Today, 31 July, a quiet legal deadline passes that most of the market will not even notice.

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It is the last day a landlord can bring court proceedings under a Section 21 notice served before 1 May. After that date, the no-fault eviction era in England is not simply abolished. It is finished for good.

I have spent more than 30 years in UK property, and I cannot think of another week that draws such a clean line between one regime and the next.

Look at what has actually happened to the private rented sector this year. Assured shorthold tenancies, the legal backbone of buy-to-let since 1988, no longer exist for new lets. Every tenancy is now periodic. Possession requires a statutory ground that has to be evidenced and, increasingly, defended in court. A national landlord database begins its regional rollout later this year, with an........

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