Section 21 notice

[witheringrowan]

A section 21 notice arrived for me from my landlord today. It gave two months notice from the date on the letter, but has been delayed in the post by a couple of weeks, so I'm actually only getting about 1.5 months notice. Is it still valid? I've found something on Thetenantsvoice.co.uk saying that "Do note, that the start date is when the notice is served to you, not when the landlord has drafted it." - does that mean I've not been given the required amount of notice?

The two months clock starts on the day you receive the notice. Let LL know you have the notice and state the vacate date is xx, being two months after the day you got the notice. The LL can just confirm back. Do this over email so it’s in writing.

If you want to delay the inevitable, you can require LL to redo the section 21 with a new date that allows time for the post. But it’s often not wise is piss off a LL who has say over your damage deposit, so I usually recommend the gentle insistence of your rights (above) over a flat out reject and redo type approach.

Thanks! Having the 2 weeks is likely going to make a significant difference to the ease of finding somewhere else.

Yes, it will. The rental market is insane right now. As well as Rightmove, don’t be shy about contacting estate agents direct and asking about anything they have coming up in the near term.

I was given a Section 21 the end of May and it was very hard to find my new home I’m in now (moved in a few weeks ago). We only got this place by luck because I’d called an estate agent about another place advertised on Rightmove and this place we are in now was about to go on the market and they felt would be a perfect match for us as our DD is in the middle of A levels and we absolutely couldn’t move schools. So we got inside track on getting a viewing and application in.