Giving notice to a tenant

[YoniMakesTheWorldGoAround]

I need to give a tenant notice and I'm terrified of getting it wrong.

I've drafted the following section 21 notice with the following advised wording:

We as your landlord give you notice by virtue of Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 that we require possession of the dwelling house known as XXXXXX which you hold as a tenant at the end of the period of your tenancy which will end next after the expiration of two months from the service upon you of this notice.

Name: [Landlord]
Signed:
Date: 14/04/2013

I've also included a cover letter with a bit more plain English.

Dear [Tenant]

HOUSING ACT 1988 SECTION 21 - NOTICE REQUIRING POSSESSION

We are required to give you two months notice to from your next tenancy period and as such please find enclosed a Section 21 Notice.

The last date of your tenancy will be 30 June 2013.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Yours sincerely

[Landlord]

NB the tenant is past their first 6 months so is on a rolling one month notice period. I'm pretty sure she wants to leave in June but I need to be sure so want to issue a section 21 to confirm it.

Can anyone in the know see any flaws in my documentation?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks Lady I will send her a text I think (she never answers my calls because I am always reminding her that her rent is late )

are you in England/Wales? if so and rent due date is 1st of each month then your section 21 is good to go as long as tenant receives it on or before 1st may. you can get free section 21 templates on landlordzone.

I would say do not state in the notice what date you think will be the last date but instead say 'the last day of your tenancy will be a date X days [i forget how many days it is under s.21] from the date of this letter'. Then send a second letter, referring to the section 21 notice, saying that you believe the last day will be [say what date].

This gets round the problems caused if you calculate the day wrongly. Getting the date wrong will invalidate the notice and you can only rectify it by serving a new notice, the subject of a lot of litigation.

The House of Lords decision in Mannai Investments is the leading authority on this. You can read it online but in brief it says that if you get a notice wrong, then even if the tenant knows perfectly well what you intended, you cannot rectify the situation without serving a fresh, correct notice. 'The key does not fit the lock and so the door does not open' (or some such).

Disclaimer: I am a lawyer but not a property litigator. However my friend at work is a property litigator and I know that he always does the '2 letters' method when giving notices to get round any dispute over whether or not a notice is given effectively.

HTH.

Thanks all, really appreciate the time taken to reply, will take on board advice and let you know the outcome :)

Not true pettyprudence my rent due date as a tenant and the rent due date my tenant pays me as a Landlord are the dates the tenancy began. Notice does have to run from the rent due date.

OP, did you take a deposit from your tenant? If so i hope it's in a scheme and the prescribed information was handed over.

What's that got to do with it, ladyMercy?

If the tenancy hasn't been protected properly, then a judge won't uphold a S21 notice. You can download a free S21 notice from Landlord Zone which has all the correct wording.

Yes. Deposit is protected.

I have been doing this for 7 years, so I'm not clueless, just been lucky that I've never had to evict a tenant and have heard the horror stories.

Are there still landlords out there that don't know you should protect deposits?

Oh, and her rent is paid on the 1st so the 30th is the last date of her periodic tenancy.

You need to be able to prove the tenant received the S21 so make sure that it is sent recorded delivery and, if possible, get her to acknowledge it in some way - eg. send her an email a week later saying: "DId you receive the S21 notice I sent on xxx?" and hope that she replies that she did (even if it's to say you're a stupid bitch and she's not moving out blah, blah).

Right, notice served this morning, followed up by a text thanking her for her rent 15 days late and asking her to acknowledge receipt of the letter.

That gives us two weeks to receive notice from her.

I know that she is already looking around for somewhere else to live, it's a small town here, I just don't trust her to give us five minutes notice and drop us in it, hence giving myself the peace of mind by giving her notice.

Just be aware that notice should be tied to a tenancy period not the rent due date although these are often one and the same.

e.g. we moved into a property on the 23rd of the month, but paid monthly on the 1st of the month. The date we had to use to give notice was the 23rd date not the 1st

And she has emailed acknowledgement, and giving her own month's notice so she will be out on 31 May :)

Big sigh of relief.

Scarily enough, there are landlords out there who still look on deposits as some kind of bonus

And tenants who still look on them as cash in the bank.

That too. I think there are as many bad tenants as landlords

Lots of landlords don't protect the deposits and treat it as an extra months rent which is theirs to keep.

deposits must be protected by law. Tenants should confirm that this is happening before signing the contract. If it isn't happening, don't sign.