Oh and letting agent has sent another bullying email saying that they want to come and do an inspection next week (it's only been a month since the last one, they're usually every 6 months, so I will be saying no to that) as well as starting to show new tenants round. I don't really understand how they intend on re-letting it when we haven't confirmed yet that we will be leaving by the expiry of the S21. They've just assumed we will.

Oh dear, I seem to have opened a can of worms about the need to give notice if I leave at the end of the S21. If you lot don't know the answer, I've got no chance lol To complicate matters even more, I asked my local council's Tenancy Relations Officer today about the dates issue. She said that to be valid it would need to run from 5th to 5th, and that as it was served on 6th and expires on 5th, it's invalid. The plot thickens...

Thanks Gemma, are you aware of anything in writing that I could use to support that if it came to it? It's so confusing... Another question (sorry folks!). If the S21 is a Notice that the landlord requires possession after the expiry date, why would I still be required to give notice of my own if I decide to leave before the S21 expiry date (note, I would still pay rent up to the S21 expiry date)? If I just left on the 5th December, and paid no further rent, would I be doing wrong? I know the S21 doesn't have to mean the end of the tenancy, but surely it's a request for me to leave by the landlord, and so if I comply with it by leaving, is the tenancy not considered ended by mutual agreement?

It would have, yes, but they don't know that. They think it has to expire on the 5th. I'm still confused about whether it has to run from 5th to 5th, or whether the 6th to 5th is okay. The more websites I look on the more confused I get as some say the former, others say the latter. I've tried talking for over a month now, they don't engage in any discussion about it. They just repeat their ultimatums and threats of eviction. For some reason the landlord would rather evict two reliable tenants who keep his property in immaculate condition and incur the cost of re-letting than enter into any discussion with us now. It's madness, but so be it!

As expected, the S21 has just come through the door. They've served a Section 21(4)(a), as I expected. Dated 4th October 2014 with a date of expiry 5th December 2014. It will be considered served on Monday, 6th October, as per the tenancy clause. So I fear it is valid.

Thanks mariner, yes we'll be sure to give them the required notice, but we won't do so until after exchange on our purchase, for (relative) safety. Not giving them any excuse to get one over on us! Out of interest, if they want to do viewings with replacement tenants once the S21 has been served today, and our tenancy agreement says that we have to allow viewings by prior mutual acceptable appointment and upon being given 24 hours written notice, do we have to consent to these viewings? If we state that we wish to be present during any viewings but just happen to always be at work or similar when they want to come round, can they do anything about this? Personally I think they'd be mad to relet the property yet, seeing as we won't be confirming any end date any time soon, but it really wouldn't surprise me if they just assume we'll leave during the S21 and arrange new tenants for the day after! Actually, that reminds me of something else I wanted to ask. If they do arrange for new tenants to move in once the S21 expires, but we then stay until a court possession order expires, would the landlord be able to claim any incurred costs/losses from us? My feeling is no, but this is based on my assumption that it's our right to remain here until the expiry of the possession order. Am I correct? The tenancy agreement also states they can erect To Let boards within the last two months' of the Tenancy, but how do they know when the last two months will be unless they assume we will be out by end of S21. Not that we'd be awkward about minor things like that, life's too short. I just think it'll be interesting to see what they do.

Thanks all. The deposit was protected when we first moved in 2 and a bit years ago, and the Prescribed Info given to us. We were given a new PI when we signed a renewal after a year. We weren't given a new PI when the tenancy became an SPT, and I know there's been some discussion online lately about whether that would render a S21 invalid, now that there was that case where the judge said that an SPT is a "new tenancy". But I wasn't planning on relying on that argument seeing as it's untested and probably not going to get me anywhere. As luck would have it, we viewed 3 houses to buy this afternoon and loved one of them, and our offer has just been accepted. The owners know our circumstances and that we want to be in before the baby is born at Christmas, and are happy to move into rented if they don't find anywhere to buy soon. They're house hunting this weekend in the town they're relocating to. So, that's made our decision. We won't be signing any new fixed term. And we should, all being well, be into the new house before any court date was arranged. We're prepared now to take the risk that we will have to look for an alternative rental if the purchase doesn't complete. Out of interest, I know that if it went to court and the LL got a possession order, we would have to pay his costs. What would happen if we moved out between the LL applying to the court and paying his fee, and the court date? Would his fee be refunded? Would we be liable to pay him anything still? I feel like a weight has been lifted! Although still dreading this notice arriving tomorrow...

