Problem Tenants: What Landlords Can Do Since May 2026
Rent's late again. Or the neighbours have complained twice. Or the garden has turned into a scrapyard and the last three inspections have been dodged.
Most landlords in this position want the same two things: the problem to stop, and to stay on the right side of the law while sorting it. Since May 2026 the second part has changed considerably, and a lot of the advice still floating about is out of date.
The short version
- Section 21 is gone. Abolished on 1 May 2026. There's no longer a no-fault route, so every possession claim now needs a stated ground and proof.
- Serious rent arrears is still a mandatory ground, but the threshold is now three months rather than two.
- Most problems are cheaper to solve than to litigate. A payment plan beats a court date on almost every measure.
- Never try to remove someone yourself. Changing locks or cutting services is a criminal offence, and it turns your problem into their compensation claim.
What actually changed
Before May 2026, a landlord with a difficult tenant had a straightforward option: serve a Section 21 notice, wait two months, no reason needed. It's why so many disputes never got as far as a ground for possession.
That's finished. Existing assured shorthold tenancies converted to assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026, and GOV.UK is blunt about the effect: tenants can no longer be evicted using the no-fault process "even if your tenancy agreement says you can."
So the process now is: identify the ground, serve a valid notice for that ground, and if they don't leave, prove it in court. Our guide to what the Renters' Rights Act changed has the wider picture.
The grounds that actually apply to problem tenants
Mandatory means the court must grant possession if you prove it. Discretionary means the judge decides whether it's reasonable.
Rent arrears
- Ground 8, mandatory. At least three months' rent owed if paid monthly, or 13 weeks if weekly. Four weeks' notice. Critically, the arrears must exist both when you serve notice and on the day of the hearing. A tenant who clears them before the hearing defeats the ground entirely.
- Ground 10, discretionary. Any arrears at all. Four weeks' notice.
- Ground 11, discretionary. Persistent late payment, even if they're up to date now. Four weeks' notice.
The three-month threshold matters. Under the old rules it was two months, so a tenant who was previously in mandatory territory may not be any more.
Antisocial behaviour
- Ground 14, discretionary. Nuisance or annoyance caused by the tenant, someone living there or a visitor. No notice period as such, but the court can't make an order until 14 days after notice is served.
- Ground 7A, mandatory. Serious cases involving convictions or breached antisocial behaviour orders.
Ground 14 lives or dies on evidence. Dates, incident logs, neighbour statements, police reference numbers, council noise team reports. A judge is being asked whether eviction is reasonable, and "they're a nightmare" without documentation rarely gets there.
Breach of the tenancy agreement
Ground 12, discretionary. Covers unauthorised pets, subletting, running a business, or damage. Which makes the wording of your agreement the thing that decides whether you have a case, and it's a good argument for getting the written agreement right at the start.
Before you go anywhere near a notice
Possession is slow, expensive and uncertain, and it ends with an empty property and a void period. Most of what follows is cheaper.
Find out what's actually happening
Rent that stops abruptly is usually a job loss, a relationship ending, a benefits problem or illness. A tenant who has paid on time for two years and then doesn't is a different situation from one who never has.
Ask, early, and in a way that makes it easy to answer honestly. Most people go quiet because they're embarrassed, not because they're chancing it.
Offer a payment plan and put it in writing
A tenant paying £150 a month off arrears while keeping current is worth more than a possession order, a void, re-letting costs and a tenant who owes you money you'll never see. Write it down, keep it realistic, and stick to it on both sides.
Point them at Universal Credit housing element, Discretionary Housing Payments and their council's hardship scheme. Managed payments direct to you are possible where someone's in arrears on Universal Credit. Plenty of tenants don't know any of this exists.
Deal with antisocial behaviour through the right channel
Noise, harassment and antisocial behaviour are matters for the council's ASB team and the police, and both keep records you can later rely on. Log everything yourself too, with dates and times.
Consider mediation
Cheaper than court and it sometimes gets to what's really going on. Some councils fund it for exactly these situations.
What you absolutely must not do
This is the part that turns a landlord with a legitimate grievance into a defendant.
Under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, it's a criminal offence to evict someone without a court order, or to harass them into leaving. That includes:
- Changing the locks
- Removing doors, windows or belongings
- Cutting off gas, electricity or water
- Letting yourself in without proper notice, repeatedly
- Threats, abusive messages, or turning up constantly
- Refusing repairs to make life uncomfortable enough that they go
The consequences are real. Prosecution, unlimited fines, a criminal record, and civil damages that regularly run into thousands. Councils prosecute these cases, and a rent-arrears dispute you would probably have won becomes one you've comprehensively lost.
It also puts you on the wrong side of every record that matters, including your own reputation with future tenants. From the other side of the fence, our guide on landlord harassment sets out what tenants are told to do about it, which is worth reading if only to see how this looks from where they're standing.
If you do need to serve notice
- Pick the right ground, and be honest about whether the evidence supports it.
- Check your own compliance first. Deposit protected and prescribed information served, gas safety certificate, EPC, and the written information about the tenancy's key terms. Failures here can sink a claim regardless of the tenant's conduct.
- Use the correct notice form and give the full notice period. Four weeks for arrears, four months for selling or moving in.
- Serve it properly and keep proof.
- Get legal advice if it's contested. A defective notice costs you months.
And keep the property maintained throughout. A tenant in arrears with a genuine disrepair counterclaim is a much harder case than a tenant in arrears.
The thing that prevents most of this
Nearly every landlord who ends up here says afterwards that the signs were there early. Referencing that was skipped because the property had been empty a month. A repair that dragged on and soured the relationship. An agreement so vague that nobody could say what was actually breached.
Our guides on finding and keeping good tenants and maintaining a good relationship with your tenants cover the front end, which is where this is cheapest to fix.
A word on the wider point
The end of Section 21 is often described as making life impossible for landlords. In practice it removes a shortcut that good landlords rarely used and bad ones relied on. If you keep the property in decent condition, respond to repairs, and can evidence a genuine problem when there is one, the grounds are there and they work.
It does mean records matter more than they did. Written agreements, dated correspondence, inspection notes, incident logs. The landlords who find the new system hardest are the ones who never kept any.
And it's worth remembering that tenants compare notes now. A landlord who handles a difficult situation fairly gets that back in the reviews, which is increasingly what the next good tenant reads before they enquire.
This guide covers England and reflects the Renters' Rights Act as in force from 1 May 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different systems. It's general information rather than legal advice, and possession proceedings are worth taking proper advice on. Sources: GOV.UK, grounds for possession for landlords, GOV.UK, Renters' Rights Act overview.