Here is a question to the blog clinic from Maurice who is a landlord :
We have rented same property for 12 years plus always paid on time. (Landlord just confirmed in an excellent reference).
Agreed to new AST in December 2004 increasing rent from £1000 to £1100 per month on basis of promised property improvements. Which did not happen so rent dropped back to £1000.
Deposit paid in 2001 of £990. He did not use a protected deposit scheme by the way but I understand they did not become compulsory until 2007. Does this preclude him issuing section 21?
Landlord has suddenly decided he needs possession to do extensive improvements so he can sell house. He has just sent a letter with one month’s notice although he does acknowledge we are entitled to two months under a section 21 notice which he hasn’t served yet.
Have we any rights to gain a longer notice period?
Yes. Assuming your tenancy is an assured shorthold one, you landlord needs to give you not less than 2 months notice under section 21 of the HousingAct 1988.
The precise notice period you are entitled to under s21 will depend on whether your tenancy is a fixed term or periodic one. Assuming it is a monthly rolling periodic tenancy you will be entitled to between two and three months, depending when in the month the notice is served.
Note however that you are entitled to stay in the property until you are evicted through the courts. The end of the section 21 notice period actually means that the landlord is entitled to issue court proceedings based on the notice – it is not the day the landlord can physically evict you.
It generally takes between three and six months for a landlord to obtain an order for possession through the courts and then obtain a bailiffs appointment so you will actually have a fair amount of time (should the landlord do this) to find alternative accommodation.
The deposit question is an interesting one. Up until a couple of months ago I would have said that your landlord did not need to protect it as the payment of the deposit pre-dated the commencement of the regulations.
However if the status of the tenancy changed from fixed term to periodic or from periodic to fixed term (ie if you were given a new tenancy agreement) after April 2007, then your landlord may be in breach of the regualations by not protecting the deposit and serving the ‘prescribed information’ at that time.
I assume however that this did not happen and that your tenancy has been a rolling periodic one since about 2004-2005. In which case the landlord is under no obligation to protect the deposit and any section 21 notice he serves will not be invalid on that basis.
NB: Tenants wanting advice on their eviction rights will find a lot of information in my ebook which you can read about here.