Ground 1
Mandatory
You or your family move in
- Who it covers
- You, your partner, a parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild — including step-relatives.
- What you prove
- A genuine intention to occupy it as an only or principal home.
Possession · Ground 1 & 1A
Wanting your own property back used to be a Section 21 notice and no reason given. Since 1 May 2026 it runs through a ground: Ground 1 to move in, Ground 1A to sell. Both are mandatory — but both carry a first-year bar, four months’ notice, a 12-month re-let ban, and a real penalty for using them without meaning it.
4 months
Minimum notice before you can begin court proceedings on either ground.
First 12 months
Neither ground can be used in the first year of the tenancy.
12-month re-let ban
You cannot re-market or re-let for 12 months after taking possession.
Quick answer
To move in yourself or house a close family member, use Ground 1; to sell, use Ground 1A, the new ground the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 created for exactly that. Both are mandatory, so the court must grant possession once the ground is proved. Both need four months’ notice, cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy, and bar you from re-letting for 12 months afterwards. Use either without the genuine intention behind it and a tenant can seek a Rent Repayment Order of up to 24 months’ rent.
They answer the two most common reasons a landlord wants their property back. The mechanics — notice, the first-year bar, the re-let restriction — are the same; what differs is what you have to prove.
Ground 1
Mandatory
You or your family move in
Ground 1A
Mandatory
You sell the property
The ground being mandatory is the easy part. These three timings are where a move-in or sale plan goes wrong when it is not built in from the start.
Four months’ notice
Both grounds sit in the four-month band of the Section 8 table. From service, the earliest you can start proceedings is four months later — before the court queue even begins.
Not in the first 12 months
Neither ground can be used in the first year of a tenancy. A plan to move in or sell within months of letting will not work through these routes.
No re-letting for 12 months
Take possession on either ground and you cannot re-market or re-let for 12 months. Change of heart or a failed sale means sitting the restriction out, not quietly re-listing.
The four months’ notice is the part you control; the court is not. Plan the whole thing backwards from when you actually need the property, because “four months’ notice” and “four months to possession” are not the same number.
Serve the notice
A Section 8 notice specifying Ground 1 or 1A, served correctly. The tenancy must already be at least 12 months old, or you cannot serve at all.
Wait out the four months
The earliest you can begin court proceedings is four months after service. If the tenant leaves in that window, it ends here — most do not.
Apply to the county court
If they stay, you issue a possession claim. You then join the court’s queue, and a mandatory ground still needs a hearing to make the order.
Hearing and possession order
Prove the ground and the court must order possession — but you are working to the court’s calendar, not yours, so budget months, not weeks.
Bailiffs, if needed
If the tenant still does not leave, a warrant of possession and county court bailiffs — a further wait on the bailiff queue.
Rule of thumb: from serving the notice to getting the keys, a cleanly run Ground 1 or 1A case is usually a matter of months beyond the four-month notice, and a contested one can run past a year. Court fees apply on top — around £415 to issue a possession claim, £152 for a warrant of possession (GOV.UK EX50, checked July 2026).
Both grounds turn on a genuine intention, so a bare assertion in the notice is the weak version. The paper trail is what survives a challenge from the tenant and a later misuse claim — and it is strongest when it was made at the time, not assembled afterwards.
Moving in (Ground 1)
Who is moving and why, and something contemporaneous showing the plan — correspondence, arrangements to give up a current home, the reason the property is needed.
Selling (Ground 1A)
An estate-agent instruction, a valuation, the listing when it goes live. Evidence of a genuine intention to sell the freehold or grant a long lease.
The whole point of these conditions is to stop the grounds being used as no-fault eviction by another name — so the penalty for using one without meaning it was deliberately made heavier by the Renters’ Rights Act.
Knowingly or recklessly serving Ground 1 or 1A without the genuine intention behind it exposes you to a Rent Repayment Order of up to 24 months’ rent at the First-tier Tribunal (doubled from the old 12-month maximum), and a council can add a civil penalty — up to £7,000 for a breach, up to £40,000 for a continued or serious one. Serving one “to be safe” and then re-letting is exactly what these penalties are for.
