Landlords: Evicting Tenants - Confusion Regarding Section 21 Legislation
Back in October 2015, several new changes came into effect regarding Landlord and Tenant Law. But one update is still in debate and is still causing complications in court matters.
New legislation was introduced that when serving a Section 21 Notice, there are several items you must provide to the tenant;
A copy of the leaflet ‘How to rent: the checklist for renting in England’
A gas safety certificate
There is still some confusing about how or when these items are given to tenants regarding a Section 21 Notice. A gas safety certificate and energy performance certificate should be given to new tenants regardless, but it is not clear if these items should be served with the Section 21 Notice, or before or after.
In some court cases this can be disputed that the items where served with the Notice and should have been sent to the tenant separately or that the items where not needed becasue the tenant was already in possession of them.
However, if this is taken to a Hearing at the Court, it is up to the Judge to decide the outcome. The unfortunate side of this confusion is that tenants can dispute how the items where sent to them when relying to the court regarding a Section 21 Notice - this drags the eviction process out even further.
We advise that the gas safety certificate and energy performance certificate should always be given to the tenant every time they are updated, or if an engineer for either conducts repairs or a survey.
As for the 'How to rent' leaflet, we advise that this is provided to the tenant with the tenancy agreement.
As for serving the Section 21 Notice, we would serve the Notice and a copy of the gas safety certificate and energy performance certificate regardless if the tenant has an up to date copy or not. As for the 'How to rent' leaflet, we would also advise sending this with the Notice also.
If you need to evict a tenant, or are having a dispute with your tenant or landlord, please contact us today on 0115 845 6583.
