The text arrives, or a letter lands on the mat. Your landlord is selling the house and you need to be out by the end of the month. It reads like a done deal.
It isn't. Since 1 May 2026, a landlord in England who wants you out in order to sell must use Ground 1A, added to the Housing Act 1988 by the Renters' Rights Act 2025. It needs 4 months' notice on the official form, cannot take effect in your first year, and misusing it can cost the landlord up to 2 years of your rent. A sentence in a text meets none of those requirements.
What a valid Ground 1A notice must include
To rely on Ground 1A, your landlord must serve a Section 8 notice on the prescribed form, state Ground 1A, and give you at least 4 months' notice before any court proceedings can start. The ground applies where the landlord intends to sell the property or to grant a lease of more than 21 years.
The paperwork has to be right, the timing has to be right, and the intention to sell has to be real. A WhatsApp message or a bare letter fails the first test before you reach the others.
A notice that gives you less than 4 months is defective. Date errors are common while landlords learn the new rules, so check the maths on any Section 8 notice before acting on it.
Can a landlord use Ground 1A in the first year of a tenancy
No. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 built in a protected period. The notice must name the earliest day the landlord could go to court, and that date cannot fall within the first 12 months of your tenancy.
Add the 4-month notice period and the fastest timetable is a notice served 8 months in, expiring on your first anniversary. A landlord can serve earlier, but the date named must still be at least 4 months out and past your first year. A notice naming a date inside your first 12 months is defective, whenever it was served.
Do I have to move out when the notice expires
A Section 8 notice does not end your tenancy. It is the start of a legal process, and you are entitled to stay while that process runs.
If you stay past the date in the notice, the landlord's only lawful route is a possession claim in the county court. At the hearing they must prove the ground with evidence of a real intention to sell, like an estate agent's instruction or a valuation. And if your deposit is not protected in a government-approved scheme, the court cannot grant possession until the landlord puts that right.
Even with a possession order, only county court bailiffs can remove you. Changing the locks or moving your belongings out is a criminal offence, as our guide to whether a landlord can evict without a court order explains.
You can leave on the date in the notice if that suits you, but nothing in the law makes you. If you might have nowhere to go, contact your council's housing options team early. A valid notice triggers their duty to help.
How to check your landlord is genuinely selling
Some Ground 1A notices follow a refused rent increase or a repair complaint, not a real decision to sell. A fake sale is now a criminal offence, so build a small evidence file this week.
- Search Rightmove and Zoopla for the address, looking for a sale listing, not a new rental ad. Screenshot everything with dates visible.
- Check the HM Land Registry title register online for a few pounds. It shows who owns the property, and later whether a sale ever completed.
- Watch for an estate agent board and note the agency. No agent, no buyer viewings, and no survey all point one way.
- Keep every message in which the landlord mentions selling, especially anything sent in anger during a dispute.
If the notice was retaliation dressed up as a sale, this file turns suspicion into a claim, and the Act's wider protections against backdoor evictions reward the same record keeping.
The 12-month ban on re-letting after a Ground 1A notice
Serving a Ground 1A notice starts a restricted period, running from the day of service until 12 months after the earliest court date the notice gave. During that window the landlord must not re-let or market the property for letting, as an ordinary tenancy, a licence, or a holiday let on a site like Airbnb.
Breaching the ban is an offence. So is knowingly or recklessly misusing the ground in the first place. A landlord cannot evict you "to sell" and then quietly put the house back on the rental market at a higher price.
Compensation when the sale turns out to be fake
If your landlord misused Ground 1A or re-let during the restricted period, two things can happen.
Your council can fine them up to £40,000 as an alternative to prosecution, or up to £7,000 for lesser breaches of the tenancy reform rules.
And you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order of up to 2 years' rent. You do not need to still live in the property, and you have 2 years from the offence to apply. On a rent of £1,300 a month, that is a claim worth up to £31,200. Our guide on how to apply for a rent repayment order walks through the tribunal process.
What to do this week if you've had a Ground 1A notice
- Check the form and the dates. Prescribed Section 8 form, Ground 1A stated, at least 4 months' notice, and a leave date that falls after your first 12 months.
- Check your deposit protection. An unprotected deposit can block the possession claim and gives you a separate compensation claim.
- Save the landlord's messages about the sale and anything that shows what prompted the notice.
- Set a weekly reminder to search the address on Rightmove and Zoopla, and screenshot what you find.
Landlord moving back in instead of selling? That is Ground 1, covered in our sister guide.
If your landlord's "sale" looks thin, Remedy can check the notice against the Ground 1A requirements and tell you whether you have a rent repayment claim worth pursuing.
