Hold onto your hats, this gets quite confusing! ... I have received a section 21 from a rogue London Landlord after complaining to the council for serious disrepair. I signed a tenancy agreement back in 2010 and the Landlord was a different company, but we paid our rent to a letting agent who managed the property. The company I now refer to as my landlord has been in charge of the maintenance of the property since 2011, yet the Agent still collects my rent payments. We have just last 2 weeks received a section 48 - which i have not signed receipt of... The landlords name is a new person I have never had any dealings with, and the "landlord" I have been dealing with for 4 years is now refereed to as an Agent. My agent (also pretty crooked) has told me that they are no longer my agent, but will not provide any proper notice or information on when this has stopped. They just ignore my emails. I have always paid my rent to the Agent, but neither the Landlord nor Agent will provide me details of where I can pay the rent to from now for the remainder of our 2 months notice period. It is clear there is some pretty dodgy stuff going on just to get us out due to our complaint to the council who inspected this week. I have never missed a rent payment in 5 years. Them not wanting me to make the remainding payments makes me think they just want rid and will have stronger case if i miss these last two payments? I am thinking of a counterclaim. Anyone any ideas or cases or examples of who I should be talking to here please? Thanks alot!

Hi, I have made a claim for repossession but I made a mistake in the form. As a result, I sent a witness statement to the tenant. However, one day after I sent my witness statement and further documents as evidence for my claim (certificate of service,etc) to the tenant, this last sent his defence to the court, apparently ignoring (he acted like he had not received it yet) my last documents sent to him (one day before). Two days ago, I received a copy of a letter he sent to the court asking the judge to disregards my last documents since they were sent after he filed his defence form and claimaing that I sent these lasts documents by spying him using other tenants that listen to his phone call when he was talking to his solicitor. He is equally asking to the court to postpone the hearing if they would like to take into accounts my last documents since he has spent 10 intensives days in preparation of his defence he has now to focus on his job interviews. I would like the court to take into the consideration all my documents without postponement of the hearing but I am not sure that I have done the required steps. Thanks.

Hello, I served a section 21 notice on my tenant recently and upon expiry of the notice, she's refused to move out. I am therefore preparing to apply to my local county court for possession, but kindly require clarification on which forms to submit. I am aware I need to submit claim form n5b, but what I wish to know is whether there are any other documents/forms I also need to submit with it. I would very much appreciate some assistance on this, as the justice.gov.uk website itself appears not to have any guidance notes available for users.. Thank you.

Hello, I have received a Section 21 notice. My landlady has said via email that she has no intention of asking me to leave and making me homeless before I can move into the property I am buying, but that she has had to serve the notice in order for the agent to market the rental. The notice asks me to leave on a date in August 2013. The covering letter, signed by same person as the notice, says I'm required to vacate on a date in August 2014. Is this notice therefore valid? Is this perhaps her way of saying I don't actually have to leave until I'm ready? The agent has written and signed both the covering letter and notice. Or is it just another of the many mistakes the agent has made?

Good Afternoon, Thanks for reading, and hopefully I can get some much needed answers to calm me down.. Before I write all this, I'm aware of the mistakes I've made and will learn from it as I've been heavily held to ransom by my tenants, and by not doing a tenancy agreement... I rented out my 2 bedroomed house to start a new life away from the village I was in. This was a rush letting, so I didn't check the tenants etc, didn't even draw up a tenancy agreement, but stated no DSS / Benefits. Long story short on this, I barely received rent, but found out they were on benefits, so I'm now in receipt of their Housing Benefit thank god. They moved in on the 26th January 2013. They quickly changed the locks, their numbers etc - I'd been done. I didn't even take a deposit (I'm an idiot I know). Amongst the zoo of animals in there, and my now tarnished property, I issued a Section 21. I had this checked numerous of times by different Solicitors, and it was deemed correct, and the date for the end of Tenancy of 25th of July. I have an email also from their housing advisor stating an Assured Shorthold Tenancy had been created when they moved in on the 26th of January, and they did indeed move in on the 26th of January. They refused the signed for Section 21 through the post, so hand delivered it on the 8th of April, and under video evidence and witness. My questions are, do I go ahead with court proceedings on the 26th of July, the day after the end of the tenancy on the 25th of July? Do i give a couple of days grace? As there is no tenancy agreement, we had a verbal agreement they would pay rent from the 26th for each month. Should I wait until the 1st of August just in case? Also, is there any way the Judge could throw it out? These are council tenants, renting off a private landlord, so the council won't rehouse them until I get them out through the court. I just want the judge to throw them out!!!! I'm sweating more the judge won't give me possession as these tenants seem to be professional in what they do, plus neighbours have informed me bailiffs have been round to my property taking furniture in their name... Because my Section 21 seems in order, paperwork wise, is this all going to be ok? Again, there is no tenancy agreement, so nothing stating when rent is due, just that they moved in on the 26th of January... Obviously I'm a first (and last) time landlord!!!! Many thanks, Art.

