Section 21 notice and Landlord

[woodymanuk]

Help Please,

Me and my partner have been served a section 21 notice from our landlord 3 months ago, the landlord confirmed what we was in rent arrears and he demanded £400 a week to repay this (our normal rent a month is £825), we have been paying this back to him.

He is now proceeding with eviction and has requested that we leave at our earliest connivance, so over the weekend we found somewhere to move.

I contacted him this morning to tell him this via text, he has said he won’t give us a reference unless we pay the owed £1125, I informed him that there is a deposit of £1148.30 being held in the deposit protection service and we agree to this being released to him as soon as we leave to cover the outstanding amount.

He has now told me that legal4landlords will be releasing just under £900 from this as they have now been assisting with the eviction.

Where do I stand and what can I do? He wants us out and we want out but now he’s holding us to ransom……..

We have been in the property for over 2 years now.

[wales01man]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

Has this gone to court?Legal4landlords on their website offer a fixed fee service for evicting tenants

[woodymanuk]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

i have only ever received the section 21 notice direct from our landlord. nothing other than that.

i have asked the landlord for confirmation that legle4landlords are taking £900 direct from the DPS.

Thanks again.

[wales01man]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

You need to find out if they are charging him for anything your liable for,can you get advice from a solicitor you may have one locally who offers a free consult?

[woodymanuk]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

for some strange reason he's not come back to me yet regarding what they are charging for.

Are they able to take it direct from the DPS as i'm being evicted under a section 21 and not under section 8 for rent arrears.

i have also agreed to leave in reply to his request

[wales01man]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

I cant advise hopefully someone on here can more come on line later they may be able to help

[woodymanuk]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

Thanks, fingers crossed as we gust want to get out of here.

[PlanB]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

Me and my partner have been served a section 21 notice from our landlord 3 months ago, the landlord confirmed what we was in rent arrears and he demanded £400 a week to repay this (our normal rent a month is £825), we have been paying this back to him.

He is now proceeding with eviction and has requested that we leave at our earliest connivance, so over the weekend we found somewhere to move.

Your Landlord can request you to leave all he likes but only a court can order an eviction not him :nono:

Has your original fixed term tenancy agreement already expired and if so on what date?

What date were you served with the section 21 Notice and what date did it tell you he intended to take back possession?

What is your 'rent due date' i.e. the date on which the AST states you should pay your rent each month?

Have you been served with a summons for repossession and/or has there been a hearing?

When you say he's "proceeding with eviction" do you mean the court has already made a repossession order?

A Landlord can't evict a Tenant without a possession order first.

A Landlord can't deduct anything from your deposit while it's in a TDS scheme. When you leave the property he must return your full deposit within 10 days or tell you how much he intends to withhold and why in writing. If you don't agree with the suggested deductions then you can raise a dispute with the TDS. The Landlord then has to pay that money into the TDS (unless they are already holding it) and the TDS will decide who gets what not the Landlord. Which scheme is holding your money or insuring your deposit? The answer to this question is terribly important!

The Landlord can only charge you for any legal, court or eviction costs if the tenancy agreement allows for this. If you were being evicted for rent arrears that would normally be an allowable expense. If you've been served with a section 21 Notice then it wouldn't (in my view and I'm a Landlord) because that's a *no fault* Notice unlike rent arrears where you would have been served with a section 8 Notice (and you say your weren't).

The bottom line is do you actually want to move out of your home in a hurry? Your post reads as if you're being bullied into going sooner than you would like You don't have to go until the bailiffs turn up at your front door if you don't want to. The court will give you a date for that and it's usually about 3 - 4 months after possession proceedings have been commenced. What stage has this reached?


I've lots more positive things to say but give me your feedback first

[PlanB]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

He is now proceeding with eviction and has requested that we leave at our earliest connivance, so over the weekend we found somewhere to move.

I contacted him this morning to tell him this via text, he has said he won’t give us a reference unless we pay the owed £1125, I informed him that there is a deposit of £1148.30 being held in the deposit protection service and we agree to this being released to him as soon as we leave to cover the outstanding amount.

Your Landlord cannot refuse to give you a reference but he can state on the reference that you didn't pay the rent on time which could spoil your intended move. What have you told the new letting agent so far about your reasons for taking the new property? If you're in work and can afford the new rent then it may be sensible to tell the agent you've had a 'falling out' with your Landlord so he's warned about a possible negative reference. Agents want to let property otherwise they don't get paid. Most will move heaven and earth to get the deal done which includes putting the right 'spin' on a story to get you through the referencing process

[PlanB]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

for some strange reason he's not come back to me yet regarding what they are charging for.

Are they able to take it direct from the DPS as i'm being evicted under a section 21 and not under section 8 for rent arrears.

i have also agreed to leave in reply to his request

You need to contact him in writing (email) only not by text. You need a paper trail in case things backfire over the deposit at a later stage. Your Landlord comes across as the type who will say you abandoned the property and not that he asked you to leave early. This may be a ruse to charge you even more rent up until the time he finds a replacement tenant :blah::blah::blah:

[PlanB]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

Here's everything you need to know about being asked to leave your property under section 21:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...rthold_tenants

In case you don't already know harassment and illegal eviction are criminal offences. Your Landlord may need to be reminded of this if he doesn't play ball and give you a decent reference. Threatening to scupper your next let could be seen as harassment:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...legal_eviction

[PlanB]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

the landlord confirmed what we was in rent arrears and he demanded £400 a week to repay this (our normal rent a month is £825), we have been paying this back to him.

