Section 21 notice

cccs1986

My tenant has an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement in place since January 5th, 2009. (Rent paid by housing benefit). because of damage caused to the property I served a Section 21 notice on 10th October giving her until 13th December to move out. It was the correct form, and signed and dated, and hand delivered to the property. The

The tenant now says that I haven't given her the correct ammount of notice to quit, and I have to give her a further 2 months.

Is she right?

Thank you!

clutton_2

yes she is..... if you are going to go through the whole court eviction processi suggest you join National Landlords Association (tax deductible expense) and get their help infilling out all the document.

What are the date of the fixed term on the last tenancy agreement she signed ?

bebewoo

Assuming the AST had ended and she was on periodic, the two months notice should date from the rent due date. What day of the month does she pay the rent? e.g if it was on the 11th or 12th of each month then you are correct.
But if rent was due any other day then she is right you did not give it on the correct day but even in that case I would assume that she would only gain one extra month from your error, not 2.

paul1964_2

bebewoo wrote: »

..... even in that case I would assume that she would only gain one extra month from your error, not 2.

Assuming the rent due date is the 5th, won't he have to do the S21 again and give notice to 5th March?

BitterAndTwisted

Assume nothing. If the S21 notice was incorrectly served back in October then it will have to be re-served now giving two month's notice presumably from the 3rd of January.

mavala25

I agree with paul1964
if the notice has been served incorrectly a brand new 2 month ntq will have to be served again

cccs1986

She pays the rent on the 5th, so it seems you have to give 2 months notice PLUS however many days are left of the month - which potentially could be 2 months plus 30 days!

Jowo_2

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/notice_to_quit.htm

Where the tenancy has become a periodic one the notice given must expire on the last day of a rent period. For example, if a monthly periodic tenancy rent day is the 20th of the month, the two month notice period must end on the 19th of the month in question.

See their notes on how to serve a valid S21

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/agreements.htm

At least you found this out now rather than on the day of the court case if you proceeded with the original document as you may have had to wait a month for the possession case to reach court before the judge tossed it out. What with the court closure over Xmas/new year period, you may have only discovered your poor paperwork towards the end of January.

If the property is in England/Wales, did you put the deposit in a tenancy deposit scheme?

teeni

cccs1986 wrote: »

My tenant has an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement in place since January 5th, 2009. (Rent paid by housing benefit). because of damage caused to the property I served a Section 21 notice on 10th October giving her until 13th December to move out. It was the correct form, and signed and dated, and hand delivered to the property. The

The tenant now says that I haven't given her the correct ammount of notice to quit, and I have to give her a further 2 months.

Is she right?

Thank you!

did it have a saving clause in it, if so it would not need to be reserved but would not expire until after the 4th January.

Any possession proceedings can not be started until after that date. Get the notice checked out quickly before you miss another deadline

N79

cccs1986 wrote: »

She pays the rent on the 5th, so it seems you have to give 2 months notice PLUS however many days are left of the month - which potentially could be 2 months plus 30 days!

So - the law says that you have to give notice of at least 8 weeks of notice - and tenancies always end on the last day of a rental period. The fact that a LL misses the service date by a day does not change this.

teeni wrote: »

did it have a saving clause in it, if so it would not need to be reserved but would not expire until after the 4th January.

Any possession proceedings can not be started until after that date. Get the notice checked out quickly before you miss another deadline

A good point. Clearly no saving clause = notice invalid.

However, even if there is a saving clause, given that the original notice did not give two whole rental periods, I personally would not like to rely on any saving clause, even if it does exist, in this case.
The OP's notice is clearly prejudicial to the T - this is not a dispute about "on" or "after" around the exact final day of the rental period.

OP - If you did use a saving clause then if you want further opinions you will need to post the exact wording of your notice, including the saving clause. Otherwise take your notice, including the saving clause to a good housing solicitor.

Edit: And if you no idea what teeni and I are talking about then you will need to serve a new notice.

teeni

N79 wrote: »

So - the law says that you have to give notice of at least 8 weeks of notice - and tenancies always end on the last day of a rental period. The fact that a LL misses the service date by a day does not change this.


A good point. Clearly no saving clause = notice invalid.

However, even if there is a saving clause, given that the original notice did not give two whole rental periods, I personally would not like to rely on any saving clause, even if it does exist, in this case.
The OP's notice is clearly prejudicial to the T - this is not a dispute about "on" or "after" around the exact final day of the rental period.

OP - If you did use a saving clause then if you want further opinions you will need to post the exact wording of your notice, including the saving clause. Otherwise take your notice, including the saving clause to a good housing solicitor.

Edit: And if you no idea what teeni and I are talking about then you will need to serve a new notice.

Hi as you say no saving clause - invalid notice

but if there is one then this would validate the notice after the 4th January as tenant would then have 2 months notice ending on the last day of a tenancy period, surely this is the whole purpose of the saving clause. I find the issue when ther is a saving clause in place is landlords tend to issue proceedings based on the date in the notice,forgetting that the saving clause terminates the tenancy on a different date, hence when i am court defending the tenant in such cases i get the application dismissed.

I have to say i love ill informed landlords they make my working life very easy. It always amazes me why anybody would spend so much money on a property and then try and skimp on getting good legal advice when they have issues with the tenant.