Serving a Section 21 Notice

Posted on June 11th, 2011 by admin in Section 21

Serving a Section 21 Notice Part 1

The Section 21 Notice is so named for the simple fact that it operates under Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. A Section 21 Notice is the notice a landlord should serve to their tenant to regain possession of their property at the end of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. Serving a Section 21 notice to your tenant is permitted without providing any reasons for cessation of their tenancy agreement.

Landlords have a legal entitlement to retake possession at the end of a tenancy but they must stick to the correct legal procedure and this involves the serving of a Section 21 Notice.

Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 is divided into subsections with different procedures to be adhered to, dependant on whether the Section 21 Notice is served before the fixed term has come to an end or following this, when the tenancy becomes a periodic tenancy.

Serving a Section 21 notice can be done at any time during the fixed tenancy or during the periodic tenancy but can only be used to regain possession of a property following the end of an assured shorthold tenancy. If a landlord wishes to regain possession before the end of this agreed term, it is also feasible providing he can show certain conditions have been met. However the landlord must issue an alternative, the Section 8 Notice to quit to their tenant, in order to do this.

Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 was amended by the Housing Act 1996 and so requires that the landlord provides tenants of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) with a minimum of two months notice in writing, stating that possession of the property is requested. The two months begins when the tenant receives the notice, not as soon as the notice is written or posted.

Serving a Section 21 Notice Part 2

Serving a Section 21 notice must be done by post or in person. If you decide to use the postal service, it is recommended that the notice is sent by recorded delivery and that a minimum of three working days is allowed for the notice to arrive. The courts will accept the day of service via post as the day on which the letter would normally have arrived.

The completed Section 21 Notice must; give the tenant no less than two months notice and not end before the end of the fixed term. Therefore if it is served towards the start of the term, the notice period may well be much longer than two months. The notice should also state it is being served under Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988; therefore it is wise to use a legally verified Section 21 Notice template.

Serving a Section 21 Notice Part 3

When serving a section 21 notice, all the tenants must be named therefore it would be sensible to serve each individual tenant with a separate notice, landlords should then request that the tenants sign and return a copy back to them, in addition to keeping a copy of the Section 21 Notice that was served.

————————————————————–

Link back to this article – Serving a Section 21 Notice

Incoming search terms:

Landlord Section 21 Notice . section 21 . section 21 1 b notice . section 21 4 a . section 21 agreement . section 21 eviction notice . section 21 form . section 21 housing act . section 21 notice form . section 21 notice rent arrears . section 21 notice requiring possession . section 21 notice to quit . section 21 possession notice . serving a section 21 notice

No comments yet... Be the first to leave a reply!