Rent+given 2 months to leave- is this right?

bob_dob

Hi,
Friends of ours have rented from a private landlord for four years and have been given 2 months notice to leave.
Can I ask is this the minimum notice please?

Thank you.

jamie11

bob_dob wrote: »

Hi,
Friends of ours have rented from a private landlord for four years and have been given 2 months notice to leave.
Can I ask is this the minimum notice please?

Thank you.

Yes, it's a S21(4)(a). But it is not a notice to quit, it's a pre-requisite that the landlord must serve one and allow two months for it to expire before he can apply to the court for a possession order.

Important! If your friend does decide to leave before the notice expires, then he must give his own notice of 1 calendar month which will end on the last day of a tenancy period, if he does not then the tenancy may be seen as ongoing.

bob_dob

Thank you. So is it three months from the date of receiving the letter? (apologies for not understanding)

jamie11

bob_dob wrote: »

Thank you. So is it three months from the date of receiving the letter? (apologies for not understanding)

No worries. I'm assuming you have a Statutory Periodic Tenancy.

If you moved into the property on (say) 10th/mm/yyyy then your tenancy would have run it's course on 09th/mm/yyyy 6 or 12 months later (usually anyway)

That means that on the 10th (the following day you would have started a new month long tenancy again running to the 09/mm/yyyy. This will happen for every month that you stay there.

Statute (the law) demands that a landlord gives you 2 full tenancy periods of notice before he can start court proceedings for possession. These periods will run from the start of the first period to the end of the second, if they don't then the S21 is going to be invalid.

The same law demands that you have to give your landlord a 1 month notice, again it must be a complete tenancy period included.

I don't know the date on your notice but if it includes the 2 full tenancy periods then it's likely to be valid,

Just to check though, is your deposit protected in a scheme? Have you had the prescribed information?

It's not that hard to get your head around it but something like 40% of S21's are not valid when issued.

There are slightly different rules for S21's issued during the fixed term of a tenancy but I don't believe we need to go into that here.

[Deleted User]

bob_dob wrote: »

Thank you. So is it three months from the date of receiving the letter? (apologies for not understanding)

No, 2 months from the start of the next period. They have at least 2 months notice. 2 full rental months.

For example if the rental period is from the 1st of the month and the notice was delivered today (11th of May) that means they have until the last day of July. However the notice only means that he can apply to court to have them evicted, they could stay beyond the last day of July.

What they need to do is talk to the landlord, try to find out what is going on. To have a notice arrive with no prior contact or explanation of what the landlord is doing is odd. This could be because the landlord wants them out asap or it could be because he wants to have them out at some point in the future due to a potential sale.

G_M

It depends on the tenancy they hold. For example if they just re-signed a new 12 month agreement, then the notice is different!

It also depends what 'Notice' they received:
* an email?
* a letter?
* a S21 (4) (a)?
* a S21 (1) (b)?

Read:

Ending/Renewing an AST (what happens when the Fixed Term ends?)(What is a Periodic Tenancy?)(How can a LL remove a tenant?)(How can a tenant end a tenancy?)

lighting_up_the_chalice

bob_dob wrote: »

Hi,
Friends of ours have rented from a private landlord for four years and have been given 2 months notice to leave.
Can I ask is this the minimum notice please?

Thank you.

No. The MINIMUM notice a landlord can give before commencing possession proceedings is nil. S8 Ground 14 allows the LL to start proceedings as soon as the notice is served.

If the notice served is S21, see previous replies. But even THAT notice isn't served if the deposit hasn't been protected and the correct information provided.

G_M

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

No. The MINIMUM notice a landlord can give before commencing possession proceedings is nil. S8 Ground 14 allows the LL to start proceedings as soon as the notice is served.

If the notice served is S21, see previous replies. But even THAT notice isn't served if the deposit hasn't been protected and the correct information provided.

As lighting implies, there are so many inknowns here that it is impossible to advise other than by guessing:

* tenancy type?
* Notice received?
* Deposit?
etc