If you’ve been holding an eviction notice you served last year, waiting for the right moment to act on it, I’ve got bad news. As of 1 August 2026, you can no longer use it.
Here’s the plain version. Any Section 21 or Section 8 notice served before the Renters’ Rights Act came in can no longer be used to apply to the court for a possession order. The date has passed. The paperwork you were relying on is now just paper.
I know a few landlords who were sitting tight on a notice from last autumn, hoping to avoid re-serving. That option has gone. If you still need possession, you start again, properly, under the new rules.
What that means in practice:
Stop relying on anything served under the old system. It won’t get you through a court door now.
- If you need a property back, serve fresh under the current Section 8 grounds. Pick the right ground and get the notice period spot on.
- Make sure the tenancy itself is papered correctly. Since May, every new tenancy needs the prescribed Written Statement of Terms, and a shaky file makes any claim harder.
From my own portfolio: the re-papering job is dull, but it is the difference between a clean possession and a wasted six months. If you have an old notice sitting in a drawer, this is the month to dig it out and look at it properly, because as of this month it will not do the job you think it will.
One more thing worth knowing: the bidding-war ban is biting too. Adverts must show a set rent, and you cannot accept or invite offers above it. If your letting agent is still nudging tenants to bid up, that stops now.
The takeaway: old notice, no power. If possession matters to you, re-serve it right, and make sure the tenancy file behind it is solid.
If this saved you a headache, forward it to a landlord who’s still sitting on an old notice.