Friday, 11 September 2026. For years, Section 21 was one of the most familiar parts of England’s private rental system. A landlord could use the procedure to recover possession without having to establish a tenant’s fault, provided the legal requirements had been followed. Since 1 May 2026, that system has fundamentally changed.
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 has not simply removed one possession procedure. It has changed the structure of most private tenancies in England, altered the way landlords recover their properties and introduced new rules affecting rent, advertising and tenant protections. Existing assured short hold tenancies moved into the assured periodic system, while new qualifying tenancies are now generally assured periodic tenancies rather than fixed-term ASTs.
For London landlords, the important question is no longer whether the reforms are coming. They are already here. The more useful question is how property owners should adapt the way they manage tenancies.
What replaced the old tenancy system?
Under the current system, an assured periodic tenancy continues on a rolling basis rather than having the traditional fixed end date associated with an AST. This does not mean a landlord can never recover possession of a property. Instead, possession has to be based on the appropriate statutory ground and the correct procedure must be followed.
This distinction matters because landlords may still have legitimate reasons for needing a property back. Circumstances change: an owner may need to sell, deal with serious rent arrears or respond to antisocial behavior. What has changed is the legal route through which possession is obtained.
That makes accurate records increasingly important. Rent statements, tenancy documents, correspondence, inspection records and evidence of problems should be treated as part of ordinary property management rather than paperwork to assemble only when something goes wrong.
Rent increases are more structured
The reforms also changed the process for increasing rent.
For assured periodic tenancies, landlords can generally increase rent once a year using the statutory process, and tenants have a route to challenge an increase they believe exceeds the market rate. The broader effect is that rent reviews need to be approached more formally.
A sensible landlord should therefore be able to explain how a proposed rent was reached. Comparable local properties, the condition of the accommodation, location and current market conditions are more useful than simply deciding that the rent should rise because another year has passed.
Advertising has changed as well
The reforms reach the property before a tenant has even moved in.
Landlords and agents must advertise a specific asking rent and cannot encourage or accept rental bids above that figure. There are also restrictions on requesting rent before the tenancy agreement has been signed. Once the agreement has been signed, the amount of rent that can normally be required in advance is restricted under the new regime.
This is particularly relevant in London, where competitive properties historically attracted applicants offering more than the advertised rent or proposing significant amounts upfront.
The rules now place greater importance on setting an appropriate asking rent from the beginning.
Has being a landlord become more difficult?
It has certainly become more procedural.
However, increased regulation does not automatically mean that professionally managed rental property has stopped working as a business. It means that informal practices carry greater risk.
A landlord who understands the tenancy, maintains accurate documentation, deals with repairs properly, sets rent realistically and follows the correct possession procedure is in a very different position from somebody who treats compliance as something to investigate only when a dispute arises.
That distinction is likely to become increasingly visible as the reforms mature.
What should landlords be doing now?
Landlords who have not reviewed their tenancy and management procedures since the May reforms should do so.
Existing documentation should reflect the current tenancy regime. Rent-review procedures should be checked. Advertising practices should comply with the new rules, and landlords should understand which possession grounds would apply if they genuinely needed their property back.
The post-Section 21 market is not a market without landlord rights. It is a market in which those rights have to be exercised through a more defined legal framework.
For professional landlords, that makes good administration almost as important as finding the right tenant.
Where can landlords get support?
The 2026 reforms have changed several familiar property-management procedures at the same time. Owners who are uncertain about their tenancy documents, rent-management procedures or compliance position should obtain appropriate professional advice rather than relying on documents or practices created under the old AST system.
Information correct as of 11 September 2026 and applicable primarily to England. This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice.
*DISCLAIMER- THIS PHOTO HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM (APARTMENT CU VEDERE I LONDRA, ANGLIA) *