Hi, My current tenancy ends on 17th of July and I've just today received this: ********** Assured Shorthold Tenancy: Notice Requiring Possession: Periodic Tenancy To: *my housemate and I* Of: *our address* From: *our landlord* Of: *his address* I/we give notice that I/we require possession of the dwelling house know as *our address*. After the end of the period of your tenancy which will end on the 17th July 2012 Dated the twenty eightth day of May, two thousand and twelve Signed, either by, or on behalf of, the Landlord Date: 28/5/12 Signature of Landlord (no printing of name afterwards) ********** This is verbatim, complete with shoddy spelling and grammar. Apart from the period of notice not being 2 months, is there anything else I need to query? Oh and the original 12 month contact gives the end date as 17 July 2011, one day before the contract started - only noticed that today. Thanks for any help.

Hello, I have two questions for you, if I may: 1. My landlord has served me with notice requiring possession of the property at the end of our fixed term AST, however a. this has been sent via e-mail and b. it does not mentioned Section 21. Is this a valid notice? 2. My landlord did not protect my deposit within 14 days of receipt, but has since (over a year after it was paid). Where would I stand if I wanted to dispute this? I've tried to keep it succinct, but if you need further information please do not hesitate to ask. Otherwise, thank you in advance for your advice. Simon

Hello, My current landlord served me a Section 21 notice that expires in two months time. However, my deposit is not currently protected so from what I have read, his section 21 notice is invalid. What I need to know is this: If he continues with action and makes a court date for the Section 21 notice, am I able to counter-claim for 3x deposit and return (or protection), as well as making the S21 void at a hearing? I need to know if there is any kind of monetary counterclaim ability in a Section 21 hearing as there is in a Section 8 hearing, because I am eager to counterclaim for the deposit penalty (or at the very least, its protection or return) but I cannot really afford to start the proceedings myself as I am on income support/housing benefit + I don't want to tip off the landlord early that he can't evict me with Section 21 until he finds out the hard way because my deposit isn't protected. Thx for your help everyone

Please can someone help me with the current situation I'm having as a tenant. To summarise: 1) Our deposit is currently NOT protected. It was originally protected and held by Agent through MyDeposits scheme but the agent went bankrupt and the deposit disappeared and became unprotected. MyDeposits informed LL and us of this via letter AND I asked him via letter (and over phone) to please reprotect and give us information within the same month it happened (about a year and a half ago). He never reprotected (I have checked with all three schemes this month). 2) Reported quite serious repair issues to landlord on phone back in March. LL still hasn't fixed them to this day and didn't seem like he intended to from the start. 3) LL called up one Sunday and demanded to enter property that day to inspect (after accusing us of causing the repair damages!) - told him that it wasn't a good time that day but he showed up same night banging on our door, looking through our letterbox and demanding to come in. Eventually left after we didn't answer the door. LL showed up again announced two nights later banging on door again. I called the police this time due to harassment and he left quickly after that. 4) The next day he served us Section 21 notice through the door (even though deposit isn't protected). 5) After this we stopped paying rent due to unprotected deposit and disrepairs. Have still been trying to get him to do repairs - sent him a letter at the start of this month outlining all repair issues and asking to arrange a time to carry them out otherwise I will contact Environmental Health. He denied receiving the letter according to his new Agent so I sent it again the other day by first class mail with certificate of posting this time to both his address and his managing agent (who acknowledged receiving the letter and said would pass it on to him). 6) He served Section 8 as we are now 2 months in arrears (after I had sent the first letter) and I now have about a week to clear rent arrears before his solicitors said they would start proceedings. What I would like to know is this: 1) How do you put a counterclaim value on disrepairs? If he starts a claim against us, I will counterclaim for both disrepairs and unprotected deposit but how do you assign a value to the former? 2) Should I inform him again of my request for deposit reprotection or is it enough that I have asked him once via mail (and numerous times on the phone) and that he was informed by MyDeposits of unprotection, and should I just put it in my counterclaim with 3x deposit penalty with no further notice? Ideally I would like the deposit return + 3x penalty to offset the rent arrears, but do I have any obligation to request reprotection yet again? 3) If I put 3x deposit unprotection as part of counterclaim and then he protects it before the hearing date, am I still entitled to 3x amount? If he does protect it before hearing date but then I clear two months arrears, can he still proceed with eviction or will it be void? What I want to know basically is what the best way to act now to ensure that either my deposit is protected and the repairs are carried out (and then I will pay arrears) OR that we don't get evicted because the deposit return and penalty (and disrepair award) will offset the current arrears. If anyone can advise the best course of action, I would be very appreciative. Thanks

