Times have been hard for everyone during the Pandemic, but Landlords were hit particularly hard when it came to trying to regain possession of their Properties.

Recently though, there have been some positive changes.

On 31^st May 2021, the ban of bailiff evictions was finally lifted and general bailiff evictions were able to proceed.

On 1^st June 2021 changes to the notice periods to terminate certain residential tenancies in England were introduced:

Section 21 (“No-fault evictions”)

If a Landlord wishes to regain possession via Section 21, at least 4 months’ notice must be given. This restriction will remain in place until 30 September 2021 (unless extended) and if possession proceedings are necessary, then these must be issued within 8 months of the date of service of the notice.

Section 8

Under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 (as amended), a landlord may serve a notice on a tenant of an assured shorthold tenancy if the landlord can establish one of the statutory grounds such as arrears of rent.

On 1^st June 2021, notice periods were reduced for the majority of statutory grounds to 4 months.

However, the following notice periods apply for the Section 8 Notice grounds set out below:

• Where a Section 8 Notice is served between 1 June and 31 July 2021 and grounds 8, 10 and/or 11 (the usual grounds for rent arrears) are relied upon, with no other ground, and where there are less than 4 months’ rent outstanding, at least 4 months’ notice must be given;
• This period reduces to 2 months’ notice where a Section 8 Notice is served between 1 August and 30 September 2021 and grounds 8, 10 and/or 11 are relied upon, with no other ground, and where there are less than 4 months’ rent outstanding;
• Where grounds 8, 10 and/or 11 are relied upon and there are more than 4 months’ rent outstanding, at least 4 weeks’ notice must be given;
• Where ground 7 (death of tenant) is relied upon, at least 2 months’ notice must be given;
• Where grounds 7B (no right to rent), 14A (domestic violence and social landlord), 14ZA (riot conviction) or 17 (false statement by the tenant) are relied upon, at least 2 weeks’ notice must be given
• Where ground 7A (conviction, breach of injunction or closure order) is relied upon one months’ notice must be given; and
• Where ground 14 (nuisance, annoyance, immoral or illegal user) is relied upon, proceedings not to be started earlier than the date of service of the Section 8 Notice.

When will these longer notice periods end? When will they return to pre pandemic levels? This will all be subject to the public health advice and progress with the Government’s roadmap out of the pandemic, we can only hope that notice periods will return to pre-pandemic levels from 1 October 2021.

It is now more than ever necessary to seek guidance from a professional with expertise in this field before proceeding, because if the notice is wrong then not only will landlords suffer wasted costs, but will also inevitable suffer unnecessary delays.

Article by Rossanna Yarleque