A complete ban on evictions and additional protection for landlords and renters On 18 March 2020, the Government announced its plan to bring in emergency legislation to suspend new evictions in relation to both social and private rented accommodation while the national Coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency is taking place. The Government’s plan includes: Emergency legislation to […]

Worried About a Cannabis Farm in Your Property? Here’s why you should be… It’s no secret that illegal cannabis farms are on the rise across the UK. They’ve been discovered in various locales around the country, including warehouses, farms, and buried shipping containers. As a landlord, hearing about the number of cannabis factories discovered each […]

Serving a Valid Section 21 Notice  Following the Deregulation Act 2015 being enacted, the section 21 procedure has become more complex than it was prior to the enactment of this Act. This is because there are now more legal obligations to meet, known as the prescribed requirements, which if not complied with, will result in […]

Landlords have called on the government to ensure any housing reform is “done right” as the Conservative party takes the country’s helm for the next five years. The UK voted overwhelmingly for the Conservative party, boosting the party’s position in the House of Commons by nearly 50 seats and providing its leader Boris Johnson with a […]

Can a joint tenant drop out? A common question that arises from landlords and also letting agents is whether or not a joint tenant can surrender their tenancy and what impact this has on the other tenant. Historically, where more than one-person owned land, they owned the land either in common or jointly. Common ownership […]

Updated Section 21 Notice The Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), again, had made an error on the Form 6A, section 21 notice. The error was corrected and Form 6A was updated on 12 August 2019. However, the Form 6A update was updated without any accompanying statutory instrument which means the updated Form […]

Unsigned Section 21 Notice, valid or invalid? In the case of Barker v Hands [2007] EWCA Civ 869 a landlord served a notice on the tenant under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. The tenant failed to the leave the property by the end of the notice period and the landlord subsequently issued a […]

After the first news concerning the section 21 evictions being abolished, the Prime Minister Theresa May gave a speech today at the Housing 2019 conference.  The Prime Minister stated: “We are re-balancing the relationship between tenant and landlord, making major changes that will make an immediate and lasting impact on the lives of millions of […]

New Form of Section 21 Notice  The Section 21 Notice is being amended to incorporate the changes made under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 which brings further restrictions on serving a Section 21 Notice under the Housing Act 1988 where a landlord has taken a prohibited payment.  The amendments to the Section 21 Notice (Form […]

What to do when your tenant dies? Where a property is rented under an assured shorthold tenancy to a sole tenant and that tenant dies, the death of the tenant does not automatically bring the tenancy to an end. Sometimes there will be a successor to the tenancy. Their only or principal home On the […]