Section 8 Ground 1 & 1A 2026: Move In or Sell — the £40,000 Trap

Section 21 is gone. Since 1 May 2026 the only route to possession in England is Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, and the two most-searched grounds are Ground 1 (landlord — or family — wants to move in) and the new Ground 1A (landlord wants to sell). The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 rebuilt both grounds to be genuinely usable by ordinary landlords — but it also built in serious traps for anyone who gets the procedure wrong.

The trap that catches the most people: the 12-month re-letting ban with a civil penalty of up to £40,000 for breach. Serve on Ground 1 or 1A, get possession, then change your mind and put the property back on the market inside a year, and the local authority can hit you with a £40k fine and the tenant can seek a Rent Repayment Order covering up to 12 months of rent.

This guide walks through what each ground requires, the notice periods, the prior-notice question, what evidence courts actually want, and the mistakes that either destroy the notice at hearing or trigger enforcement after possession.

Not legal advice. For a specific case, instruct a housing solicitor. Ground 1 and 1A hearings are contested — the tenant may have legal aid, you almost certainly will not.

Ground 1: landlord (or close family) wants to move in

Type: Mandatory. Notice period: 4 months. Bar: Cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy.

Ground 1 applies where the landlord — or a person from a defined family list — wants to occupy the property as their only or principal home. Under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 the family list is:

The list does not include cousins, nieces or nephews. If the intended occupier is outside the list, Ground 1 is not available — Ground 1A (sell the property) may be the alternative depending on the plan.

This is a substantially wider family than the pre-2026 rule (which required prior written notice at tenancy start and covered only landlord and spouse). The wider list is one of the RRA 2025’s biggest gifts to individual landlords — a son coming out of university, a parent needing to downsize, a sibling relocating for work all now qualify.

Ground 1: what you actually have to prove

At hearing, the court will ask you to demonstrate three things:

The tenant’s two main defences are (a) bad faith — arguing you don’t really intend to move in, and (b) procedural — arguing the form is wrong, the notice period was short, or the occupier doesn’t fit the definition. Bad-faith cases usually turn on cross-examination of the intended occupier, so the person named in the notice should be prepared to give evidence at hearing, not just be a name on the form.

Ground 1: the prior-notice question

Pre-2026 Ground 1 required the landlord to have served prior written notice at the start of the tenancy that possession might be sought on Ground 1. That requirement was removed by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 — you no longer need to have flagged Ground 1 at the outset.

You do still need to have complied with the general RRA 2025 pre-tenancy duties (Information Sheet served under section 20, deposit protected, gas safety certificate given, EPC given, Right to Rent check→ completed). A failure on any of those is a defence to possession under the general framework, not specifically to Ground 1.

Ground 1A (new): landlord wants to sell

Type: Mandatory. Notice period: 4 months. Bar: Cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy.

Ground 1A is entirely new — a creation of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 to replace the role Section 21 used to play for landlords legitimately exiting the market. Before RRA there was no mandatory possession ground on "I want to sell". Landlords who needed to sell used Section 21. With Section 21 gone, government accepted that landlords must have a route to sell with vacant possession→, so Ground 1A was inserted.

The ground applies where the landlord intends to sell the property (or to grant a long lease of it — for leaseholder landlords selling their reversion). The intention must be genuine and settled.

What "intends to sell" means in practice (based on Explanatory Notes and early housing bar guidance):

You do not have to have exchanged contracts before serving notice. You do have to be able to show a genuine settled intention to sell.

The £40,000 trap: the 12-month re-letting ban

This is the part most landlords miss.

Once possession is granted under Ground 1 or Ground 1A, the property cannot be re-let for 12 months from the tenancy end date. The bar applies whether you:

Breach is a civil offence under Schedule 2 of the RRA 2025. The penalty structure is tiered:

The tenant does not have to move back in for the RRO to bite — they only have to show they were evicted under Ground 1/1A and the property was re-let (or marketed) inside the 12-month window.

What is allowed inside the 12-month window:

What is not allowed:

Notice period and form

Both Ground 1 and Ground 1A require 4 months’ notice. That is a substantial change from the pre-2026 regime (Ground 1 was 2 months). It reflects Parliament’s intention that mandatory grounds affecting tenants’ homes should give real notice to find alternative housing.

The notice must be on Form 3A — the new private-rented-sector Section 8 form introduced for the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 regime from 1 May 2026, replacing the old Form 3 used since 2015. Form 3A includes the specific wording required for each ground; using an outdated form is a common ground for the tenant to defeat the notice at hearing.

Serving the notice: personal service, or first-class post with a certificate of posting, or a delivery method contractually agreed in the tenancy. If you are a LetCompliance customer, our Section 8 tool drafts Form 3A with the correct current wording and generates a delivery audit row showing the exact date, method and evidence of service — the same audit trail a court will want if service is disputed.

Deadline for court application after notice expires: within 12 months of the notice expiry date. Let it lapse and you must serve fresh notice, restarting the 4-month clock.

Common mistakes that lose the case

1. Serving before the 12-month tenancy bar has elapsed.

Ground 1 and 1A cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy. Serving too early makes the notice void. Under an APT (all tenancies from 1 May 2026), the 12-month clock runs from the first day of the tenancy — not from the first rent payment or from move-in.

2. Using an outdated form.

The pre-2026 Form 3 used the pre-RRA wording for Ground 1 and had no Ground 1A. It will be rejected at hearing. Use the current Form 3A.

3. Serving for a "possible" reason.

"We might want to move in" is not enough. The court needs a settled intention. If you don’t know for sure, wait until you do.

4. Re-letting inside the 12-month ban.

Even a short holiday let can trigger the £40,000 penalty. If circumstances change after possession, take advice before doing anything with the property.

5. Not preparing the intended occupier to give evidence.

Bad-faith challenges are common and usually turn on the credibility of the person supposed to be moving in. A witness statement is not enough — the occupier needs to be at hearing, cross-examinable, and able to describe their plans.

6. Skipping the pre-tenancy compliance foundations.

A perfectly-drafted Ground 1 notice is defeated if the landlord failed to protect the deposit within 30 days, or failed to give the Information Sheet on move-in, or the gas safety certificate. The court will look at the whole compliance history.

What LetCompliance handles

Our Section 8 tool drafts Form 3A with the current 2026 wording for Ground 1 and Ground 1A, populates tenant details from the tenancy record, and generates:

This is the kind of workflow support that made Section 21 straightforward. Ground 1 and Ground 1A are harder, and the enforcement risk is real, but the mechanics are entirely manageable if you treat every possession claim as an evidence case from day one.

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