Important information for all landlords, letting agents and tenants in England. The following information will affect every Assured Shorthold Tenancy in England and we strongly urge all landlords, letting agents and tenants to read this carefully.
The Deregulation Act 2015 has introduced new provisions to protect tenants from retaliatory eviction which will come into force on 1 October 2015.
The Act requires a landlord to give an ‘adequate response’ to complaints about property conditions. If the local authority serves a ‘relevant notice’ (Improvement Notice or Emergency Remedial Action) following a complaint from a tenant, then the landlord will be unable to serve a Section 21 notice for a period of six months.
There are some exceptions which include where the Local Authority notice is revoked, the property is genuinely on the market for sale, mortgage repossessions and where the tenant has caused the disrepair. The latter will almost certainly open up a debate as to who is responsible for the disrepair and may cause delay to possession proceedings.
There are various knock on effects to possession proceedings which will need to be considered on a case by case basis but, essentially, it is going to be a question of who gets in first in terms of either a complaint from the tenant or a Section 21 notice being served by a landlord.
However, further provisions of the Act provide restrictions on the timing of service of a Section 21 Notice. Some landlords serve a Section 21 notice at the start of the tenancy as a matter of course. A landlord will not be able to serve a Section 21 notice within the first 4 months of a fixed term under the new provisions. As such, no Section 21 notice can end on the last day of a 6 month term but a new prescribed Section 21 notice is to be introduced which will avoid the need for a landlord to specify, within the notice, the last day of the period of the tenancy for when the tenancy comes to an end. This will simplify the possession notice process and cut down errors in drafting Section 21 notices for landlords.
This legislation will apply to new Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) that commence on or after 1 October 2015 and all ASTs from October 2018.
Click here to read the relevant sections of the Deregulation Bill 2015
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