Served s21 at start of agreement, how much notice do I give

2bFrank

Hello,

I have just served my notice to leave my flat last night. As agreed in the tenancy agreement, I have given a full rental month’s notice, which means the tenancy will run until 17th August. Although, we have bought a new house, which should be completed by this Thursday (30th June). Due to a issue with the house we are buying (we was not sure if it was going to be ready), we did not want to give notice until we were sure it was going ahead, and accepted that we would have this large overlap.

I am just going through all the paperwork, to get everything changed over and sorted, and reading through the copy of the tenancy agreement I noticed we have been served our S21 when we started the tenancy. This was due for the 17th Feb 2010, however nothing came about and after our period tenancy ended we just thought that we went onto our periodic agreement. I am mad that we have been served the s21, and did not even know about it.

With the S21, How much notice do we have to give? Do we still have to wait for the 17th August or can we give an earlier notice period. We only sent a e-mail to the landlord to let them know earlier that we are leaving, and still have the signed notice, which I needed to post.

Any advice will be helpful.
Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

On a periodic tenancy you need to give one rental period as notice in writing. If you wanted to leave the property in July you should have given notice before the 17th of June. The S21 Notice has no relevance now.

2bFrank

Thanks BitterAndTwisted,

I thought that maybe the case, I justed wanted to check. We was tempted to give the notice in June, however to be safe, we did not and have budget for the extra overlap.

Just out of curiosicity, if the landlord wanted us out, how much notice would they have to give.

Thanks

westv

2bFrank wrote: »

Just out of curiosicity, if the landlord wanted us out, how much notice would they have to give.

Thanks

2 months.
....

vuvuzela

2bFrank wrote: »

I am just going through all the paperwork, to get everything changed over and sorted, and reading through the copy of the tenancy agreement I noticed we have been served our S21 when we started the tenancy. This was due for the 17th Feb 2010, however nothing came about and after our period tenancy ended we just thought that we went onto our periodic agreement. I am mad that we have been served the s21, and did not even know about it.

You certainly should have known about it if they gave you it in writing a year and a half ago. I would seriously suggest in future reading all papers you're given.

jjlandlord

westv wrote: »

2 months.
....

If the s21 is valid the landlord need not give any further notice... In such case the answer would be 0.

vuvuzela wrote: »

You certainly should have known about it if they gave you it in writing a year and a half ago. I would seriously suggest in future reading all papers you're given.

Perhaps the notice was included along with the tenancy agreement.
If so there is a high probability that the notice was served before the tenancy started, making it invalid.

2bFrank

Hello, thanks for your replies. The notice was stuck to the back of the tenency agreement. The copy was sent to us after we moved in, I just checked to see if nothing had changed, and didnt relise the s21 at the back. You are correct we should have checked the paperwork correctly. I have not signed any new tenency agreement, the AST ended in 17th Feb 2011, which is the date on the s21. Presuming that they didnt act on the s21, it now makes it invalid, is this the case?

Thanks

jjlandlord

2bFrank wrote: »

Presuming that they didnt act on the s21, it now makes it invalid, is this the case?

No the notice validity does not expire.

In any case this does not impact the procedure for you to hand your notice to quit.

angrypirate

Based on the fact that they have accepted your rental payment, they havent sent you "letter before action" notices and they havent been to court to seek possession from you, I expect if they were to start legal proceedings now a judge would rule that there is an implied tenancy in which case they would probably have to serve a new section 21.

jjlandlord

angrypirate wrote: »

Based on the fact that they have accepted your rental payment, they havent sent you "letter before action" notices and they havent been to court to seek possession from you, I expect if they were to start legal proceedings now a judge would rule that there is an implied tenancy in which case they would probably have to serve a new section 21.

Not at all!

A section 21 does not end the tenancy: Rent is due until the tenancy ends, ie. either when a surrender is agreed or when bailiffs execute a possession order. Thus the landlord can and should accept the rent, it does not imply acceptance of a new tenancy.

The expiry of the notice period given by a section 21 notice entitles the landlord to start court proceedings. There is no additional "letter before action".

2bFrank

jjlandlord wrote: »

Not at all!

A section 21 does not end the tenancy: Rent is due until the tenancy ends, ie. either when a surrender is agreed or when bailiffs execute a possession order. Thus the landlord can and should accept the rent, it does not imply acceptance of a new tenancy.

The expiry of the notice period given by a section 21 notice entitles the landlord to start court proceedings. There is no additional "letter before action".

Thanks again for your reply, so just to confirm. The s21 is still legal and I still have to give my months rental period notice. Its a bit unfair that the Landlord can evict us at a drop of a hat, yet I have to give notice, but I guess its my own fault for not checking the paperwork at the beginning.

However, if this is the case, can the landlord evict us before our notice period ends. Although we complete on the 30th, we wont be actually moving until the 9th July, when we have stuff sorted and packed, and a van and my mates free to move everything. If they have a tenant to move in earlier, which is a possibility could they kick us out before the 9th July?