Question Time 2 - Section 21 notices

[MrShed]

OK another one - only coz I was thinking of it just now!!

A tenant begins a 6 month fixed term AST on 1st February 2006. At the beginning of the tenancy, the tenant is issued a Section 21(notice 1) notice to regain possession on or after the 1st August 2006. The tenant is told that this notice will not be acted upon should they be a good tenant, and there is no intention to act upon it at this time. No contact address is provided in the AST, nor is there a seperate S48 served.

On the 25th July and dated the 25th of July, the tenant receives another S21 notice(notice 2) giving 2 months notice, requiring possession on or after the 24th of September.

This notice is acted upon, and fails. Another notice(notice 3) is issued that the tenant receives on the 21st of October, dated the 21st of October, to expire 31st December. The agent is unsure whether this notice is received or not, and so issues another notice(notice 4) on the 2nd November, to gain possession after the 3rd January 2007.

Assumptions:

- All Section 21 notices have the standard text required, no extra
- None of the questions are based on simple date issues(ie the expiry date being a day out - I am rusty on my dates in this respect!!!).
- There is no wording in the agreement regarding notice, apart from it being 2 months required. All notices are served in an adequate fashion.
- There is no issue with proving or disproving anything in court. Base answers purely on the info here.


QUESTIONS:

1) If only notice 1 had been issued and acted upon, it would have failed. Why? There are two reasons.
2) Assuming these two reasons were not present/resolved, would notice 2 have been successful? If not why?
3) Assuming the reasons in Q1 are resolved, what issues are brought about by notices 3 and 4?
4) Assuming the reasons in Q1 are resolved, what is the earliest that eviction proceedings can currently be brought, and what actions if any does the landlord/agent need to take?
5) What, if anything, should the landlord have done differently on notice 4?

Good luck!!! Sorry if anyone is bored by this theoretical rubbish haha!

[MrShed]

Bugger it I'm just going to answer

1) The first reason is that there is no S48 notice served, and so the tenant cannot be evicted. In case anyone doesnt know, the S48 notice details the name and address(in England And Wales) of the landlord, and can be contained within the TA. The second slightly more obscure reason is that S21 notices have to be issued unequivocally and without condition. Therefore by stating that it will only be acted upon should the tenants be bad, a condition has been created which therefore invalidates the notice.
2) Notice 2 WOULD be successful, despite the dates, as you can issue a Section 21 with 2 months notice at any time during the fixed term - the date does not have to coincide with the end of a rental period.
3) First of all, notice 4 has superseded and invalidated notice 3. Also, as notice 4 is issued during a SPT, the notice must end at the end of a rental period. Therefore notice 4 is also invalid.
4) Both notices are now invalid. A new notice must be issued to gain possession after the 31st of January, before the end of November.
5) The notice could have been issued "without prejudice", which would not have invalidated notice 3