When is a Section 21 not a Section 21........ when it doesnt say it is

Over the last few weeks i have seen a startling increase in the number of tenants coming to me with notices given to them by their landlord which are actually invalid and Ihave had the task of writing to all of these landlords to tell them they will now have to serve another 2 months notice.

The problem is, these landlord seem to think all they need to do is write their tenant a short letter asking them to leave in 2 months time......WRONG

if your tenant is on an Assured Shorthold tenancy then you need to serve the correct notice which in the absence of a breach of tenancy will be a section 21 notice.

The reason these notices are invalid is because nowhere in them does it state that possession is required under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.

The section number and Act are important because if you need to apply to the court for possession the judge will know which grounds, why and what procedure should have been followed in order for the judge to make an order of possession or in some cases to not grant an order at all.

So in these cases I have written to the landlord explaining the error and advising that if they  still wish the tenant to leave, then they will need to serve a valid section 21 notice giving 2 clear months notice to vacate from the date the notice is given, to help further I also include a template Section 21 notice so they can see what it needs to contain.

I admit that my letters have not always met with the gratitude I would have expected and on several occasions I have received rather abusive phone calls from these landlords

Serving a section 21 is basic landlord admin and should not be proving such a problem, I can understand that landlords may wish to keep outgoings low but cutting out the agent, but in these cases it may actually end up costing a landlord much more, if their tenant allows them to go to court only for the possession claim to be thrown out and the landlord is left to pay the court fee, which I am sure would be much higher than the cost of an agent or membership to one of the many Landlord associations around the country that will have a template Section 21 notice ready for you to just fill in the blanks.

So come on Landlords, get your finger out and do your research and PLEASE serve your notices correctly

I refer to an article by Paul Shamplina which revealed over 62% of landlord notices are incorrect.

http://www.property118.com/landlord-action-study-landlords-notices/66672/