Before May 1st, 2026, the single biggest barrier to tenants exercising their rights was fear of retaliation. Report a repair, ask about damp and mould, or push back on anything your landlord was doing wrong, and the response could be a Section 21 notice giving you two months to leave.
While some protections against so-called retaliatory evictions were introduced in 2015, they only kicked in if you'd complained to the council in writing, the council had inspected the property, and the council had then served an improvement notice or notice of emergency remedial action on the landlord.
Most tenants never met those requirements and were therefore not protected against retaliatory or revenge evictions, and the government's own assessment acknowledged that a significant minority of renters were forced to live in substandard conditions because they knew any complaint could lead to an eviction they couldn't fight.
The Renters' Rights Act takes a different approach. Instead of bolting narrow protections onto a system that allows no-fault eviction, it removes no-fault eviction entirely and builds in specific penalties for landlords who try to achieve the same outcome through other routes with backdoor evictions.
A backdoor eviction is any attempt by a landlord to force a tenant out without going through the proper legal process.
While the Renters' Rights Act doesn't use the phrase "backdoor eviction" anywhere in the legislation, that’s essentially what they are, and the government explicitly acknowledged the risk during the Bill's passage through Parliament and designed the Act's protections to close each route a landlord might try.
Every eviction in England now requires a Section 8 ground to be proved in court. A complaint about repairs, a challenge to a rent increase, or a request to keep a pet doesn't engage any ground, but that doesn't stop some landlords from looking for workarounds.
With Section 21 gone, a landlord who wants to remove a tenant without a genuine legal ground has four main options left. The Act addresses all of them.
The most obvious replacement for Section 21 is to serve a Section 8 notice citing a ground the landlord doesn't actually intend to follow through on. The most likely candidates are Ground 1 (moving in) and Ground 1A (selling), because both are mandatory and the landlord only needs to show intention, which is harder for a tenant to disprove upfront.
The tactic relies on the tenant seeing the notice and leaving voluntarily, without the landlord ever having to prove the ground in court. Many tenants, particularly those who don't know their rights, will assume the notice means they have to go.
The Act counters this in two ways. First, Grounds 1 and 1A come with a 12-month re-letting ban. If a landlord gets possession on either ground, they can't re-let or market the property for 12 months from the earliest possession date in the notice. Breaching the ban is a criminal offence under the new Section 16J of the Housing Act 1988, carrying a civil penalty of up to £40,000 and a rent repayment order to the former tenant of up to two years' rent.
Second, the new Sections 16I to 16K create a standalone offence for serving a Section 8 notice without reasonably believing the ground would succeed at court, where the tenant moves out within four months. That catches landlords who use any ground as a bluff, not just Grounds 1 and 1A.
Because the Renters’ Rights Act doesn’t impose any rent caps or rent increase limits, a landlord who can’t evict you might try to price you out instead by proposing an unaffordable rent increase through Section 13 in the hopes that you’ll leave.
This might have worked under the old system, because referring rent increase to the First-tier Tribunal was a gamble. The Tribunal could decide your rent should be higher than what the landlord proposed, which meant most tenants never challenged it.
From May 1st, if you challenge a rent increase at the Tribunal, it determines the market rate for the property based on comparable rents in the area and the property's condition. If the landlord's proposal is above the market rate, it comes down. If it's at or below market rate, it stays. The Tribunal can never set the rent higher than what the landlord proposed, and it can't backdate the increase. The new rent only takes effect from the next payment date after the decision, and the Tribunal can delay it by a further two months on hardship grounds
That means a tenant facing a suspiciously large increase can challenge it for £47 with nothing to lose. The government described this as providing stronger protections against backdoor eviction by ensuring tenants are able to appeal excessive above-market rents, which are purely designed to force them out.
Some landlords take the opposite approach: instead of raising the rent, they let the property deteriorate until the tenant has no choice but to leave. Ignoring repair requests, letting damp and mould spread, failing to deal with pest infestations, or dragging their feet on essential maintenance.
Under the old system, complaining about any of this risked a Section 21 notice, but that risk is now gone because your landlord now needs a genuine ground to evict you, and poor property condition isn't one.
If your landlord is neglecting the property, you can report them to your local council's environmental health team, which has the power to inspect the property and serve improvement notices. Future phases of the Renters' Rights Act will introduce a Decent Homes Standard and Awaab's Law for the private rented sector, which will impose stricter timescales for dealing with hazards like damp and mould.
Some of the most extreme forms of backdoor eviction include actions like changing locks, cutting off water, gas, or electricity, removing belongings, or physically removing you from your home or preventing you from entering. These landlords might also harass you, make threats, interfere with your peace or comfort, or persistently withdraw services with the intention of making you leave.
These have been criminal offences under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 since it was enacted, and Section 57 of the Renters' Rights Act increases the maximum penalties and gives local authorities stronger enforcement tools to pursue them.
If this happens to you, call the police in the first instance because all these are criminal offences. You should also contact your council’s private rented sector enforcement team and seek professional advice from the likes of Shelter. Don’t assume that the eviction is lawful and don’t hand over your keys; only a court-issued warrant enforced by bailiffs is a lawful eviction.
There are no penalties for backdoor evictions per se, because the Act doesn’t introduce them directly as a concept. Instead, there are penalties for each of the above potential backdoor routes:
Under the old system, a Section 21 notice cost the landlord nothing, and the tenant had no recourse. Under the new system, a bad-faith eviction attempt can result in a criminal record, a five-figure penalty, and a substantial payout to the tenant.
It’s true that a determined landlord with deep pockets and a willingness to break the law might still try to force a tenant out. But the combination of abolished Section 21, ground-specific scrutiny, misuse penalties, re-letting bans, risk-free Tribunal challenges, and criminal liability for unlawful eviction makes the cost of retaliation significantly higher than it has ever been.
If you believe your landlord is retaliating against you or trying to force you out, Shelter's helpline is available on 0808 800 4444. Citizens Advice can help online or through your local bureau. Report unlawful eviction or harassment to your local council's private rented sector enforcement team and to the police.
Any attempt by a landlord to force a tenant out without going through the proper legal process. The phrase doesn't appear in the Renters' Rights Act, but the protections it introduces are designed to close the main routes landlords might use: fake possession grounds, excessive rent increases, neglect of the property, and illegal eviction or harassment.
If your landlord serves a Section 8 notice without reasonably believing the ground would succeed, and you move out within four months, the local authority can impose a civil penalty of up to £7,000. If the landlord acted knowingly or recklessly, the penalty rises to £40,000 and you can apply for a rent repayment order of up to two years' rent.
No. If a landlord obtains possession on Ground 1 (moving in) or Ground 1A (selling), they're banned from re-letting or marketing the property for 12 months. Breaching the ban is a criminal offence carrying a civil penalty of up to £40,000 and a rent repayment order to the former tenant.
They can propose any amount through Section 13, but you can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal for £47 with no risk of the rent going higher. The Tribunal determines the market rate and can only set the rent at or below what the landlord proposed.
Call the police. It's a criminal offence under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Contact your council's private rented sector enforcement team and get advice from Shelter immediately. Do not leave the property and do not hand over your keys. Only a court-issued warrant enforced by bailiffs is a lawful eviction.
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