Section 21 notices - landlord's address

[EssentialHummus]

Any landlords/housing folk around?

Having cocked up enough S21 notices to last a lifetime, I've hired a local solicitor to handle the latest. It looks like he's gotten my (landlord's) address wrong - it's broadly OK, but the postcode is one letter out (so "WC1E ABC" instead of "WC1E ABD".

Will this invalidate the notice? I have queried with the lawyer who claims validity is not affected, but, as I'm dealing with an absolute hemorrhoid of a tenant, I'd like to do things correctly. Any ideas?

The requirement to provide your address comes from Section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, and the error in the address would not make the S21 notice invalid, but if a court found that Section 48 LTA 1987 had not been complied with, the consequence is that:

"any rent or service charge otherwise due from the tenant to the landlord shall (subject to subsection (3)) be treated for all purposes as not being due from the tenant to the landlord at any time before the landlord does comply with that subsection."

It doesn't have any impact on other breaches of the tenancy agreement.

Would a court decide that where the rest of the landlord's address is correct, a small error in the postcode would mean that the landlord had failed to "furnish the tenant with an address in England and Wales at which notices may be served on him by the tenant"? I think you would have to get stuck in front of an extremely tough judge for that to ever happen. Chances are that the tenant will not even notice the error.

However, it is possible to remedy the mistake by simply serving a new section 48 notice with the correct address, as the Court of Appeal said in Rogan v Woodfield Building Services Ltd [1995] 1 EGLR 72, so you would probably be alright to wait and see if the tenant raises the point, and if he does you can just serve an amended section 48 notice.

And tell the solicitor you won't be paying for it!