Oh and I tried to make use of a local advice service that CAB recommended to me, but they won't actually see me until the S21 has been served...

Hi honeybee Yes I phoned Shelter, was on the phone to them for half an hour and they were lovely, but they wouldn't give me a firm answer on the dates due to the recent changes meaning that landlord's only need to give two calendar months' notice now. He just kept saying that. I know that's the case, but if the letting agent isn't aware of it then it's possible that I can later make them believe, in a month or two's time, that their S21 is invalid if it doesn't adhere to the rental periods properly. Does that make sense? Which would potentially buy us more time to complete a house purchase. The man from Shelter was more interested in talking about my entitlement to change the locks and what could happen if the landlord made any more threats or came round unannounced again, which was useful, but I mainly want clarification on the S21 issue right now.

We are currently facing possible eviction, and have been given a deadline of tomorrow to either sign up to a new fixed term or be served a Section 21, delivered to our address by hand tomorrow. Currently on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy, which we wanted to stay on and landlord previously agreed to, but has since changed his mind three times and is now not allowing us to stay on it. There are various reasons that we don't wish to sign a new fixed term, which I won't go in to detail on now as it's a long story, but in a nutshell the landlord let himself in whilst I was home alone and in the shower recently due to agent not communicating to us that he had arranged with them to attend. Then rather than take his anger out on them he threatened my husband - so we are now looking for a house to buy and don't want to be tied down to this property for a fixed term. I have been trying to work out what dates they would need to put on the S21 in order to make it valid. I'm aware that landlords need only give two calendar months notice now, BUT the letting agent seems to have imposed this deadline of tomorrow and keeps referring to "tight timescales" which makes me think they are not aware of this, and are planning to use S21(4)(b) and still think they have to give two rental periods of notice. Relevant dates: Rental period starts on 6th of each month, so last day of tenancy would be 5th Section 21 likely to be served by hand tomorrow, 4th Contract has a clause stating that notice served by hand before 5pm will be considered served on next working day excl. Sat, Sun and Bank Hols, which would be Monday, 6th If notice given tomorrow is considered served on the 6th October, would the notice be allowed to expire on 5th December, or would it need to run from 6th to 6th and so if it states 5th December will it be invalid? My feeling is that it would be valid still, as it would be considered served from 00:00:01 on 6th Oct and would run until 23:59:59 on 5th December, which would be two full rental periods. But looking online the results are mixed. I found a blog comment where someone said their possession order was thrown out for not running from, for example, 6th to 6th, and when using online S21 calendars with a service date of tomorrow, they are saying notice should expire Jan 5th, not Dec. Also, if the notice is dated from 4th or 5th Oct but isn't classed as served until 6th Oct, as per the contract clause, then is it valid or invalid? I'm so confused, getting into a right muddle. I'd be grateful if anyone could clarify the above for me, as this will determine whether or not we sign the new fixed term tomorrow. I am 7 months pregnant, due 15 days after the S21 would expire. If it was just me and my husband I would fight this to the end, but with the baby due at Christmas I am so scared of the uncertainty about what will happen. If I knew we had at least 3 months I would feel fine, but 2 is cutting it fine to complete a house purchase even with the added time of the court process etc. The anxiety is affecting me a lot now, to the point where I'm having panic attacks in the middle of the night and have hardly slept for a week. Please help