A recent Court of Appeal ruling provides important clarification on the validity of s 21 notices, as Mathew McDermott reports
Sometimes, albeit rarely, certain legal phrases and concepts filter their way down into the awareness of the general public. One that seems to have done so successfully is “the s 21 notice”—the notice, emanating from s 21 of the Housing Act 1988 (HA 1988), that you use when seeking possession of a dwelling that was let on an assured shorthold tenancy.
What “everyone” knows about these s 21 notices is that they involve giving the tenant two months’ notice in writing to leave the property before you take formal possession proceedings. A further well understood aspect of s 21 notices is that they come in two forms depending on whether or not the tenancy is in its fixed term or, this having expired, has entered a periodic term.
If you serve the notice during the fixed term the requirements are not as demanding: two months’ notice in writing. This is in s 21(1)(b). If you serve the notice after the fixed term
