Hi posting this on behalf of a freind here so I will give a little background first. Freinds are a couple and have a Joint AST from 2009 with a deposit and a garunator. As I understand it the Guarantee is invalid as it was not executed as deed at the time, but all rents are and have been kept up to date but may become relveant. Basically the tenancy became a SPT at the end of the fixed term, they paid their rent and deposit to an agency and had a LTD company as a landlord. A few months into the fixed term (pre loaclaism act), came to light that deposit hadn't been protected. They mentioned this with the lettings agent, who duly placed it in he DPS and made an attempt at giving the prescribed information but missed a couple of bits. Friends were happy as had been burnt by previous rouge and just wanted their £ in a scheme. Agency a bit "key happy" so a swift lock barrel change and a letter sorted that out for them. Fast froward to 2013 and it has become apparent that the property have been sold by the LTD company to a private (and seemingly naive with the rules LL) with sitting tenants. It has been confirmed to them that exchange and completion have taken place. At no point has the LTD company, the agency or the new LL fulfilled ANY of their obligations under the LL & T act 1985. It appears that the agency is working for both new LL and LTD LL. This has never been properly confirmed and my friends are rightly concerned that they don't end up paying the new and old LL. Cue letters to the old Ltd company, new LL and agency requesting this is fufiled ASAP. Having been burned in the past have indicated to all parties that as the LL identity is in question, they will hold the rent in a spare empty bank account they have and will pay all back rent once the correct owners of the rent have made themselves known. Instead of fulfilling their obligations the agency wanted to sign them up to a new fixed term. This did not suit my friends as even before this they were planning on buying or moving somewhere with parking so declined the offer but made clear they were happy to continue the SPT with a new LL. Agency also wanted to raise the rent by £15/pm (pointed out that market rents have atchaully fallen in the area and £15/pm is quickly wiped out by a small void period, and I suspect the agency just wants to charge them and the new LL a load of fees) After sending this back they got a S21 notice. Now they suspect the new LL won't act on this (if they even know about it). However I have a couple of questions about its validity. 1) Does the fact the deposit was protected around 60 days after being received but pre localism act mean that the deposit needs to be returned before the LL can serve a S21? 2)The "prescribed information" they received after it was protected late was simply a receipt from the DPS and a copy of the protection web page, am I right in thinking this invalidates the notice as per the localism act? 3)As the notice contains the Landlords details for the new LL and not the old LTD company LL, and no notices under the LL&T act 1985 have been sent surely this invalidates the S21 too? ultimately the above may not matter as they were looking at leaving anyway and obviously they would need to be taken to court etc which would probably be enough time for them, but they want to be prepared and if it is invalid this would help them greatly as it would ensure at least another 1/2 months. Thanks in advance.