UK Landlord Forum / Life

I'm following on from my earlier question: which section 21.
I called Legal for Landlord. Co. Uk and the legal representative had never heard of a section 21 4(a) and told me only a section 21(6) A exists.
Bit of a worry really, maybe they have been ok in the past and have now had a change of staff??? I would suggest that if you need advice, don't call them.

Maybe you spoke to someone who made a mistake. Not sure it needs a full boycott of the company.

That is a good point, however I spoke to two people. I was handed over to a different person without explanation who was also convinced they were correct without taking any details of the tenancy contract from me.
I hate to think of other Landlords being given incorrect advice regarding section 21s. If course the company might be fine with other legal advice.
Just warning people of my experience with them.

Quote from: suseeq on June 27, 2022, 02:45:05 PM
I called Legal for Landlord. Co. Uk and the legal representative had never heard of a section 21 4(a) and told me only a section 21(6) A exists.

Are you not getting confused between Section numbers and Form numbers? Form 6A is a notice requiring possession under Section 21(1) or Section 21(4) of the Housing Act 1988

I received a letter demanding 7 x deposit at a jumped rate The rent was £1600 they are claiming 7 x £1950 as they add on a holding fee that tenants took of as original rent was £1700 for 4 and now they have a no win jobbing solicitor

Quote from: Micky on June 28, 2022, 07:30:30 AM
I received a letter demanding 7 x deposit at a jumped rate The rent was £1600 they are claiming 7 x £1950 as they add on a holding fee that tenants took of as original rent was £1700 for 4 and now they have a no win jobbing solicitor

By 'jobbing solictor' you mean you broke the rules and they've taken legal advice?

Quote from: Simon Pambin on June 27, 2022, 03:09:50 PM

Quote from: suseeq on June 27, 2022, 02:45:05 PM
I called Legal for Landlord. Co. Uk and the legal representative had never heard of a section 21 4(a) and told me only a section 21(6) A exists.

Are you not getting confused between Section numbers and Form numbers? Form 6A is a notice requiring possession under Section 21(1) or Section 21(4) of the Housing Act 1988

So is this whole suggestion of not calling Legal for Landlord based on someone not understanding a section 21 and Legal for Landlords advice was actually correct?

Quote from: Inspector on June 28, 2022, 05:30:53 PM
So is this whole suggestion of not calling Legal for Landlord based on someone not understanding a section 21 and Legal for Landlords advice was actually correct?

It rather has that feel about it. I should like to think that, if I were to telephone an organisation that specialises in legal advice for landlords, and two separate people were to tell me something that was contrary to my understanding, my first instinct would be to suspect that the end of the stick I was grasping was not, after all, the right one, rather than leap to the conclusion that the advice is duff.

Still, as long as their legal expertise doesn't extend beyond tenancy law to defamation, I dare say it's all good. 

Dunning-Kruger effect?

Quote from: suseeq on June 27, 2022, 02:45:05 PM
I'm following on from my earlier question: which section 21.
I called Legal for Landlord. Co. Uk and the legal representative had never heard of a section 21 4(a) and told me only a section 21(6) A exists.
Bit of a worry really, maybe they have been ok in the past and have now had a change of staff??? I would suggest that if you need advice, don't call them.

Their advice is correct, and, as far as I can tell, you have simply misunderstood it.
It's possible that that's due to some inadequacy in their explanation, but suggesting that their advice is wrong is a huge leap.

In the Housing Act 1988, there are two different "branches" of notice under section 21.
Broadly they used to be referred to as Section 21(1) and Section 21(4), or, sometimes, Section 21(1)b and Section 21(4)a or a mix of both.

For a period, you could serve notice on one or both "branches" although the precise rules were slightly different for each.
Since 2015 (broadly), the format of a Section 21 notice has been set in statute (referred to as Form 6A), and it is no longer really possible to serve notice under only one branch of section 21, because the required form includes both Section 1 and Section 4.

For the avoidance of doubt, it is probably possible to serve a s21(4)a notice only on a tenancy that has been periodic from the outset and that began more than 7 years ago, if there have been no renewals since.
But, it's hard to see what advantage that would give you, given that it would probably raise a lot of questions in court and the terms of that notice would be tighter than they otherwise need to be.

So, for all practical purposes, notice under s21(4)a no longer exists, and the only form of section 21 notice available to a landlord is Form 6A.
Which I'd suggest that's what they were trying to tell you.