Consumer Rights Daily: Section 21 Is Dead From Today, the FCA Drags a Banned Mortgage Broker Into the Dock, and Wellesley Investors Get a Final Word

1st May 2026 | Industry Watch

Section 21 Evictions Are Banned From Today

If you rent your home in England, today, 1st May 2026, the rules changed.

The Renters' Rights Act 2026 has commenced. Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, the statutory basis for a "no-fault eviction" notice, is abolished. Any landlord who serves a Section 21 notice on or after today is doing two things at once: serving an invalid notice, and committing an offence that local authorities can punish with a civil penalty of up to £7,000 per breach.

Three changes that affect almost every renter in England:

1. Every assured shorthold tenancy converts automatically to an open-ended periodic tenancy. You don't need to sign anything. The fixed-term lease structure most renters have been on for years is gone.
2. Landlords can still seek possession, but only via Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, and only on one of the specified statutory grounds. Selling the property, the landlord moving back in, serious rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, and a small list of others. The landlord has to specify the ground and prove it.
3. The £7,000 civil penalty is a real lever. If your landlord serves a Section 21 notice on or after today, and they may, plenty are still working from outdated templates, you have grounds to report them to the local authority's housing standards team. That's a route that did not meaningfully exist before today.

What this means in practice if you're renting:

• You don't need to do anything for your tenancy to convert. It's automatic.
• If you receive a Section 21 notice dated 1st May 2026 or later, do not move out. It is invalid. Take a screenshot or photo of it, note the date you received it, and report it to your local authority's housing standards or private-sector housing team. The £7,000 penalty applies on a per-breach basis.
• If your landlord wants you out, they now have to give a reason and back it up in court. "I just want my property back" is no longer a ground. Selling the property is, but if the landlord then doesn't sell within a defined window, that's evidence you can use later.
• Disrepair complaints just got more powerful. Under the old regime, asking your landlord to fix the damp risked a retaliatory Section 21. That risk is gone. If you've been holding off on a complaint about disrepair, today is the day to start the paper trail.

Citizens Advice told the press yesterday that they're already supporting more than 200 people a day on disrepair, no-fault evictions and rent hikes as the new regime kicks in. Demand is real. The advice channels are going to be saturated.

EvenStance handles property disputes end-to-end: writing the formal complaint, escalating to the local authority, and going to court if needed. If you're dealing with a landlord who's still operating as if Section 21 still exists, we can build the case for you.

The FCA Charges a Banned Mortgage Broker With Carrying On Anyway

The Financial Conduct Authority announced yesterday (30th April) that it has formally charged Shaun Lawrence, also known as Shaun Lawrence-Bright and Shaun Bright, with a criminal offence under Section 19 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The allegation: he operated as a mortgage broker without FCA authorisation. The detail that makes this case particularly notable: he was already banned from financial services back in 2008.

In other words, the FCA's case is that he kept arranging regulated mortgage contracts for almost two decades after being told he could not.

The first hearing is at Hull Magistrates' Court on 2nd July 2026. The total value of the alleged unauthorised activity has not been disclosed in the press release.

Why this matters for ordinary consumers:

• Always check the FCA Register before signing anything mortgage-related. Free at register.fca.org.uk. If a broker isn't on the register, walking away is the right move.
• A "banned" broker who is still operating is a fraud risk in plain sight. They have nothing to lose. They aren't subject to the supervision, complaint-handling rules, or capital requirements of an authorised firm.
• If you took out a mortgage that you now suspect was arranged by an unauthorised intermediary, the lender may still be on the hook. Speak to your lender first; if they refuse to acknowledge a problem, the case can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and depending on the facts, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is sometimes a backstop.

The criminal prosecution is rare and worth flagging. The FCA's enforcement teams have generally preferred regulatory tools over criminal charges. When they do go criminal, they pick cases where the message is unambiguous.

The Wellesley & Co Investigation Closes, and the Verdict Is Mixed

Also yesterday, the FCA published a final statement on its review of consumer complaints about Wellesley & Co Limited, the mini-bond and preference-share promoter that collapsed and entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement.

The headline:

• The FCA upheld one complaint about how part of WCL's authorisation process was handled.
• But it found this did not cause investor losses. The losses, the FCA says, came from the failure of unregulated companies within the Wellesley Group, not from anything the FCA did.
• Around 60% of money invested has been returned to investors who held secured mini-bonds.
• Investors who received preference shares as part of the CVA have lost everything they put in.

If you held Wellesley preference shares, this is unwelcome reading. The FCA's statement effectively closes one route. It does not close the other routes.

What's still on the table:

1. A complaint to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if your investment was sold to you by an FCA-authorised firm whose advice you can show was unsuitable. The FSCS does not pay out simply because a firm failed; it pays out where there is a regulated activity loss the firm cannot cover.
2. A complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if a regulated party in the chain (an IFA, a SIPP operator, a comparison platform) gave you advice or marketing that misled you about the risk of the product.
3. The CVA itself is still the primary recovery route for the underlying investments.

The FCA's "we caused no losses" finding is not the end of the story. It just means complaints aimed at the regulator itself are now closed. Complaints about the firms that sold the product are not.

Quick-Hit Roundup

• MHRA Class 2 medicines recall: Amarox Limited's Sertraline 100mg film-coated tablets may contain Citalopram, a different antidepressant, due to a manufacturing error. Reference EL(26)A/22, issued 28th April. If you take Sertraline 100mg, check your packaging and speak to your pharmacist. Affected consumers may also have a complaint angle against the manufacturer or pharmacy under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
• LCM Family Limited has entered administration (FCA notice, 29th April). If you have a live complaint or compensation claim against the firm, your route is likely now via the FSCS rather than the firm directly. Keep all your records.
• FCA Warning List additions (30th April): Ava+trade, PRO TRADER (operating on social media as @forextraders777), and a firm calling itself simply "Mortgage Advisor". Avoid all three.
• Bank of England held base rate at 3.75% at yesterday's meeting, the second consecutive month at this level. No immediate change for new mortgages or savings.
• The Renters' Rights Act press cycle: Which? led with section 21 commencement coverage today. We've covered the practical detail above.

What's Coming Up

• 17th June 2026: deadline for responses to the FCA's APR Discussion Paper and the companion CP25/27 on simplifying financial promotion rules.
• 30th June 2026: motor finance lenders must start contacting affected customers under the FCA redress scheme. The legal challenges from Mercedes, VW and BMW may delay the actual payouts but do not affect the headline complaint deadline of 31st August 2027.

[Editor's note, 15th May 2026]: The FCA confirmed on 8th May 2026 that the scheme start has been delayed to approximately November 2026 due to four legal challenges at the Upper Tribunal. The 30th June 2026 implementation period end date is a lender operational deadline, not a consumer payout date. Consumers should still complain now to be in the faster queue. See our 12 May roundup for details.

• 2nd July 2026: first hearing in the FCA's criminal prosecution of Shaun Lawrence at Hull Magistrates' Court.

This roundup is aggregated from the day's regulator and consumer-press coverage and is general information, not legal advice. EvenStance helps you turn this kind of news into action: writing the complaint, escalating to the right ombudsman, and going to court if you need to.