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone could please assist me in a rather complicated tenancy dispute/issue I am having with my landlord? Basically, the story goes like this: My housemate and I moved into the property in June 2009. In September 2009, the estate agent company managing the property went bankrupt. Anyway, we received a letter from MyDeposits informing us that because the Agent is holding the deposit and that their membership has been cancelled with the Scheme, that our deposit would become unprotected on December 15 2009. The landlord was also made aware of this as he received the same letter, and I asked him in December 09 if he could please reprotect our deposit and provide the information on the new protection. He said he'd just keep the deposit in his bank account until the tenancy was over so I informed him politely that it was his legal responsibility to protect it, and if he could please do so as soon as possible. He said he would but I never heard back from him about it again, so I am pretty much assuming that the deposit is still unprotected as of today. Things went along more or less smoothly after that until March of this year. At that time, the pipes underneath the kitchen sink started leaking heavily, and then overnight, the central heating stopped working in the property. To make matters worse, some wooden decking in the garden literally broke beneath me when I was sitting outside on a garden chair - I had previously told the landlord that the whole decking appeared to be sinking (it doesn't seem to have been laid properly with any foundation underneath) and asked if he could have someone come over to inspect/repair it and he said he would, but again, nothing came of this either. When I called up the landlord at 9AM to have the heating and pipes repaired ASAP (the decking didn't break until later), he would only arrange to have a certain plumber that he knew come in to do the repairs (he told me because he has some kind of "deal" with this plumber where he pays him whatever he wants). Anyway, I said that was fine but as of 3PM I still hadn't heard back from the landlord or the plumber about the urgent repairs. I called him again and he said that he couldn't get a hold of the plumber so I asked if he could please either get a different one in or if we could call one and then send him the invoice after it had been repaired, as it was an emergency repair job that really couldn't wait more than 24 hours to be fixed. He flat out refused to have any other plumber come in and said he wouldn't pay us back if we got one in ourselves, as he was only willing to have this one plumber come in and do the job. Another hour later and I still hadn't heard anything back from him or this plumber and it was at this time that the decking broke beneath me. I called him again to let him know about this repair issue and that I still hadn't heard from the plumber, and he started getting quite aggressive/rude and said that there was no way he would send anyone over to fix the decking until, in his words, he had seen the damage that *we* had done to it (I explained to him that we hadn't done anything to damage it and that I had asked him months ago to have someone look at it because it looked to be sinking) and that we would have to wait for whenever the plumber contacted us to carry out the repairs, and that if we didn't like it, we could find somewhere else to live. By this time it was too late for us to even get in an emergency plumber at our own expense to fix the heating and the sink, so I just left it for the day and hoped that the plumber would contact us the next day. The plumber did come over the next night and repair the sink and got the heating to start working again (we went about 36 hours with a heavily leaking pipe and without any heating) but he told us that there was a faulty part in the boiler and he'd have to order in the part to repair it properly. The heating stopped working again that night and the plumber wouldn't come back again nor would the landlord get anyone else again. Long story short, as of today (30th April), the heating and the decking still have not been repaired. I wasted countless days waiting for the unreliable plumber to turn when he said he would but didn't, and the best he has done since (only after I had to tell the landlord that I would have no choice but contact the Council with a complaint if the heating remained unrepaired) was to take off the cover and leave the boiler exposed and show me which switch I need to pull to fix it, which I find a bit dangerous as I don't particularly enjoy reaching into an open and switched on boiler. Maybe three weeks ago, he said he would call me when he had ordered and received the replacement part but I still haven't heard anything back. On Friday the 15th, the landlord called me and told me that he wanted to come over that day to see the repairs that had been carried out to know how much to pay the plumber. I told him that it wasn't a good day and that I would contact him to let him know when he could come over. I also told him that the plumbing repairs hadn't actually been finished as he knew, and that I was still waiting for someone to repair the outside decking because I didn't feel safe stepping on it anymore as the whole thing was quite unstable. He rudely said again that he wouldn't have that fixed until he had seen what we had done to it and so I told him again that I would contact him when it was convenient for him to come over. On Sunday the 17th, I sent him a text message telling him that it would have to wait until after that Easter weekend as we wouldn't be at home that week (my housemates grandmother had become very ill and we were up at the hospital for most of the day and would be doing so for all of that week). Anyway, at 9PM that Sunday night he turned up and started banging on our door and looking through our letterbox. We called my housemate's father to come over to see what he wanted and to tell him that he can't just turn up and start banging on our door (I did not want to open the door to him after his behaviour at out door and after how rude and aggressive he had been on the phone). The landlord said he wanted to come in there and then and that if we didn't arrange a time with him in the next day or two, he would just let himself in with his own key. My housemate's father told him that he can't do that and he'd have to arrange a time that was good with us because we wouldn't be at home much that week owing to my housemate's dying grandmother. Anyway, he left after that but then at Tuesday night at 6PM he came to the door unannounced and started banging on it yet again! I had enough at this point and called the police, and on their advice, I requested to him that he leave the property and if he did not, that I would have the police come over as he was now illegally harrassing us. He promptly left, but the next day, he put a Section 21 Notice Requiring Posession through our letterbox that said we had to be vacated by the end of June. Now, I definitely want to leave the property after all that has gone on, but there are a few problems: 1) For the time being, I am still living in a property that has no properly working central heating and a garden that is not really safe to go into because the decking feels like it will give at any second. 2) I am 99% sure that our deposit has not been re-protected and I definitely am not leaving until it has been safeguarded or returned because I know he will just try and keep it from us. 3) I want the repairs carried out ASAP not only because they are making our living conditions unsafe right now, but because I know that he will try to blame us and make us pay for them after we vacate the property if they haven't been fixed by then. So I was wondering if anyone could please provide advice as to what to do now to get the repairs done and my deposit either returned to me or reprotected? As far as I'm aware, his Section 21 Notice Requiring Possession is void because of our unprotected deposit status but I don't know the best steps to take now. Thank you very much in advance for your help and apologies for the very long message!

