How tenants can end a tenancy

Introduction

Where residential accommodation is let on an assured tenancy, legally the landlord can only end the tenancy by obtaining a court order for possession.

As of 1st May 2026, Assured Periodic Tenancies are the default tenancy type in England. These tenancies can only be ended where either:

• the landlord serves a Section 8 notice and applies for a court order based on a specific reason, such as rent arrears; or
• the tenant ends the tenancy of their own volition and moves somewhere else.

Most of the time, this will be fairly clear. The tenant will serve notice to the landlord, attend a check-out inspection, and hand back the keys. The landlord is then free to relet the property.

However, sometimes it isn't clear and this can be a real problem. Some tenants may disappear without providing notice and cease communications with the landlord. Typically, this will be after they have built up rent arrears or a couple have split up. 

In these cases, the landlord will need to decide whether they can retake possession of the property or whether they need apply to court for a possession order first.

In this guidance, we explain the different ways in which the tenant can bring the tenancy to an end, because the landlord usually has to rely on the tenant to do so if the landlord wishes to avoid going to court.