Landlord not following legal notice?

AJM1984

Thank you! I think I'll sit tight for now and see what type of notice arrives next week. If it's invalid I'll just let it sit there as long as I can, ignoring the need to correct her. I am desperately trying to rush moving out but time hasn't been on my side and July 1st may not be realistic. I do feel bad for the people purchasing though. The LL has hidden some very unfortunate defects but that's another story...

I really appreciate all of you! 

pramsay13

I don't think you are reading properly or understanding what is being said. 
Even if a correct S21 arrives and gives 2 months notice you still do not have to leave when the 2 months' notice is up. 
All that does is allows the landlord to start court proceedings to evict you which will probably take another 6 months at best. 
So it is up to you when you leave and you can do it when it suits you. 

lincroft1710

AJM1984 said:

Thank you! I think I'll sit tight for now and see what type of notice arrives next week. If it's invalid I'll just let it sit there as long as I can, ignoring the need to correct her. I am desperately trying to rush moving out but time hasn't been on my side and July 1st may not be realistic. I do feel bad for the people purchasing though. The LL has hidden some very unfortunate defects but that's another story...

I really appreciate all of you! 

There is no rush. To reiterate you do not have to move out on July 1 !!

AJM1984

pramsay13 said:

I don't think you are reading properly or understanding what is being said. 
Even if a correct S21 arrives and gives 2 months notice you still do not have to leave when the 2 months' notice is up. 
All that does is allows the landlord to start court proceedings to evict you which will probably take another 6 months at best. 
So it is up to you when you leave and you can do it when it suits you. 

Thank you for the clarity, I do appreciate it. I do understand that once I'm given valid notice I don't have to move out. Just that the LL can start court proceedings after the two months have passed, prolonging the time I can remain here further. A few posts after my initial post though, somebody said that I could end up paying the LL's court costs, so I'd very much like to avoid that risk. It's not something I can afford as I'm risking everything I currently have on a house purchase and I'm already thousands of pounds into the process. 

RAS

If your LL has complied with the legal requirements for an S21, then they can initiate court action after the 2 months is up. There are some 80 possibilities for the LL to muck up the S21, so wait to see what transpires. That date is going to be into July to start with.

If the S21 is correct, there are fees associated with the LL taking court action. If you keep them informed, the LL may decide that you leaving in a month of your own volition is preferable, particularly if you offer early surrender if you can exchange earlier on your purchase, in exchange for prorata rent. 

If the S21 is incorrect, you defend the court action, and the LL has to correct the problem, then start all over again. Even if it's correct, it'll take a couple of months to get a court date, so you may well be gone by that time.

GDB2222

AJM1984 said:j

pramsay13 said:

I don't think you are reading properly or understanding what is being said. 
Even if a correct S21 arrives and gives 2 months notice you still do not have to leave when the 2 months' notice is up. 
All that does is allows the landlord to start court proceedings to evict you which will probably take another 6 months at best. 
So it is up to you when you leave and you can do it when it suits you. 

Thank you for the clarity, I do appreciate it. I do understand that once I'm given valid notice I don't have to move out. Just that the LL can start court proceedings after the two months have passed, prolonging the time I can remain here further. A few posts after my initial post though, somebody said that I could end up paying the LL's court costs, so I'd very much like to avoid that risk. It's not something I can afford as I'm risking everything I currently have on a house purchase and I'm already thousands of pounds into the process. 

The costs you are liable for are quite small in the scheme of things. From memory , the court fee is £350, and you may have to pay £80 towards the landlord’s solicitor’s fees. You are not letting yourself in for a large costs bill.

It will take about six months for the case to go to court, and there’s a further delay waiting for the bailiff to fix a date. During that time, if you do find somewhere to move to, the landlord will be so pleased that you can probably negotiate her waiving any entitlement to costs.

It would be crazy to rush through a house purchase because of a worry about such relatively modest amounts as the court fee. 

In any case, you have not even been served a S21 notice yet. 

AJM1984

RAS said:

If your LL has complied with the legal requirements for an S21, then they can initiate court action after the 2 months is up. There are some 80 possibilities for the LL to muck up the S21, so wait to see what transpires. That date is going to be into July to start with.

If the S21 is correct, there are fees associated with the LL taking court action. If you keep them informed, the LL may decide that you leaving in a month of your own volition is preferable, particularly if you offer early surrender if you can exchange earlier on your purchase, in exchange for prorata rent. 

If the S21 is incorrect, you defend the court action, and the LL has to correct the problem, then start all over again. Even if it's correct, it'll take a couple of months to get a court date, so you may well be gone by that time.

Thank you, I did read through around 50+ possible points of LLs inadvertently invalidating a S21. I had no idea!

For anyone interested, I'll update here with what happens next week. 

Hoenir

AJM1984 said:

Thank you! I think I'll sit tight for now and see what type of notice arrives next week. If it's invalid I'll just let it sit there as long as I can, ignoring the need to correct her. I am desperately trying to rush moving out but time hasn't been on my side and July 1st may not be realistic. I do feel bad for the people purchasing though. The LL has hidden some very unfortunate defects but that's another story...

I really appreciate all of you! 

The less you engage with the LL i.e. stall for time. The greater the window you'll have to decide upon a suitable course of action looking forward. End of the day your relationship with the LL is a business one.  You are not the LL's keeper they should know the legalities of the situation themselves.  The odds of completing the sale by 1st July are remote anyway. Probably unrealistic expectations on part of the buyers. 

AJM1984

Morning all,

Just an update. Got the notice this morning but it's just a basic, self written, Notice of Possession asking for us to sign and confirm that we'll leave by July 1st. The whole thing is four sentences long. Has our address and her address at the top. Dated today, 12th of May. I'm assuming this is pointless? 
The first sentence is just saying they warned us it was going up for sale late January (A WhatsApp saying they might) in an attempt to make it look backdated and generous....

No other documents have arrived with it. 

pinkshoes

AJM1984 said:

Morning all,

Just an update. Got the notice this morning but it's just a basic, self written, Notice of Possession asking for us to sign and confirm that we'll leave by July 1st. The whole thing is four sentences long. Has our address and her address at the top. Dated today, 12th of May. I'm assuming this is pointless? 
The first sentence is just saying they warned us it was going up for sale late January (A WhatsApp saying they might) in an attempt to make it look backdated and generous....

No other documents have arrived with it. 

No, this isn't the correct paperwork and it isn't the correct notice period. Don't sign it.

You either ignore it to buy yourself more time (the longer it takes to issue an S21, the more time you have), or as above use the opportunity to negotiate the return of your deposit in full plus a lump sum to cover all your moving costs twice including the inconvenience.

The LL can then choose to pay the money and you'll move (don't move until money is paid!) or wait until the correct notice is served.