Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 (as amended) allows landlords of an assured shorthold tenancy to seek lawful possession of their rented residential property after the expiry of the fixed tenancy period. If a valid section 21 notice is served then the court must order for the tenant to provide possession.
A section 21 notice, however may not be valid for a number of reasons – usually because the date on it is incorrect or because the tenancy deposit was not protected at the time of the service of the s.21 notice.
The case of Notting Hill Housing Trust v Roomus [2006] EWCA Civ 407 set out which date should be stated in a s.21 notice and whether a rolling provision in a notice would be valid – a rolling provision is a sentence in the notice which provides for an alternative date should the explicit date stated not be correct.
Lord Justice Dyson stated that a landlord’s right to possession under s.21 only comes about after the fixed period had expired, therefore the s.21 notice must expire after the fixed period of the tenancy has expired, namely after the last day of the tenancy. His Lordship went on to state that when using the rolling provision the word “at” means the same as the word “after” therefore as long as the rolling provision used “at” or “after the last day of the tenancy” then this would be valid. However if a landlord seeks possession on the last day of the fixed period tenancy then his notice would be defective as his right to possession comes about after the tenancy has expired and not on the last day of it.
At Benchmark Solicitors we have a wealth of experience in dealing with possession of residential property and the service of section 21 notice. We can assist a landlord in seeking possession or a tenant in defending a claim. Please see our tenant evictions page for more details including details of our fixed price tenant eviction packages.