Are there now grounds for a valid Section 21.

swingaloo

A landlord did not  protected a deposit. He did not provide a Gas Safety certificate. He did not provide the How to Rent information at start of tenancy.
He then tried to serve a Section 21 which was invalid due to the above.

Now he has just protected the deposit (almost 4 years late) and he has arranged a Gas engineer to provide a safety certificate.  Once this is done can he serve a 'valid' Section 21.

greatcrested

No.

He must return the deposit to the tenant, either in full or with deductions that the tenant agrees to.

The lack of gas safety report at the start of the tenancy has been ruled by one court as a permenant obstruction to a S21. If that ruling is followed, nothing the LL does can enable him to serve a valid S21. However a court might not follow that ruling, and may allow the S21 if a gas report has been provided to the tenant within the last 12 months.

See Caridon Property Ltd v Shooltz, Central London County Court, 2 February 2018

swingaloo

Thank you very much. that's great.          .. 

[Deleted User]

The other thing is, are you aware that no evictions can happen for three months i.e. it won't be processed by the courts?
If he wants the tenants to leave, your friend might have to offer a sum of money to the tenants to get them to move out.

swingaloo

An update and another question on this please.
I previously posted that the landlord has now protected the deposit and asked if that meant he could serve a valid Section 21 and got the answer above 'No, he must return the deposit to the tenant' first. Having spoken to the Deposit Protection Scheme they have said that he does not have to return it to the tenant and as long as he has now protected it he can go ahead and serve notice.
Now the issue is very cloudy, he has served the section 21 and sent a copy of the deposit protection certificate with the form 6A.
 However, he has put false dates on the certificate (he has stated that he received the deposit at the start of the tenancy and stupidly put the date as being over 12 months before the tenant actually paid him the deposit and moved into the property).  He has also blanked out the part of the original certificate which should show the date the deposit was protected  and he has made it look like it was done on the date he received it from the tenant. In doing all this he has falsified the original certificate and has sent the tenant 'his' revised copy instead of the original.
The deposit scheme have been made aware of this and have taken a dim view of his actions and have referred it to their compliance department. They have sent the tenant the correct copy and they are now in possession of the forged one.
How they follow this up is not of the tenants concern but the question I want to ask is-
Because the validity of the  Form 6A is reliant on the Deposit being protected correctly, does the fact that the certificate has been forged to include the wrong dates negate that validity ( of the 6A) as even though technically the deposit has now been protected the tenant has not been provided with a valid certificate by the landlord.
Thank you for reading.

tom9980

To be evicted he will need to go to court, present the evidence of false documents to the judge who likely will not allow the eviction to continue.

greatcrested

He will have to apply to court for possession. If he does this, the tenant will contest the validity of the S21 on multiple grounds:

1) the deposit was not protected within 30 days, and has not been returned to the tenant/

2) the protection took place on xx date, not as claimed by the LL on yy date as per the fraudulantly completed documentation

3) there was no gas safety report provided to the tenant at the start of the tenancy as required by the Housing Act, and as ruled in the case of Caridon Property Ltd v Shooltz, Central London County Court, 2 February 2018

The court will dismiss the LL's application.

swingaloo

Thank you for the replies.