Landlord giving incorrect notice?

FuzzyBee

I have been living in my rental property for a number of years on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. After the initial 6 months the contract has become a rolling month by month one.

My landlord has served me notice today, the first written contact received from him. He has asked is to vacate by the 14th January as he says he is only required to give a months notice - I believed that landlords were required to give two months written notice. Who is correct?

Rent is paid on the 1st of each month so this would also cause potential problems in terms of paying rent in January.

Guest101

Landlord must give 2 months notice, and even then u doing have to leave.

Is your deposit protected?

thesaint

The notice is invalid.

ValHaller

Yes, 2 months notice minimum, to expire at the end of a tenancy period.

silvercar

Firstly the writing is on the wall, you will have to move at some point, so you should now start looking for alternative accommodation.

Generally the rental period ties in with the dates you pay your rent, but you should check this. Also check the dates on your original contract.

If rent is paid on the first of each month, I'm assuming the rental periods also end on the last day of each month, but do check.

So the landlord is required by law to give you 2 months notice to end at the end of a rent period. So either you notify him now that his notice is invalid and he reissues and you will get notice before the end of December to leave by the end of February or you wait until January and tell him (maybe even on the day he expects you to leave) that the notice was invalid and he again gives you notice and you will get notice to leave by the end of March.

Nothing to stop you giving notice if you find something sooner. You need to give 1 months notice, also to end at end of rent period.

All this assumes he has correctly protected any deposit you have paid, without which he cannot serve you S21 notice at all. Unless original fixed term started before April 2007 in which case ignore this paragraph.

dancingfairy

Check your rental periods. If as seems likely from your post your rental period is calender monthly then it sounds like any notice served now would start 1st Jan to finish end feb.
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kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

Make sure you put your landlord right and don't take any rubbish

gordonbennet

All advice given so far is mostly correct. The only bit that may now be wrong is about the LL giving notice to expire at the end of a rental period. Recent case law seems to now mean that the LL only needs to give 2 months notice - even if it expires in the middle of a rental month.

Most landlords would I'm sure give people to the end of the rental month for simplicity, but I'm not so sure with this LL as they seem keen to get you out in a hurry.

Even when the notice expires (assuming it's correctly worded and that your deposit was properly protected) you still don't legally HAVE to leave until the LL gets a court order for possession.

Yorkie1

OP, you say you pay on the 1st of the month, but what was the end date of the fixed term of the initial tenancy you had in the property? Did the fixed term run from 1st of the month too?

G_M

ValHaller wrote: »

Yes, 2 months notice minimum, to expire at the end of a tenancy period.

Not any more!

See:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4846092

ging84

i'm not sure how giving notice that does not expire at the end of a tenancy period can work in practice, since the tenant has to pay for full rent periods, they would need to be out after the end of their next rent period to not be out of pocket