Section 21 is gone. Now what?
The grounds you have left, how long each realistically takes, and why possession has quietly become a business risk rather than a paperwork exercise.
For thirty years the answer to a difficult tenancy was two months' notice and no reason given. That answer no longer exists. What replaces it is slower, evidenced, and occasionally contested.
The grounds you will actually use
- Selling the property — four months' notice, and not usable in the first twelve months of the tenancy. If you then fail to sell, re-letting within the restricted period is prohibited.
- Moving in yourself or a close family member — same four months, same twelve-month protected period, same re-let restriction.
- Serious rent arrears — three months' notice, with the arrears threshold raised to three months' rent outstanding both when the notice is served and at the hearing.
- Anti-social behaviour — immediate notice, but discretionary, which means you must convince a judge with evidence rather than a schedule.
How long it really takes
Notice period, then a claim, then a hearing listed at the mercy of the county court list, then a possession order with time to comply, then — if they still have not gone — a bailiff appointment. On serious arrears, notice to keys back is commonly five to eight months in London. All of it while no rent is arriving and the mortgage is.
The arrears maths
On a 4-bed Ilford house at roughly £2,400 a month, a tenant who stops paying and stays until a bailiff costs you around £14,000 in lost rent, plus £1,500 to £3,000 in legal costs, plus whatever the property looks like at the end. Recovering it via a money judgment against someone who was not paying rent is theoretical.
What actually changes for you
Possession has moved from an administrative step to a low-probability, high-cost event you should be pricing. The three sensible responses are: tighten referencing, buy rent guarantee insurance and keep the compliance file that lets you claim on it, or move the risk to a counterparty who is contractually liable for the rent regardless. Doing none of the three is now a position rather than a default.