Andrew Perriman Fee Earner 1.New AST Rules 2.Retaliatory Evictions 3.How to Evict Swiftly 4.Having Your Cake and Eating it!

 Landlords must use a new, prescribed form of notice when ending an AST granted on or after 01 October 2015;  Landlords will not be able to recover possession unless they have previously provided certain information relating to the property and the tenant’s rights and responsibilities;  Landlords can no longer serve a section 21 notice on the date the AST begins. They must now wait until the tenant has occupied the property for at least four months before serving a notice; and  A section 21 notice will now only last for six months for a fixed term AST and four months for a statutory periodic tenancy. This means that a landlord will have to wait six months before serving notice to terminate a twelve month AST.

 There are a number of other requirements imposed as part of the government’s ongoing campaign to regulate ASTs. There is now a requirement that, before issuing a section 21 notice, the landlord must have supplied the tenant with:  an Energy Performance Certificate;  a copy of a Gas Safety Certificate; and  a copy of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s booklet: How to rent: The checklist for renting in England.

 Retaliatory eviction is where a tenant makes a legitimate complaint to their landlord about the condition of their property and, in response, instead of making the repair, their landlord serves them with an eviction notice.  Protection now provided for tenants who commence an AST from Oct 2015

 Where a tenant makes a genuine complaint about the condition of their property that has not been addressed by their landlord, their complaint has been verified by a local authority inspection, and the local authority has served either an improvement notice or a notice of emergency remedial action, a landlord cannot evict that tenant for 6 months using the ‘no-fault’ eviction procedure (a section 21 eviction).  Information from the Retaliatory Eviction Guidance Note

 Tenants should always report any disrepair or poor conditions that may arise to the landlord as soon as possible. They should put their complaint in writing. In order to rely on the protection against retaliatory eviction that the Deregulation Act 2015 provides, a tenant must approach the landlord in the first instance

 Landlords have 14 days from the date of the tenant’s complaint to make a response. Their response should set out what they intend to do to remedy the problem and include a reasonable timeframe for carrying out the works.  The landlord should then make arrangements to carry out the repair. In the vast majority of cases this will be the end of the matter.  Consequences….

How to speed up possession proceedings by 14 days. The Housing Act 1988 states for a section 8 notice, 2 weeks notice is required to be given to the Tenant. S.8(4)(b) When the matter appears in court, Judges will give possession in 14 days. How to Evict Swiftly

Here is the trick… Tell the Judge that you have already given 14 days notice by virtue of the s.8 notice. Therefore, possession should be granted immediately.

Summary New AST Rules for Tenancies commencing after 01 October 2015 Do not evict in retaliation to being asked to carry out repairs. Speed up evictions with a simple step Do not send a tenancy agreement to someone in word form!

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