If you own a rental property in Shropshire, Worcestershire or the surrounding area, there is a fair chance you have thought about selling it this year. Perhaps more than thought about it. The rules changed in May, and being a landlord can feel like a job you never applied for.
We understand the temptation. But before you serve notice on your tenant, there is one rule you need to know about, because it has already caught out landlords across the country.
The rule most landlords haven't heard of
On 1 May 2026, the Renters’ Rights Act came into force. Section 21, the old “no fault” route to ending a tenancy, is gone. If you want your tenant to leave so you can sell with the property empty, you now have to use a specific legal ground for possession, known as Ground 1A. It requires at least four months’ notice, and that notice cannot take effect within the first twelve months of the tenancy.
But it is the next part that matters most. Once you use the selling ground, you cannot re-let or even advertise the property to let for twelve months. Not if the buyer pulls out. Not if the chain collapses. Not if the offers never come. Breaking that rule is a criminal offence, with fines that can reach £40,000, and there is no sympathy clause for a sale that falls through. Your property sits empty, the mortgage, insurance and council tax keep running, and the law says you cannot take a penny of rent on it.
Serving notice to sell is therefore a bet. So it is worth looking honestly at the market you would be betting on.
The market you would be selling into
Buyers currently have more choice than at any point in over a decade, and they are taking their time. Rightmove’s July figures show the number of homes for sale is close to a twelve-year high, and homes that have to cut their asking price take an average of 127 days just to find a buyer. More than a third of homes listed this year have reduced their price at least once. Even once an offer is agreed, the government’s own figures put the average time to completion at around 120 days.
Add the four months’ notice to your tenant, and a landlord starting today is realistically looking at 2027 before the money is in the bank. If it arrives at all. A typical rental in our area brings in around £850 a month, so a failed sale under Ground 1A costs more than £10,000 in lost rent, plus every bill an empty house still generates.
Selling has become a one-way door
The stamp duty surcharge on additional properties is not new. It arrived in 2016 and rose to 5% in 2024. But if you bought your property before 2016, you may never have had to think about it. It changes the decision more than most people realise: if you sell now and ever want back in, buying a £200,000 rental, a fairly typical purchase in our area, means a stamp duty bill of £11,500. The same house bought as your own home would cost £1,500.
So this is not a choice between selling now and selling later. It is a choice between keeping an income-producing asset and paying a five-figure entry fee if you ever want one again. And if the concern is that your children do not want to inherit a rental, it is worth knowing that a property gifted in your lifetime with no mortgage attached carries no stamp duty for the person receiving it, though the wider tax picture deserves proper advice. There are usually better answers than a rushed sale.
Consider what you would be walking away from. Local rents rose 3.8% across Shropshire in the past year, and the supply of rental homes remains 20% to 30% below pre-pandemic levels, which means more tenants competing for fewer homes. The asset you would be giving up is producing more income than it ever has, and it is getting harder to replace. That door is worth thinking hard about before you close it.
More change is coming. That is exactly the point.
The Renters’ Rights Act is not finished. Further phases are still ahead, including a national landlord database and a new ombudsman, each with its own registrations, deadlines and penalties. And the new Prime Minister has made no secret of his interest in the rental market, and in how property is taxed and regulated.
For a landlord managing everything alone, every one of those changes lands on your desk. For a fully managed landlord, it lands on ours. That is the difference, and it is the whole point of the service.
Are you tired of owning property, or tired of managing it?
These are two different problems, and only one of them is solved by giving up a well-performing asset in a slow-moving market. Most landlords who tell us they are thinking of selling are not tired of the income or the asset. They are tired of the phone calls, the certificates, the deadlines, and the worry that one missed rule could cost them dearly.
That is precisely what a fully managed service with Nock Deighton removes. You deal with an expert local lettings team that knows your property and your tenant, where you are a name, not a number. We monitor every change in the law, handle what it requires on your behalf, and keep you updated in plain English, so when the next set of rules arrives, and it will, you are already ahead of it. Every applicant goes through our three-step qualification process before you are asked to approve them, because under the new rules getting the right tenant in at the start matters more than ever. And if you want your income protected too, our rent guarantee option is backed by a master insurance policy, with any claim handled by us, not you. We have been letting property across Shropshire for over forty years, through every change the market has thrown at landlords.
Before you serve notice, have one conversation
If what you want is the income without the headache, and a professional standing between you and whatever changes come next, you do not need to sell. You need a better arrangement. Talk to us first. We will give you the honest numbers on what your property would let for today and what fully managed would actually cost you.
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