Section 21 will be no more as of 1 May 2026

Under the new Renters’ Rights Act regime, landlords will have to serve a Section 8 Notice setting out the ground (or grounds) for possession. Once that notice has expired, the landlord must then obtain a possession order from the Court and then a Bailiff’s Warrant before the tenant can be lawfully evicted.

The waiting times for landlords of London properties is significantly higher than those in the rest of the country.

Our Landlord and Tenant expert, Liam Kreibich, comments:

“One of the major problems is waiting for a County Court Bailiff to execute a Warrant of Possession. The landlord may have obtained a 14-day possession order at the hearing, but if the tenant remains in occupation after that expires, there may be a further wait of around 10 – 12 months in London for a Bailiff to carry out an eviction. That is in addition to the time the landlord has already been waiting for the original notice to expire and to then get to the Court hearing (possibly 3 – 5 months).”

“The alternative to using County Court Bailiffs is to apply to transfer the matter up to the High Court so that High Court Enforcement Officers (“HCEOs”) can execute a Writ of Possession. This might be a quicker option for London landlords, but it does involve extra applications and higher fees if permission to transfer up was not requested and granted at the original possession hearing. For landlords of properties situated anywhere but London or the surrounding areas, it is usually quicker (and certainly more cost-effective) to just use the County Court Bailiffs.”

“After 1 May 2026, all possession claims will require an attended Court hearing as the paper-based procedure that was available under Section 21 will no longer exist (for obvious reasons).”

“Whilst the government says they “have recruited more than 1,000 judges and tribunal members across the courts and tribunals this year” to deal with the expected increase in hearings, this should rely have been a priority before the RRA came in to force given the fact that the waiting times in the County Court and First-tier Tribunal are already very significant. “

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Contact our team by telephone on 0330 123 1229, complete our contact form, or send us an email via info@smithpartnership.co.uk.