I used openrents section 21 notice tool to serve notice on my tenants on 1st April giving the date of 2nd June to vacate.
The tenants made me aware they did not intend to leave and my insurance company appointed a solicitor to prepare an application to court for a possession order.
I have supplied all requested paperwork, however, the solicitor has asked openrent to sign an N215 to certify that the section 21 was served on April 1st, which they are refusing to do, saying that the notice was served by the landlord. The email serving the notice came from openrent and my solicitor argues that openrent served the notice and without the N215 there is a high chance the application to court would be unsuccessful.
Surely openrent wouldn’t provide a useful tool with such a flaw as this? Who is correct, the solicitor or openrent?
I can’t believe I may have to serve notice again and have to wait another 2 months before proceeding to court simply because openrent won’t sign or the solicitor won’t let me sign. All other paperwork is in order and the tenants are in rent arrears so I am very keen to proceed.
Yes it did and I have provided that email to the solicitor. However she is saying that because it came from an openrent email adress and not directly from me, OR must sign the form. Hoping for some clarity on this.
the solicitor is a plonker IMO. OR are effectively an agent in this case, responding to your instructions to issue service. Can you dig deep into the terms of service with OR to try to find something that will persuade the solicitor they are talking out of the wrong orifice?
and I would add to the moderators and other OpenRent staff on here (Daz?) that if this loophole exists and you do not step forward to intervene here and assist Kerryn, it is ANOTHER reason never ever to use services like RentNow because you do not give LLs the control they need to fully manage the process.
Unfortunately the solicitor was appointed by the insurance company and is threatening to tell them my case has less than 50% chance of success so wouldn’t be covered.
I will be having further conversations with both sides tomorrow to try to get to the bottom of it. Thanks for the comments and advice so far, would be interesting to know if anyone else has come up against this problem. Or if anyone else signed the N215 themselves as the landlord after using OR’s notice serving tool and had it accepted by the court?
I am still at an impasse with both sides insisting their stance is the correct one. The problem is that even if my solicitor is wrong, she is refusing to proceed without the N215 and as they are instructed by my insurance rather than myself, I don’t have the power to compel her to proceed to court.
Is there an Openrent moderator around who can advise further? I’m stunned that a tool designed to assist landlords in the management of their property is now doing the exact opposite. I’m at my wits end. Any help appreciated.
No, nothing to be done, both sides refusing to concede. I have perfect paperwork so I’m flabbergasted. I’m now printing a forests worth of paper to submit everything myself tomorrow, which I could have done almost a month ago but was persuaded I needed legal advice. Meanwhile tenants are living rent-free…
Where can I shout very loudly about this? as a warning to other landlords using the notice serving tool who may also be appointed a solicitor by their insurance who take the same stance as my own.
I’m selling the house as soon as I can once the tenants are out and never investing in property again.
write to OR (hard copy) and complain. I’ve written another response to this which has got caught up in a moderation queue… maybe it will bring more attention to this thread than it has got from OR staff so far.
Thank you everyone for all your helpful responses. The silence from OR speaks volumes here. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement.
I’m very much hoping I have completed the N5B form correctly and have included all the necessary paperwork. It’s so much paper, the judicial system should be ashamed on behalf of all the trees to be requiring so much hard copy.
well good for you for taking matters into your own hands. I don’t blame you for wanting to wash your hands of it. Personally, I would write a letter (hard copy) of complaint to OR.
I’m pretty amazed that not a single voice from OR has contributed to this thread even when I tagged @Daz. That’s really disappointing.
Apologies, I didn’t see the first tag. I’ll get this looked into now, even though I imagine our team are already taking this very seriously. Clearly if it’s a case of differing opinions between lawyers, things can become a bit unstuck, but hopefully we can come to a sensible resolution for all parties. Will also make sure someone posts a definitive answer in this thread so it’s clear for future uses of the Section 21 tool.
Serving S21 on behalf of someone is a service and N215 basically is a Certificate of service. I would love to hear why OpenRent would refuse signing the certificate on a service they’ve provided.
Hi, apologies for the delay here.
The Section 21 notice serving tool serves the notice by email to the tenants. Service by email is a perfectly valid method of service given that OpenRent tenants consent to this in the tenancy agreement.
It is the landlord that sends the notice via the notice serving tool and as such either the landlord or their solicitor can sign a certificate of service if they wish to do so. We also copy the landlord into the email that sends the notice so that they have evidence of the notice being sent which can also be used as evidence of valid service.