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New Rule Changes on Evicting Tenants

The Deregulation Act 2015 has now come into force which has an impact upon private landlords of residential premises. For any assured shorthold tenancy (“AST”) starting after 1 October 2015, a landlord is now required to provide certain information to a tenant at the start of each fixed term, including but not limited to, an energy performance certificate.

With regard to section 21 notices, the rules have also slightly changed. The rules are there to prevent the unscrupulous landlord from simply evicting an innocent tenant because the boiler isn’t working. One of the changes is that any complaint in writing from a tenant about the condition of the property has to be responded to within 14 days. The landlord must reply with what he intends to do and also the timeline for the repair works. If, after the complaint is received, the landlord fails to reply or serves a section 21 notice, the tenant can complain to the local authority who must then inspect the property. If an enforcement notice is served by the council, then any section 21 notice served by the landlord will be invalidated and a further section 21 notice cannot be served for six months. Another change is that a landlord can only serve a section 21 notice after 4 months of the tenancy, and there is a six month time limit to issue proceedings after a section 21 notice is served. Many landlords serve a section 21 notice as soon as the tenancy begins in order to avoid the need to do it later, but this will no longer be acceptable, and so landlords will need to plan for this.

It is not yet known what would happen if a tenant keeps raising complaints to the landlord in order to try and avoid a section 21 notice being served, but only time will tell.

Although correct at the time of publication, the contents of this article are intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute legal advice. We cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article. Please contact us for the latest legal position.