me certainty.
Verbal agreements between landlord and tenant are not worthless. They are just unenforceable on the day you need them. Write everything down, on a clock, with a date.
## What this means now Section 21 is gone
From 1 May 2026, the Section 21 lever I described above is in the bin. There is no more no-fault notice. Every possession from now on has to be on a Section 8 ground, and the grounds list, even with the new mandatory ones added, is narrower than the all-purpose Section 21.
The two practical implications, if you’re reading this with a tenant in mind:
The first is that the safety net is now a paper trail, not a notice. If you have a tenant who has told you they’re leaving, get that intention in writing. A signed surrender agreement is the gold standard. Failing that, an email exchange where they confirm their leaving date in their own words, with that date attached, gives you something to hold on to. A WhatsApp message is better than nothing. A spoken conversation is nothing.
The second is that the new mandatory grounds, particularly the moving-in and selling grounds, are now your equivalent of the old quick lever, but with hoops. You have to evidence intent. You cannot re-let inside the cooling-off window. The rules around abuse of these grounds are tight. They are not Section 21 with a different number on the form. Use them carefully and document everything.
## A five-step playbook for protecting yourself in a friendly exit
Get the leaving date in writing in their own words. A reply to your email confirming “I’ll be out by [date]” is enough. Save it.
2. Send a confirmation email back. “Thanks, that confirms you’re leaving on [date]. Deposit will be processed within ten days of return, subject to property condition.” Their silence after that is itself a record.
3. Agree the property condition expectation in writing too. Send them a one-page checklist of what counts as fair return condition. No surprises later.
4. Pre-book your inventory check-out. Diary it for the day of return. Inventory clerk on site, photographs, written report. The cost is small, the protection large.
5. Keep all WhatsApp threads, emails and texts in one place. A folder per tenancy, exported once a year. If a future dispute happens, two years of friendly chat is what you’ll wish you had.
The whole sequence is maybe one hour of admin spread over the notice period. The downside if you don’t do it is months of court time if the friendly tenant suddenly isn’t friendly any more.
## From my own portfolio this week
The Section 21 I served on that tenant turned out to be the last one I’ll ever serve. The form is now a museum piece. Of all the bits of paperwork I’ve sent in twenty-plus years of landlording, that one is the one I’ll keep on the wall.
The lesson it taught me, though, isn’t going on the wall. It’s coming with me into every tenancy I sign from here on. Paper beats handshake.
The next test will be the first time I have to use one of the new mandatory grounds in anger. I haven’t done that yet. When I do, you’ll get the story in this newsletter, anonymised the same way, with the same lessons drawn out.
That’s it for Issue 002. If this was useful, the most generous thing you can do is forward it to one other landlord you know. The newsletter grows by word of mouth.
If anything was wrong or unclear, hit reply. I read every email.
See you next Sunday.
Eddie Sisman
Working landlord, Operator at heart