Residential landlords with property let under an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) need to be aware of legal changes which came into force on the 1st of October 2015. These changes, which affect the procedure for giving valid notice to a tenant and ending the tenancy, include the items covered below. Rather ironically, these additional requirements and limitations are placed on landlords by the Deregulation Act 2015. I discussed these new rules in greater detail than I do here at two seminars for landlords which took place in Braintree and Sudbury in March. I was joined at these events by a guest speaker from the National Landlords Association.
Landlords must use this new form when terminating ASTs granted on or after 1st October 2015 or risk the notice being invalid. For the Notice to be valid the following apply:
a) Notice cannot be served within the first 4 months of a tenancy (therefore the earliest this new notice could have been served is 1/2/16);
b) The Notice must state that a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) has been provided to the Tenant;
c) Must state that a valid annual Gas Safety Certificate (GSC) has been provided to the Tenant;
d) That a copy of the guide “How to Rent: The Checklist for Renting in England” has been provided to the Tenant.
Landlords utilising six month ASTs might consider the practical implications of point 1) above and the difficulty they may have in timing valid delivery of the notice to provide for eviction at the end of the sixth month.
Landlords with a statutory periodic tenancy in place are likely to be pleased to learn that, where the periodic arrangement has arisen on the expiry of a fixed-term AST which was granted prior to October 2015, the old Section 21 regime will continue to apply.
Importantly, the new legislation also imposes a ‘use it or lose it’ provision by stipulating that possession proceedings must be commenced within a period of six months from the date of service of the new Section 21 Notice.
This is the change likely to create the greatest waves in the industry. Under the new rules, landlords may now lose the right to serve a valid Section 21 Notice (and therefore the ability to end the tenancy) if: a) The Landlord fails to respond to a Tenant’s complaint about the condition of the property within 14 days and explain the specific action they intend to take to fix the problem, along with likely timescales; b) In the absence of the Landlord’s appropriate response/repair work, and in the event the tenant contacts the relevant Local Authority who subsequently verifies the need for repairs and serves a relevant notice upon the Landlord.
If the Local Authority issues relevant repair notices in relation to the property then the Landlord will not be permitted to evict the Tenant (using the Section 21 procedure) for a period of 6 months. If the Landlord has served a Section 21 notice already - following a tenant’s complaint but prior to notice from or repairs by the Local Authority - the notice will become invalid on involvement of the local authority.
Landlords need to be aware of these new rules and the potential pitfalls of serving an invalid Section 21 Notice.
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