hi im wondering if ANYONE can help me..... i have got behind in my rent due to work issues, im on a AST (Assuerd Shorthold Tennancy) BUT im out of the tennany aggreement... my letting agency have given me a section 21 which ran out today at 5.30 - my aggency is now telling me they can go to the court tomorrow morning and apply for a possession order which will take 48 hours and they will be able to remove me on thursday at 9am.... but as far as ive read they would need a possession warrant to remove me? if they get a possesion order by thursday how long will it take them to get a possession warrant..... its all baffal to me... can ANYONE help please......

Painsmith Soilicitors have just posted a new blog entry at http://blog.painsmith.co.uk/2010/08/23/after-a-section-21-notice-expires which clarifies matters very nicely. I have found considerable confusion amongst landlords and commentators on some aspects of the uses of these notices. It reads: "We are often asked the question of what the situation is once a notice pursuant to section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 expires. Thanks to the decision of the House of Lords in Knowsley Housing Trust v White it is known that a tenancy agreement for an assured or assured shorthold tenancy does not in fact come to an end until the Court Bailiff has executed an order for possession. Therefore the service of a section 21 notice does not in itself bring a tenancy to an end. This means that the measures of only referring to rent as mesne profits after the service of section 21 notice are not necessarily required (although they may be a good idea so as not to confuse busy District Judges!). If a tenant wishes to stay after the expiry of a section 21 notice for a short period this can easily be dealt with by simply sending a letter advising the tenant that the landlord will not be enforcing the expired possession order until a specific date. Subscribers to the PainSmith helpline service will be able to obtain a suitable letter from the document vault on their website. Section 21 notices have no finite lifetime in which they can be used, they oldest reported case involves a section 21 notice which expired 6 years before the possession action began. Therefore agents should not be overly focused on the section 21 notice and tenants staying on after it has expired and more on making sure they have not offered a new tenancy which might override the notice." It seems to me that LL's now have a clear procedural route to follow: protect the deposit serve the deposit info sheet along with a Section 21 notice specifying the final day of the tenanc allow the tenancy to become a statutory one if you ever need to give notice, merely send a letter to the tenant quoting the Notice and saying that you want them gone in 30 days (or later if you wish and specify).

I am a landlord and a month ago I served my tenant with a Section 21 notice - which still has a month to run. The tenancy agreement is a AST (periodic). In the last month, the tenant has become 2 months in arrears in rent payments and I am considering a Section 8 notice on the grounds of arrears, persistent late payment of rent and noise/nuisance to neighbours. I am considering this because I believe that the tenant will either: 1. Do a runner - and leave without paying the arrears. The damage deposit will not cover the damage to the premises and the outstanding rent. 2. Refuse to vacate at the end of the Section 21 period and also not pay rent whilst I sort out a Court order - thereby increasing the arrears. I am confused and unsure about which Notice - i.e. Section 21 or Section 8 - will be the most effective. Questions: Can I do both? What is the procedure for recovering arrears following a Section 21 process? Which is the most effective in terms of removing the tenant and recovering unpaid rent? Any help much appreciated.