section 21 eviction ??

[donbracho]

hello there
i have been away for a few months sorting family problems out in another country. i owe 2 months rent at present and dont get paid till 20/12 /07.
whilst i was away the agency threatened to come in and change the locks. my firned who was house sitting for me advised them i had not left the property vacnt but had urgent situation to attend to.i followed this up with an email to the agency who were reasonable but obvioulsy now i owe 2 months rent want me out.
i have offered to pay the amount owed on the 20/12 but they refuse.
they have served me with a section 21 4(a) notice of possession for an assured shorthold tenancy.
the thing is it says the date they wil seek possession is on or after the 02/01/08 which is after i will have brought my arrears upto date so this makes no sense ?
secondly they have repeated that they are going to come in before that date and change the locks. surely this constitutes willful harassment ?

[bazak1]

the probable reason for stating the date as January is because as far as i know, they have to give you two months notice.
but dont forget that to recover outstanding rent AND possession, they must issue a notice under section 8 of the housing act 1988 ( ammended 1996 ), and is not neccessary to issue under 21 4(a) as well.

[MrShed]

Not entirely true, depending on how you look at it - you can equally recover rent and acquire possession by serving S21 then going to small claims court.

The important thing to note is that S21 eviction IS NOT DISCRETIONARY. It must be granted, with or without reason. Therefore the rent arrears are immaterial in this case.

[bazak1]

sorry Mr Shed, i thought that to recover rent and seek possession i just thought they had to issue under section 8, and didnt need to under 21 too.

[MrShed]

No bazak not "as well as", instead of - they can just reclaim rent seperate from the eviction if they want.

[bazak1]

i stand corrected Mr Shed. my fault for assuming that if they were attempting both arrears and eviction, they would do the two together.
Under those circumstances, what would their advantages be, to claim one separate from the other ?

[MrShed]

Well, only really that the S21 tends to be an easier and more guaranteed way to go. Hence why it is good practice to always serve S21 whenever you serve S8, as a fallback should the notoriously unpredictable S8 route not get the required results.

[Ed999]

Originally Posted by donbracho

i have offered to pay the amount owed on the 20/12 but they refuse.

You must actually pay. A mere offer to do so has no effect.

Originally Posted by donbracho

they have served me with a section 21 4(a) notice of possession for an assured shorthold tenancy.
the thing is it says the date they wil seek possession is on or after the 02/01/08 which is after i will have brought my arrears upto date so this makes no sense ?

The notice you received means that they will apply to court to evict you if you have not paid all the rent arrears by 02/01/08.



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