My tenant of 8 years has not paid for a number of months. Section 21 notice has expired today but the tenant has not responded or handed the keys back.
Can I
You need to be careful about harassment. You could try 1, but be prepared to back off quickly. You could put a note for him through the girlfriend’s door, perhaps offering to waive the arrears if he returns the keys and signs a surrender. You can also do 3, but if he’s not living there but his stuff is still there and he hasn’t returned the keys, then I don’t think its safe to re-take possession.
Thank you David. Appreciated.
Would like to get your experience and insights about how “one year fixed term with a mature 6 months break clause” works in practice? My understanding of section 21 is “either the landlord or the tenants can serve a notice at least but not the exact 2 months in advance, after the 4th months since the contract starting date, to end the contract on any date after the 6th full month. The 1st question, can both parties serve a notice to each other to request the contract to end on the different dates? Does the earlier notice serving date count or the earlier ending date count. For example, if the contract starts on 01/03/24, the landlord serves a notice on 01/07/24 to inform the tenants to end the contract on 10/09/24. Can the tenants serve a notice back on 02/07/24 to end the contract on 02/09/24? Or it’s just one off, whoever serve first will count? Seems the both of noticed meet the two-month requirement? If only one party use section 21 to serve the notice, the other party has never expressed any difference on the ending date which is informed, will the contract be ended any date which the serving party informed? Like the contract above starting 01/03/24, landlord serves notice on 08/07/24, to inform the contract will end on 15/09/24. Is this like unchallengeable one-off notice. Look forward to hearing from you.
Well the first thing to say is that a s21 notice doesn’t end the tenancy, its a request to the tenant to leave, but if they don’t you have to escalate it through the courts.
Any contract clause giving the landlord a right to serve less than the statutory 2 months notice for a s21 is going to be an unfair term and unenforceable. A contract clause giving a tenant a right to serve a shorter notice than the common law period, (minimum 1 month expiring at the end of a tenancy period) would be enforceable. A clause requiring the tenant to give 2 months notice may or may not be enforceable, depending on the circumstance. One factor would be whether the notice is also serving as a break notice,
There is nothing to stop a tenant from serving their own notice after the landlord has done so. Unlike the landlords notice, a valid tenant’s notice ends the tenancy.