Issuing Section 21 to tenant

caringa

Some advice needed please! We have a tenant whose 6 months agreement expires on 14 May. We have had complaints from neighbours of loud music late at night and drunkenness and now the police have contacted us to inform us of antisocial behaviour.

I am a little confused about the Section 21 Notice. Do we wait until 14 May and then issue it or do we issue it immediately? Any advice would be much appreciated!

G_M

S21 needs to give 2 months clear notice so ideally should have been served on or before 14th March.

Serve on Monday and it will expire on 7th June.

Since you are confused by this, I'd guess you are not fully up to speed with all aspects of LL/tenant law, so get help. Contact your landlord's association (assuming you're a member!) and their legal bods will help.

Any error on the S21 means it will get thrown out, you'll have to re-issue, and there'll be another 2 month delay.

This post is more for the benefit of tenants, but will give you an overview of how to end an AST.

Werdnal

You must also have proof of service, that will be acceptable should you need to take this to court to gain possession. You will appreciate the S21 does not end the tenancy, so if the tenant decides not to move out on the expiry date, you need to enforce the eviction.

If you serve the notice in person - either direct to the tenant or throughttheir letterbox, you need proof from a witness on the day it was served. If you post it, send 2 copies, first class post from 2 separate post offices, and ask for the free proof of postage for each one. First class post is deemed served 2 working days after posting.

To correct GM slightly, 2 months from 7 May is 7 JULY!

If the notice is served on 7th, it must be received by the tenant on Monday, to have an effective expiry of 7th July. If you are posting, as bank holiday on Monday, your 2 days posting time will start from Tuesday, so tenant will not receive the notice until atleast Thursday. Therefore the date of expiry for the S21 would be safer being 11th, to ensure you give 2 full month's notice (ie up to 11 July), and allowing for tenant to receive it in time. For the sake of a few extra days, do not risk giving the tenant any "wriggle room" to get the notice thrown out by the court, and claiming you did not give the full 2 months!

The S21 is also dependent on correct deposit protection - have you complied with this and provided the tenant with the prescribed information from the scheme you used?

G_M

Werdnal wrote: »

...
To correct GM slightly, 2 months from 7 May is 7 JULY!

..

Ooops.

:T

GDB2222

Werdnal wrote: »

You must also have proof of service, that will be acceptable should you need to take this to court to gain possession. You will appreciate the S21 does not end the tenancy, so if the tenant decides not to move out on the expiry date, you need to enforce the eviction.

If you serve the notice in person - either direct to the tenant or throughttheir letterbox, you need proof from a witness on the day it was served. If you post it, send 2 copies, first class post from 2 separate post offices, and ask for the free proof of postage for each one. First class post is deemed served 2 working days after posting.

To correct GM slightly, 2 months from 7 May is 7 JULY!

If the notice is served on 7th, it must be received by the tenant on Monday, to have an effective expiry of 7th July. If you are posting, as bank holiday on Monday, your 2 days posting time will start from Tuesday, so tenant will not receive the notice until atleast Thursday. Therefore the date of expiry for the S21 would be safer being 11th, to ensure you give 2 full month's notice (ie up to 11 July), and allowing for tenant to receive it in time. For the sake of a few extra days, do not risk giving the tenant any "wriggle room" to get the notice thrown out by the court, and claiming you did not give the full 2 months!

The S21 is also dependent on correct deposit protection - have you complied with this and provided the tenant with the prescribed information from the scheme you used?

Even if you hand-deliver, the deemed service date varies according to whether you hand the document to the tenant or stick it through the letter box. I agree that it is best to always add a few days to the expiry date to avoid any argument.

jjlandlord

GDB2222 wrote: »

Even if you hand-deliver, the deemed service date varies according to whether you hand the document to the tenant or stick it through the letter box.

are you sure?

G_M

GDB2222 wrote: »

Even if you hand-deliver, the deemed service date varies according to whether you hand the document to the tenant or stick it through the letter box. I agree that it is best to always add a few days to the expiry date to avoid any argument.

Deemed service date certainly varies depending on whether posted or hand delivered, but hand delivered via letter box Vs handed to tenant.....?

But what matters is what I originally said:

Since you are confused by this, I'd guess you are not fully up to speed with all aspects of LL/tenant law, so get help. Contact your landlord's association (assuming you're a member!) and their legal bods will help.

Any error on the S21 means it will get thrown out, you'll have to re-issue, and there'll be another 2 month delay.

GDB2222

G_M wrote: »

Deemed service date certainly varies depending on whether posted or hand delivered, but hand delivered via letter box Vs handed to tenant.....?

But what matters is what I originally said:

You hand it to tenant - served that day. Posted through the letter box - served next day.

That's my understanding, but I could be wrong ofc. I haven't checked it out.

GDB2222

jjlandlord wrote: »

are you sure?

Not sure, no.

jjlandlord

Checked CPR: rule 6.26 states that in both cases notice is deemed served on the same day (if served on business day by 4.30pm):
http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part06#IDAWP2HC

HB58

If the current contract runs to 14th May, surely the S21 notice cannot end before 14th July?