Invalid Section 21?

VirtualMark

Hello, I've had a Section 21 served by my landlady with a witness, and she's done most things by the book. But I live in an HMO, where we all have individual rooms that lock, all have separate AST agreements, and share facilities.

She has addressed the S21 notice to Room 4, 12 XXXX Road, but my tenancy agreement shows just 12 XXXX Road with no room number. So do I have a tenancy on the whole house? And can she evict me from just the room?

I have just received the court documents and am going to fill out the defence form, and think I should point this out, as it may make it invalid. But I'd like to hear from anyone here that knows about this. If she does evict me from room 4, what's to stop me from moving into another room in the house? My agreement shows the whole house listed, but does list the shared parts.

Curiously, on the court form, it says "is the house an HMO" and she's ticked "no". But it is by definition an HMO, there's 6 people living here.

Guest101

When did she serve s.21?

There a few reasons a s.21 is invalid. the most common is the deposit isnt protected - is yours?

The tenancy agreement gives the address as... however does it stipulate in the agreement that it is for a single/double bedroom?

Does she have a HMO licence?

silvercar

She has addressed the S21 notice to Room 4, 12 XXXX Road, but my tenancy agreement shows just 12 XXXX Road with no room number. So do I have a tenancy on the whole house? And can she evict me from just the room?

You obviously don't have a tenancy for the whole house or you would be paying the rent for the whole house.

Do you have rent arrears?

G_M

You could certainly enter a defence on the basis that the S21 is invalid as it incorrectly identifies the tenancy.

I suspect you would have, say, a 15% chance of the court agreeing with you.

The postal address is obviously 12 xxxxxx Road, which is where she served the notice.

By your own admission it's an HMO and your tenancy is for the room (but with access to and use of the rest of the property).

I assume you do actually have room 4?

Give it a go if you wish and let us know what happens.....

(as stated above, there are of course other factors that might /might not make the S21 invalid.)

Pixie5740

It sounds as though your Section 21 is valid to me. You might find some useful information in G_M's guide to Ending an AST.

I'm not sure what you are hoping to achieve by taking this to court. Providing the Section 21 has been issued correctly then there's no defense you can enter, it's mandatory grounds for eviction. If you lose in court then you will be liable to pay the courts costs which will set you back a few £100 and you'll still end up having to move anyway.

VirtualMark

I'm just trying to buy more time at the moment, so I wanted to enter some form of defence. I just don't understand how she can claim that it's not an HMO, yet issue a section 21 to a room number. I have read that for the accelerated procedure, the paperwork needs to be perfect, so was hoping that this mistake would make it invalid.

My tenancy agreement does specify the shared areas, but doesn't mention room numbers. So I wondered if I could theoretically just change rooms? Is there anything to stop me from doing this?

She's a right nasty cow btw, which is why I don't want to leave without a fight. This is a retaliatory eviction, done because I complained that the heating was on a timer and it was cold in the day.

Guest101

VirtualMark wrote: »

I'm just trying to buy more time at the moment, so I wanted to enter some form of defence. I just don't understand how she can claim that it's not an HMO, yet issue a section 21 to a room number. I have read that for the accelerated procedure, the paperwork needs to be perfect, so was hoping that this mistake would make it invalid.

My tenancy agreement does specify the shared areas, but doesn't mention room numbers. So I wondered if I could theoretically just change rooms? Is there anything to stop me from doing this?

She's a right nasty cow btw, which is why I don't want to leave without a fight. This is a retaliatory eviction, done because I complained that the heating was on a timer and it was cold in the day.

You've ignored pertinant questions above.

No you cant change rooms.

VirtualMark

Oh, the other thing I forgot to mention is that the tenancy deposit form isn't signed by me. It says that it requires a signature to verify the details are correct. Is this important at all?

Guest101

VirtualMark wrote: »

Oh, the other thing I forgot to mention is that the tenancy deposit form isn't signed by me. It says that it requires a signature to verify the details are correct. Is this important at all?

Not a clue. Cant see the form from here

Pixie5740

If your landlord is a nasty cow then why drag things out and continue to hand your hard earned money over to her? Phone Shelter and get their take on it but I think the only person you're going to harm by going to court is yourself.

VirtualMark

Guest101 wrote: »

When did she serve s.21?

There a few reasons a s.21 is invalid. the most common is the deposit isnt protected - is yours?

The tenancy agreement gives the address as... however does it stipulate in the agreement that it is for a single/double bedroom?

Does she have a HMO licence?

Yeah the deposit is protected, but she didn't serve the paperwork for a few months, which I intend to mention.

The AST doesn't stipulate anything about the room, just that it's 12 XXX road.

She doesn't have an HMO licence, but I checked with the council and one isn't needed here.