He is now proceeding with eviction and has requested that we leave at our earliest connivance, so over the weekend we found somewhere to move.

Would you be able to clear those arrears if you stayed longer in the property? If they were clear by the time you came to move out then your Landlord can't give you a bad reference can he

Failing that maybe you should be upfront with the rental agent and tell him that you've agreed that the Landlord will deduct the 'outstanding rent' (never call it arrears :tape: ) from your deposit to ease your cash-flow while you move to the next property which will also require a deposit. That's what I mean about putting spin on your story.

[woodymanuk]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

Hi Plan B,

Sorry for the delay as was just getting information for ya.

We were in an assured shorthold tenancy agreement, start date 24-08-11 end date 23-08-12.

Our rent is due on the 24^th of each month, but had a verbal agreement to pay on the 1^st of the month.

We received a section 21 notice dated 28^th may 2013 telling us that we were served with on Wednesday 22^nd may 2013 and to vacate the property by 23^rd August 2013.

Then we received a letter dated 6^th June 2013 titled “RE: response to Section 21 notice and previous letter dated 28^th May 2013”

It tells us to please discount the last letter that had been sent as it had the wrong eviction date and should be 23^rd July and not 23rd August

I have received a text tonight telling me that legal proceedings started Tuesday 24^th august 2013 and they expect to hear today or tomorrow when the court hearing date is.

He has now dropped the legal4landlords £900 comment after I questioned it and now states that we will be entitled to our bond back (what is being held by The Deposit Protection Service) minus damages to the property – there are none apart from damp, blocked fan in the bathroom and bubbles on the celling in the bathroom to what we had informed the landlord about.

We will also be liable for all rental arrears which now stand at £1950 this amount will be adjusted at the hearing date should it be after 24^th September.

We want to get out of this property ASAP and have found somewhere that we can move in to in the 20^th September.

I told the new estate agent that our current landlord has served a section 21 notice on us due to him wanting his property back.

Thanks Again.

[PlanB]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

He has now dropped the legal4landlords £900 comment after I questioned it and now states that we will be entitled to our bond back (what is being held by The Deposit Protection Service) minus damages to the property .

^^^^ That's more like it Nice try Mr Landlord :rolleyes2:

I'll get back to you on everything else tomorrow. The important thing is that you're now back in the driving seat not your Landlord

[PlanB]

Re: Section 21 notice and Landlord

We were in an assured shorthold tenancy agreement, start date 24-08-11 end date 23-08-12.

Our rent is due on the 24^th of each month, but had a verbal agreement to pay on the 1^st of the month.

We received a section 21 notice dated 28^th may 2013 telling us that we were served with on Wednesday 22^nd may 2013 and to vacate the property by 23^rd August 2013.

Then we received a letter dated 6^th June 2013 titled “RE: response to Section 21 notice and previous letter dated 28^th May 2013”

It tells us to please discount the last letter that had been sent as it had the wrong eviction date and should be 23^rd July and not 23rd August

I have received a text tonight telling me that legal proceedings started Tuesday 24^th august 2013 and they expect to hear today or tomorrow when the court hearing date is.

. . . . We will also be liable for all rental arrears which now stand at £1950 this amount will be adjusted at the hearing date should it be after 24^th September.

We want to get out of this property ASAP and have found somewhere that we can move in to in the 20^th September

Your Landlord is right to say that he was wrong about his attempts to claim the 23rd July as the end of tenancy date. He cannot terminate the tenancy agreement during the fixed period so unless he served you with a section 8 Notice for arrears (which he didn't) he was stuck with you until 23rd August. The section 21 Notice has to give you two months' notice starting from the next "rent due" date. He missed the boat for May (he served it on 28th when the rent due date is 24th) so the notice period didn't start to kick in until 24th June and ended on 23rd August which happened to coincide with the end of your tenancy agreement anyway.

You are also free to move out and not owe any more rent after 23rd August when your tenancy agreement expired (you will still owe the arrears). It's arguable that you will not owe any new rent up until 20th September when you go to your new property.

I don't know what he means about "legal proceedings started" on 24th August. That was the earliest date he could make an application to the court for possession of the property. If he did do that then you will get a summons from the court about 10 days later giving you a hearing date which is usually about two months later. By then you'll be gone anyway so he's wasting his time. He'll look a bit silly in front of a DJ requesting a possession order and an an eviction order when you've already moved out :doh: I doubt he'll succeed in deducting any legal fees for the cost of his case from your deposit since it wasn't necessary.

Your Landlord does come across as a bit amateurish to say the least.

Was there an inventory carried out when you moved in two years ago and was it signed and agreed by you too? If there wasn't then he has a hell's chance of deducting anything from your deposit for *damage*. How can the TDS assess damage if there is no 'before' and 'after' evidence usually with photographs. The TDS will also take 'wear and tear' into consideration. Obviously a property will have developed slight damage over a two year span because it's been lived in and not stored in bubble wrap.