It was 2pm on 30 April when Carl Kansinde Middleton received a “no fault” eviction from his landlord in Brighton – just 10 hours before section 21 notices were officially banned under the Renters’ Right Act.

“As we were getting closer, I really thought I was safe,” he said. “It just never occurred to me that it would just come right on the last day – I truly felt blindsided.

“I lost my job in November and it’s been a struggle for me financially as I have no support system. I was just about treading water but this has swept me under. I haven’t found a place yet. Honestly I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Middleton, 27, is one of hundreds of people across England who received a no-fault eviction in the weeks, days and even hours before the practice was banned under legislation designed to protect the rights of tenants.

Solicitors reported being inundated with requests to serve last-minute eviction notices before 1 May, and having to get them hand-delivered to tenants when there was not enough time to post them.

Middleton said his notice came via email, text message and post, making it impossible to miss. He said he had always had a good relationship with his landlord, and paid the first year of his rent upfront when he moved into the studio flat two and half years ago.

“If there was anything more I could have done to stop this, I don’t know what it was,” he said. “I have no idea where I’m going to live, everything else of a similar size in this area is out of my price range now.

“The Renters’ Rights Act was near perfect but it should have been implemented in October when it became law – these evictions are a very unfortunate but foreseen consequence.”

Three days earlier section 21 eviction notices were issued to a whole building of tenants in Moseley, south Birmingham, when the property was sold to a new owner who claimed they needed to leave for a refurbishment.

The 12 tenants, a range of couples and individuals including a disabled person with a daily carer, said the eviction notices came out of the blue and left them all stunned.

“We were all devastated. Everyone was in tears,” said Sharonjit Sutton, a self-employed graphic designer who lives in the building. “Everyone was just in shock and couldn’t believe it was happening. We still can’t believe it. None of us have started packing because we can’t imagine leaving.”

Jess Thiari, 41, has lived in the building for seven years with her dog, Pip, and has recently been signed off work because of a pulmonary embolism. She said the eviction was “like a blow to the stomach”.

“It was just really difficult because if it was in a few more days this wouldn’t have happened,” she said. “People have lived here for 10, 20 years and we’re good tenants, nobody is behind on rent. They just did it because they could.”

The building was sold by an individual landlord to a property development company linked to a provider of supported and temporary accommodation for homeless people. The tenants said they worried the new laws had created fear among smaller landlords, pushing them to sell up.

All the tenants are now looking for other properties in the same area, and question whether there is enough to go around. “We went to a flat viewing and there was someone else viewing at the same time who had also been given a section 21 eviction. It’s going to be very competitive,” Sutton said.

Like many tenants, they have been advised to resist the eviction notice for as long as possible, forcing the issue into court and giving them more time to find somewhere else. “But the emotional toll of that will be quite hard to take,” Sutton said.

In Barnet, north London, 68-year-old Izzi, who asked for her surname not to be published, said her section 21 eviction notice on 27 April came after she had recently been diagnosed with a benign brain tumour that was beginning to cause her health issues.

“Having rented the same place for 22 years, I am appalled. I was just astonished and shocked when it came through,” she said. “I think I’m looking at homelessness, and at my age that feels like a death sentence.”

She said she was looking for a new home, but was finding most places unaffordable because housing benefit had been frozen and due to her age she wanted somewhere on the ground floor.

“I’m looking at not being able to afford most of the same or similar accommodation. And because I’m 68, I really don’t want to move again. I can’t face moving twice, especially if I end up in some way incapacitated,” she said. “The council has very few single occupancy houses, so I think I could be waiting a long time for that.”

Sara*, 31, a self-employed hairdresser from Otley in Leeds, has lived in her home for 13 years. In February, she was served a section 21 notice by her landlord with no warning.

“Honestly, it’s turned our lives upside down,” she said. She is a single parent to two children with diagnosed autism and ADHD, aged eight and three, and said the impact had been “overwhelming”.

“My children rely on routine and familiarity to feel safe, and this has shaken that,” she said. “The uncertainty is already affecting their wellbeing and behaviour.”

Despite an “immaculate” rental record, finding somewhere new has proven impossible and she has been told the council would not help until she and her children were actually homeless. “I’ve literally got to wait until the bailiffs come to the property to remove me, otherwise they say I’m making myself homeless. That’s terrifying. It feels like I’m being forced to wait for everything to fall apart before anyone will help,” she said.

Sara may have to move into temporary accommodation, far from her children’s schools and support networks. “The thought of potentially being placed in a hostel, miles away from everything my children depend on, is unbearable,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Banning no-fault evictions is the biggest change to renting in a generation and will free families from the misery it has created. We brought in this ban as swiftly as possible while giving the sector enough time to prepare for these seismic changes.”

* Name has been changed.