Ground 1A: Landlord Selling the Property

Ground 1A is the mandatory route for a landlord who wants to sell a tenanted property with vacant possession. It replaced the informal practice, common under the old Section 21 regime, of simply serving a no-fault notice ahead of a sale — under Section 8, selling is now its own named ground, with its own restrictions.

Statutory basis

Ground 1A was inserted into Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 by Schedule 1 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025. It is a new ground with no direct predecessor in the pre-reform Act — under the old dual-route system, a landlord who simply wanted to sell would normally have used Section 21 rather than a grounds-based Section 8 notice.

What it requires

The landlord must have a genuine intention to sell the freehold, or to sell or grant a long lease of their interest in the property. "Genuine intention" is the operative test: real evidence of a planned sale, not possession sought as a pretext with no actual disposal in prospect. Evidence that supports a Ground 1A case includes:

• Instructions to an estate agent to market the property (once vacant).
• A recent market valuation or appraisal obtained specifically to inform a sale decision.
• Correspondence with a conveyancing solicitor.
• In some cases, an existing sale agreed subject to vacant possession.

The ground does not require the sale to be complete, exchanged, or even publicly marketed at the point notice is served — but the further along the process is, the stronger the evidence of genuine intent.

Mandatory or discretionary

Mandatory. Once the landlord proves genuine intention to sell and the other conditions are met, the court must order possession — there is no discretion to weigh the tenant's circumstances against the landlord's plans, unlike the discretionary grounds later in Schedule 2.

Notice period

4 months, matching Ground 1 and the other grounds in the mandatory family/sale/redevelopment cluster.

The 12-month protected period

Like Ground 1, a Ground 1A notice cannot expire before the tenancy has run for a full 12 months, measured from the tenancy's true start date (not the current landlord's acquisition date, and not any renewal date). A landlord who buys a tenanted property inherits the existing protected-period clock.

The re-letting restriction

Ground 1A carries a restriction — shared with Ground 1, not unique to 1A, despite how it is often described — inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 as a new section 16E of the Housing Act 1988. Once a landlord relies on Ground 1A, the property cannot be re-let or re-marketed to let during the restricted period. This restriction exists specifically to prevent landlords using a claimed sale as a pretext to remove a tenant and then simply re-let at a higher rent or to a different tenant. Breaching it is a criminal offence, entirely separate from the civil penalties described below for citing a false ground.

Timing matters here and is easy to get wrong. The restricted period does not start when possession is recovered — it starts when the section 8 notice is served, and runs for 12 months from the date specified in the notice as the earliest date proceedings for possession could begin. In practice this means the restriction is already in force well before the tenant has even left, and continues for a full year measured from that notice date — not from whenever the sale process or the possession claim actually concludes.

The restriction applies regardless of what actually happens to the sale afterwards. If the sale falls through, the landlord cannot pivot to re-letting the property within the restricted period — the property must either remain unsold, be occupied by the landlord, or continue to be marketed for sale. Section 16F does carve out one specific step: granting a licence to occupy to the agreed purchaser, in anticipation of the sale completing, is not itself a breach of the restriction — but re-letting to an unconnected new tenant is exactly what the restriction is designed to stop.

Evidence courts expect

• A genuine, current intention to sell, evidenced by concrete steps taken (agent instruction, valuation, solicitor engagement) rather than a bare assertion.
• No contradictory evidence. A landlord who claims an intention to sell while simultaneously advertising the property to let, or who has a documented pattern of using Ground 1A repeatedly on a portfolio, invites scrutiny.
• Correct relationship between the claimed sale and the specific property — the intention must relate to the dwelling the tenant occupies, not a different unit in a larger holding.
• Correct notice mechanics — Form 3A citing Ground 1A specifically, respecting both the 4-month minimum notice and the 12-month protected period.

Transitional position for tenancies that started before 1 May 2026

Ground 1A applies to tenancies converted from fixed-term ASTs by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 in the same way as any other assured tenancy from 1 May 2026 onward. As with Ground 1, the 12-month protected period is measured from the tenancy's original start date. Note also that the commencement regulations disapply Ground 1A to certain "legacy" assured tenancies that were never assured shorthold tenancies in the first place — a narrower category than most residential lettings, but worth checking if the tenancy's history is unusual. A landlord considering a sale of a tenanted property should check both points before assuming Ground 1A is immediately available.

Common mistakes

• Serving notice before the intention to sell is firm. Because the restricted period starts running from service of the notice, and reversing course inside it is not possible, landlords should be certain before serving.
• Assuming the restriction is Ground-1A-only. It applies equally to Ground 1 — check the Ground 1 page if that ground is also in play.
• Selling to a connected party who then re-lets. An internal transfer dressed up as a sale, followed by a prompt re-letting, risks being treated as exactly the evasion the restriction exists to prevent.
• Miscounting the 12-month protected period from the wrong date — the same trap as Ground 1.
• Assuming the restriction only applies if the sale actually completes. It does not; it is triggered by reliance on the ground and the date the notice was served, regardless of the sale's later outcome.

The cost of getting it wrong

Serving a Ground 1A notice without a genuine intention to sell is an offence under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 enforcement provisions — civil penalty up to £7,000 for initial or minor non-compliance, rising to up to £40,000 (as an alternative to prosecution) where the landlord acted knowingly or recklessly and the tenant left within four months without a court order having been made, plus a possible rent repayment order of up to two years' rent. Breaching the 12-month re-letting ban is a separate criminal offence.

What happens next

If the tenant does not leave once the Form 3A notice expires, the landlord files Form N5 with Form N119 particulars of claim at the County Court, court fee £415.

Related grounds and guides

For the family-occupation equivalent, see Ground 1: Landlord or Close Family Occupation. For the full ground list, return to Section 8 Grounds for Possession. For serving the notice correctly, see How to Serve a Section 8 Notice.