Section 8 for tenancies that started before May 2026

Section 8 works the same way for existing tenancies as for new ones: since 1 May 2026, every private assured tenancy, including one that began years ago as an AST, uses Form 3A, the same grounds and the same notice periods. The differences are in the detail: which grounds you can use, when the first-year rule started, and what happened to any notice you served before May. This guide covers those points for landlords with older tenancies.

What happened to existing ASTs on 1 May 2026

Every existing private assured tenancy, including every assured shorthold tenancy, carried on as a periodic assured tenancy under the new section 4A of the Housing Act 1988. In practice:

• Fixed terms stopped working. Terms providing for a fixed term have no effect. The tenancy runs from one rent period to the next with no end date.
• Rent periods are monthly or shorter. Rent periods must be 28 days or shorter, or monthly. If your tenancy had longer periods, such as quarterly rent, monthly periods applied from the day after the rent period in which 1 May 2026 fell, with the rent apportioned.
• Tenancies just out of a fixed term. If the fixed term expired immediately before 1 May 2026, the changes applied from the start of the first periodic period.
• No landlord's notice to quit. You can end the tenancy only by getting a court order, which starts with a Section 8 notice. A notice to quit from the landlord has no effect.

Our guide to periodic tenancies under the Renters' Rights Act explains the wider changes.

Which Section 8 grounds can you use on existing tenancies?

Nearly all of them. The main difference depends on whether the tenancy was an AST before 1 May 2026, or an old-style assured tenancy that never was one (sometimes called a legacy assured tenancy).

	Former AST (most private lets)	Legacy assured tenancy (never an AST)
Ground 1 (moving in)	Yes	Yes
Ground 1A (selling)	Yes	No
Other private grounds	Yes	Yes
Deposit rules can block the order	Yes	No
Penalty for using a "prior statement" ground without a statement given before the tenancy	Doesn't apply to tenancies in writing	Doesn't apply to tenancies in writing

The deposit rule matters most. For a former AST, if you took a deposit, the court can make an order on most grounds only if the deposit is protected and the prescribed information was given, or the deposit has been returned. Check your deposit paperwork before you serve. See deposit protection.

The first-year rule on a converted tenancy

Grounds 1 and 1A can't be used unless the tenancy began at least one year before the date in the notice: the protected period. For a former AST, the question is when the tenancy "began".

The Renters' Rights Act treats a fixed-term AST and the periodic tenancy that followed it as one tenancy, entered into when the fixed term was entered into. So the first year runs from the start of the original fixed term, not from 1 May 2026.

Example: an AST began on 1 September 2024 for 12 months, continued as a periodic tenancy and became a section 4A assured tenancy on 1 May 2026. The protected period ended long ago. A Ground 1A notice served by hand on Monday 2 November 2026 can give a date of Tuesday 2 March 2027.

If you granted the same tenant a new tenancy at some point, for example a second fixed term on a fresh agreement, it isn't settled whether the clock restarts. To be safe, count from the start of the most recent tenancy you granted.

Ground 4A on existing student lets

Ground 4A lets you recover a student HMO for a new group of students. For tenancies that existed on 1 May 2026:

• the written statement that you wished to use the ground had to be given by 31 May 2026; without it, the ground can't be used;
• the condition that the tenancy was entered into no more than 6 months before the tenant became entitled to possession doesn't apply;
• for "qualifying student tenancies", where the landlord or manager belongs to a specified code of practice, the HMO condition and the 1 June to 30 September date window don't apply either;
• the transitional 2-month notice period applied only to notices served between 1 May and 30 July 2026. Notice is now 4 months.

Notices you served before 1 May 2026

Old Section 8 notices on the old Form 3 lasted until the earlier of their own 12-month limit or 31 July 2026. If you requested the court claim in time, the notice stays valid until those proceedings finish. If not, it can no longer be used, and you need a new notice on Form 3A.

Old section 21 notices had to be used by the earlier of their own time limit or 31 July 2026. The court process can't now be started on one, except in narrow breathing-space cases. See our guide to the section 21 notice.

When an old notice stopped being valid, the tenancy carried on as a periodic assured tenancy. If it was a written tenancy, the Information Sheet was then due within one month of the notice ceasing to be valid.

Paperwork that affects older tenancies

• The Information Sheet. For tenancies in writing that began before 1 May 2026, you had to give every named tenant the government's "Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet 2026" by 31 May 2026, as a printed copy or the PDF attached to an email or text (not a link). The statute doesn't make it a condition of a valid Section 8 notice, but not giving it risks a penalty of up to £7,000. To be safe, give it before you serve if you haven't. See the Information Sheet.
• Wholly verbal tenancies. If nothing was in writing, you had to give a written statement of terms by 31 May 2026 instead.
• Your tenancy agreement. You don't have to re-issue it. Clauses on fixed terms and rent reviews no longer work, but a clause on how notices must be served still matters when you serve a Section 8 notice.

What to do next

Check three things before serving: whether the tenancy was an AST, when it originally began, and whether the deposit and Information Sheet are in order. Our guide on whether the Renters' Rights Act applies to existing tenancies covers the wider rules. ValidNotice asks these questions as you go and flags any ground you can't use on your tenancy. Return to the Section 8 notice guide for the full process.