Served notice without valid Energy Certificate

mrkat

I've been having ongoing issues with my landlord who threatened to evict us back in May as he had an offer from someone to buy the house. 

His notice back in March was invalid as it didn't give the 6 months required at the time and also, didn't have a valid Energy certificate attached. He then served another S21 in June, this time giving 4 months which gives us until October to leave. He again didn't attach the energy certificate which I thought was strange as, after all the issues we had, I'd imagine he would have looked into this and attached one. I looked our postcode up and found that the result turned out to be an F so is therefore invalid which is why I assume it wasn't attached.

So my question is, does he have any way of evicting us? My understanding is that the only way to make us leave is to get work done (insulation etc) to increase the rating and then serve us a valid S21. Has anything new come into effect that I don't know about or am I missing something? With the s21 date fast approaching, am I safe to assume we can't be evicted?

MaryNB

The S21 is not an eviction notice and cannot be used to evict you. All is does is allow the landlord to apply to the court for an eviction order. It will take many many months (possibly more than a year) for it to get to court once he applies.
You are still legally allow to reside at the property after an S21 expires. Your tenancy does not end unless you give notice or the court issues an eviction order.  

ETA: With regards to the EPC, did you tenancy start or was it renewed after the 1st of  October 2015?

Robbo66

They don't have to give an EPC when serving a section 21 as long as you had one when you moved in. It could well be that instead of doing the works they are going to sell instead hence the notice

Brie

Not having a go but why would you want to remain there?  It sounds like it might be very stressful.  Obviously if the rent is great or the location is convenient you may want to stay.   Are you looking for somewhere new?  No need to answer any questions of course, I'm just curious.

mrkat

MaryNB said:

The S21 is not an eviction notice and cannot be used to evict you. All is does is allow the landlord to apply to the court for an eviction order. It will take many many months (possibly more than a year) for it to get to court once he applies.
You are still legally allow to reside at the property after an S21 expires. Your tenancy does not end unless you give notice or the court issues an eviction order.  

ETA: With regards to the EPC, did you tenancy start or was it renewed after the 1st of  October 2015?

Thanks for the clarification. The tenancy started with a valid (D rating) EPC in 2019 which ran out in July 2020. He then got a new one in June 2021 (F rating)

mrkat

Robbo66 said:

They don't have to give an EPC when serving a section 21 as long as you had one when you moved in. It could well be that instead of doing the works they are going to sell instead hence the notice

Yep, they already have an offer on the house which is why they threatened eviction in the first place. As we understand it, the buyer is sticking around despite earlier giving the landlord 2 weeks to get us out.

mrkat

Brie said:

Not having a go but why would you want to remain there?  It sounds like it might be very stressful.  Obviously if the rent is great or the location is convenient you may want to stay.   Are you looking for somewhere new?  No need to answer any questions of course, I'm just curious.

The house is in the perfect location for us and the rent is reasonable, especially since prices have now shot up since covid. We also have 3 dogs and have enquired about hundreds of properties with no luck yet.

giraffe69

Maybe if he would like you to go he might be prepared to negotiate with an offer of cash? It would likely be a lot quicker for him and a way of keeping his buyers onside.

AdrianC

The EPC score of F means it is illegal for him to continue to let it to you, without doing the work on it.

It does not invalidate the s21.

canaldumidi

mrkat said:

MaryNB said:

The S21 is not an eviction notice and cannot be used to evict you. All is does is allow the landlord to apply to the court for an eviction order. It will take many many months (possibly more than a year) for it to get to court once he applies.
You are still legally allow to reside at the property after an S21 expires. Your tenancy does not end unless you give notice or the court issues an eviction order.  

ETA: With regards to the EPC, did you tenancy start or was it renewed after the 1st of  October 2015?

Thanks for the clarification. The tenancy started with a valid (D rating) EPC in 2019 .....

In that case the S21 is valid (at least so far as the EPC is concerned).

mrkat

AdrianC said:

The EPC score of F means it is illegal for him to continue to let it to you, without doing the work on it.

It does not invalidate the s21.

What does this mean for us moving forward? He will likely start the eviction process soon which, from what we now understand will take around a year. We will realistically be here an extra 1-4 months so, seeing as it's not legal for us to be here because of the EPC, could he use this as another way to make us leave earlier?