Hello, I’ve made a huge error, im so gutted! When my tenant moved in, i sent them a copy of their AST, imventory, and what i thought was the up to date gas safety cert and epc. When i looked back on my email with these docs attached that i sent 4 years ago, i realised that the gas cert and epc were incorrect, and i accidentially sent the inventory 3 times instead. Such a stupid mistake. I served a section 21 notice as my tenants over 2 months ago because they have not ventilated the flat properly, and there is damp in the flat because of this. This is after repeatedly telling them to ventilate. I have told them I’m selling which I’m not. I want to redecorate and re-rent.
They should have moved out on 14 june but haven’t as they can’t find anywhere else to live. They have no motivation to leave as the rent is a good price and well below market value. What should i do?! Thank you
Well, firstly, I’d serve a S13 notice on them to immediately increase rent to market value. Don’t go above market value though. You don’t want them to challenge it via a rent tribunal. They might not pay the new rent, but if they do make at least one payment at the new amount, they are legally bound to pay it.
As long as you did have a valid GSC at the time they moved in that’s fine. When you serve a S21, it’s wise to reserve all paperwork to make sure you’re covering everything Had you done this, you’d be ready to go to court, but you’re back at square one now. My advice would be to re-serve all paperwork along with a new S21. Use an online S21 checker to make sure you’ve got everything in order.
Personally, if I was in your position with tenants I knew were not going to budge, I’d have a PRS solicitor take over to make sure everything is done properly.
Thank you so much for your reply. If the flat was in a decent state and they had looked after it, it is definately below market value by about £150 pcm. So maybe i shouldn’t raise it? What do you think?
I’m a little confused by you second para. I did have valid gsc and epc when they moved in and have done for each year they have been living there. So does that make my serving of the section 21 valid? I thought the courts want to see that at the start of the tenancy you have to have proof that you have emailed them copies of the epc and gsc or given paper copies. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope i am!
I can only go off what you tell me and that’s what you originally told me. From that, I assumed that you had not initially served correct paperwork to the tenants and have not rectified that since.
You may have had valid documentation throughout, but unless tenants received copies of these prior to your S21 being served, they can challenge this and your S21 will fail. I’ve never served S21 myself so unsure as to whether the onus is on you to prove you served paperwork or whether you will only come unstuck if the tenants/their solicitor/the judge challenge whether you did.
Maybe someone else can chime in who has experience serving an S21.
As said above, as long as you have a valid gas cert before the tenant moves in, you can serve it late. You can serve both this and the EPC now, (with evidence of service) and then serve a fresh s21 notice at least 24 hours later.