The defence against all of it is boringly simple: only serve when the intention is real, and keep the evidence that it was — the agent instruction, the valuation, the arrangements to move — dated and filed at the time, not reconstructed later.
A move-in or sale claim is won on a correct notice and a paper trail kept before you needed it — both in one place.
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Yes, but through a ground, not a no-fault notice. Section 21 ended on 1 May 2026, so wanting your property back is no longer enough on its own. If you, your partner or a close family member genuinely intend to live there as your only or principal home, that is Ground 1 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. It is a mandatory ground — prove it and the court must order possession — but it comes with real conditions.
Ground 1 covers you, your spouse or civil partner, a person you live with as a couple, and a parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild — of you or of your partner — including step-relatives. The person named must genuinely intend to occupy the property as their only or principal home; the ground is not a route to a short stay or a convenient gap between tenants.
That is Ground 1A, a new mandatory ground the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 created specifically for landlords who intend to sell the freehold or grant a long lease (over 21 years). It works like Ground 1: four months’ notice, and it cannot be used in the first 12 months of the tenancy. It is not available to social landlords. You are proving a genuine intention to sell, so keep the evidence of it — an instruction to an agent, a valuation, the marketing.
Four months. Both grounds sit in the four-month band of the Section 8 notice-period table (Housing Act 1988, s.8(4AA), as amended for 1 May 2026). So from serving the notice, the earliest you can begin court proceedings is four months later — and that is before the court queue, not the day you get the keys.
No. Neither Ground 1 nor Ground 1A can be used in the first 12 months of a tenancy. A new tenant has at least a year before you can serve on either ground, so a plan to move in or sell within months of letting will not work through these routes. Build the timeline in from the start rather than discovering the bar later.
Not for 12 months. To stop the grounds being used as a back-door no-fault eviction, a landlord who takes possession on Ground 1 or Ground 1A cannot re-market or re-let the property for 12 months. If you move in and then change your mind, or a sale falls through, you must sit out that restriction rather than quietly putting it back on the market. (There is a narrow shared-ownership exception where a genuine attempt to sell can be shown.)
This is treated as misuse, and the Renters’ Rights Act made the consequences heavier. A tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a Rent Repayment Order of up to 24 months’ rent — doubled from the previous 12-month maximum — where a landlord knowingly or recklessly misuses a possession ground. A local council can also impose a civil penalty (up to £7,000 for a breach, up to £40,000 for a continued or serious one). Serving Ground 1 or 1A without the genuine intention behind it is an expensive gamble.
Because both grounds turn on intention, the evidence is what carries them. For moving in: who is moving, why, and something contemporaneous showing the plan — correspondence, arrangements to leave a current home. For selling: an estate-agent instruction, a valuation, the listing. A bare assertion in the notice is the weakest version; a dated paper trail is what survives a challenge and a later misuse claim.
Longer than the notice. You serve four months’ notice, and only then can you start court proceedings; a contested claim then joins the county court queue and needs a hearing even though the ground is mandatory. As a rule of thumb, a cleanly run case is a matter of months beyond the four-month notice, and a contested one can run past a year. Court fees apply on top — around £415 to issue the possession claim and £152 for a warrant of possession if you need bailiffs (GOV.UK EX50, checked July 2026).
No, and that is the point of the reform. Section 21 let you end a tenancy without giving a reason. Ground 1 and 1A require a real reason — moving in or selling — plus four months’ notice, a first-year bar and a 12-month re-let restriction, and they carry penalties if you use them without meaning it. They are the nearest routes to "getting your own property back", but they are deliberately not no-fault.
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Built for UK law. Grounds reproduced from Schedule 2, Housing Act 1988.
This page is marketing content, not legal advice. Possession is fact-sensitive and misuse carries real penalties — take advice before you serve.