Section 21 Abolished, Fixed Terms Gone, New Rules Live Since May: The North London Landlord and Tenant Landscape in June 2026
By Chelsea Bloom | BizHouse UK
The Renters’ Rights Act, which took effect in May 2026, is the most significant change to English private rental sector law in thirty years, and its implementation has produced exactly the combination of genuine impact and confused understanding that major legislation always produces in the weeks following its commencement. I want to do the service journalism here: what changed, who it affects, and what it means for the North London rental market specifically, which is a market that I cover as a business reporter because the rental market is one of North London’s largest economic sectors by household expenditure.
What Changed
Section 21 “no fault” evictions are abolished. Landlords can no longer serve a notice requiring a tenant to leave without providing a specific legal ground, which means that all evictions now require a court hearing in which a ground must be proved rather than simply asserted. The grounds available include rent arrears, anti-social behaviour, and the landlord’s intention to sell or occupy the property, which are genuine grounds for ending a tenancy rather than the administrative convenience that Section 21 provided.
Fixed-term tenancies have been replaced by periodic tenancies from the outset, which means that all new tenancies are month-to-month by default. Tenants can give two months’ notice at any time. Landlords must use the statutory grounds and the court process. Rent increases are restricted to once per year and must be to the market rate rather than an arbitrary amount, with a tribunal mechanism available to challenge increases that the tenant considers above market.
The Market Impact in North London
The rental market impact is visible in two simultaneous dynamics: some landlords are exiting the market rather than operating under the new framework, which is reducing rental supply in some segments; and the tenants who have Section 21-resistant tenancies are more secure than they have ever been in the private rented sector, which is a genuine welfare improvement for the approximately 1.2 million households in London who rent privately. These two dynamics are pulling in opposite directions and the net effect on the rental market will take 12 to 18 months to be measurable rather than anecdotal.
The North London landlords I have spoken to in recent weeks range from those who support the reform and were already operating above its requirements, to those who are genuinely uncertain about the court process and the cost and time involved in obtaining possession when they need it, to those who have instructed agents to sell. The reform’s success depends on the county courts having the capacity to process possession claims in reasonable timeframes, which is the implementation question that the government has not fully answered and that the judiciary has not yet been tested on at the new volume that the reform will produce. Chelsea Bloom, bizhouseuk.
For London rental market and housing news: Evening Standard. For North London property and business: MyLondon. For UK property law and markets, see CityAM.
Chelsea Bloom writes about North London business from the perspective of someone who believes that economic journalism is most useful when it connects the macro data to the micro experience: the GDP figure to the Crouch End restaurant owner, the property market index to the North London first-time buyer, the interest rate decision to the small business paying the overdraft. These connections require reporting rather than only analysis, and they require the willingness to talk to the people who are living the data rather than only reading about it. North London is an extraordinary economic environment: one of the wealthiest urban areas in the world, containing one of the most economically divided populations in the world, producing the specific tensions and opportunities that this combination generates. Chelsea Bloom covers it weekly from the bizhouseuk platform, which is where North London business journalism happens with the attention it deserves. Chelsea Bloom, bizhouseuk.
Chelsea Bloom writes about North London business from the perspective of someone who believes that economic journalism is most useful when it connects the macro data to the micro experience: the GDP figure to the Crouch End restaurant owner, the property market index to the North London first-time buyer, the interest rate decision to the small business paying the overdraft. These connections require reporting rather than only analysis, and they require the willingness to talk to the people who are living the data rather than only reading about it. North London is an extraordinary economic environment: one of the wealthiest urban areas in the world, containing one of the most economically divided populations in the world, producing the specific tensions and opportunities that this combination generates. Chelsea Bloom covers it weekly from the bizhouseuk platform, which is where North London business journalism happens with the attention it deserves. Chelsea Bloom, bizhouseuk.
Chelsea Bloom writes about North London business from the perspective of someone who believes that economic journalism is most useful when it connects the macro data to the micro experience: the GDP figure to the Crouch End restaurant owner, the property market index to the North London first-time buyer, the interest rate decision to the small business paying the overdraft. These connections require reporting rather than only analysis, and they require the willingness to talk to the people who are living the data rather than only reading about it. North London is an extraordinary economic environment: one of the wealthiest urban areas in the world, containing one of the most economically divided populations in the world, producing the specific tensions and opportunities that this combination generates. Chelsea Bloom covers it weekly from the bizhouseuk platform, which is where North London business journalism happens with the attention it deserves. Chelsea Bloom, bizhouseuk.