Is section 21 valid?

Rubymay13

Hi would like some advice please. Been in our house for 7 years and landlord has decided to sell the house. We got the section 21 at the end of march and need to be out by the end of may. We have been viewing other rentals but with no luck. On the notice they have only done my partners name and not mine and my name is on the contract is this valid? 

CardiffCrank

I am not a lawyer and, actually, neither is this guy, but he seems to know a lot about it!

https://markprichard.co.uk/content/documents/170522-Section-21-checker-tool.pdf 

Q4 of his validity checker says the notice should be given to all tenants. It is reassuringly footnoted to the Housing Act which says

Where two or more persons jointly constitute either the landlord or the tenant in relation to a tenancy, then, except where this Part of this Act otherwise provides, any reference to the landlord or to the tenant is a reference to all the persons who jointly constitute the landlord or the tenant, as the case may require.

Even if this is right, I don't think you can completely rely on it. If the judge decided the issue was minor enough, you might lose anyway.

Robbo66

Re you named as a tenant or permitted occupier, if tenant then you should have been named on the Sec 21 or had one of your own. If a permitted occupier then no they don't need to name you on the sec 21

marcia_

 Don't tell your landlord they messed up, make him wait, buys you more time 

Rubymay13

Thank you for your replies. My names on the tenancy agreement so I thought my name should be on the section 21 as well. It’s through the letting agents they sent us two section 21 one in hand and one in the post still with only my partners name on it. Don’t want to make landlord life hard just can’t find anywhere at the moment and thought it would give us more time. 

Leggitte

Rubymay13 said:

Thank you for your replies. My names on the tenancy agreement so I thought my name should be on the section 21 as well. It’s through the letting agents they sent us two section 21 one in hand and one in the post still with only my partners name on it. Don’t want to make landlord life hard just can’t find anywhere at the moment and thought it would give us more time. 

If you don't want to make your landlord's life hard, I assume you won't let him take this to court? Are you actively looking for another place to try to be out by the requested date?

saajan_12

CardiffCrank said:

I am not a lawyer and, actually, neither is this guy, but he seems to know a lot about it!

https://markprichard.co.uk/content/documents/170522-Section-21-checker-tool.pdf 

Q4 of his validity checker says the notice should be given to all tenants. It is reassuringly footnoted to the Housing Act which says

Where two or more persons jointly constitute either the landlord or the tenant in relation to a tenancy, then, except where this Part of this Act otherwise provides, any reference to the landlord or to the tenant is a reference to all the persons who jointly constitute the landlord or the tenant, as the case may require.

Even if this is right, I don't think you can completely rely on it. If the judge decided the issue was minor enough, you might lose anyway.

My interpretation of that point is if the notice says "the tenant" instead of "the tenants" then it still refers to all the people that jointly constitute the tenant. 

That's slightly different to the names listed.. I'm not sure that's actually been tested in court so depends on a judge really. They may decide it clearly refers to that tenancy and the difference is minor enough, or might say its enough to throw out. 

marcia_ said:

 Don't tell your landlord they messed up, make him wait, buys you more time 

The difficulty with this is you don't know for sure if it will actually be thrown out. So if the OP assumes the notice is invalid and doesn't start making plans, they may be thrown out plus have to pay court costs if the judge disagrees. 

In this case, I'd actually suggest leaving it for some time and then mentioning it to the LL before the notice expires. You might acutally convince them that the notice is invalid and not bother going to court, but rather start again. You don't buy as much time as with marcia's solution, but you take out the risk of going to court and being unprepared for an outcome you don't expect. 

alexjared93

The name on the S21 must be the name of the Tenant as on the Tenancy Agreement.

Is the Tenancy agreement solely in your name?

Is your partners name also on the Tenancy agreement I.e joint tenancy?

If the answer is yes to either of the above then yes your S21 is invalid as it must contact tenant's correct name as listed on TA / served twice if it’s a joint tenancy (one for each tenant)

Don’t stress, the S21 is a notice *not eviction order* and simply means your LL can apply to court after the notice period. However, I assume the answer to above is yes and if so as your S21 is invalid I would do nothing.

Do not inform the LL of the mistake and allow it to go to court as they will throw the case out (due to invalid S21) this will allow you plenty of time to find a suitable place.

dimbo61

Recent court cases where tenants have tried to throw out eviction notices/S21 because the LL cannot supply the last X number of years Gas Safe Certificates and Right to Rent /How to Rent leaflets have been Rejected by the judge and enforcement has been allowed. 

CardiffCrank

What's the point of that being the law then?!

CardiffCrank

dimbo61 said:

Recent court cases where tenants have tried to throw out eviction notices/S21 because the LL cannot supply the last X number of years Gas Safe Certificates and Right to Rent /How to Rent leaflets have been Rejected by the judge and enforcement has been allowed. 

Are you talking about old gas certs or current gas certs? It's one thing letting the s21 stand despite some ancient violation, but if a current gas cert is missing or if a current tenant isn't given the notice, that's very different.