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section 21 notice for AST prior to 2015

Started by katyb, June 20, 2022, 11:21:14 AM

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katyb

Hi, can anyone point me in the right direction to download a section 21 form for a 20 year old tenancy? As it's prior to 2015 I assumed the govt download 6A will not be suitable and on the govt website it says a handwritten one can be used but I would prefer to find a format to follow. Could I use the govt template anyway or would that necessitate the EPC, GSC and tenants' rights book. I am hoping to put the house on the market and warned the tenant of this last year but she says without a section 21 she will be a low priority for getting rehoused. When she contacted the local housing support office for advice she was told that most landlords get the paperwork wrong so the Section 21 is invalid!

I followed moderator Simon Pambin's Section 21 flowchart (really helpful, thanks very much) and I am fairly confident I am ok. I do have an annual gas safety check but as she moved in some 21 years ago there was no EPC or tenant guidebook in existance. As she was the daughter of the next-door neighbour (pregnant and broke) I did not take a deposit so that is not an issue. At that time I used a template for a six month AST which has run on ever since.

This was a house I took in part exchange when I could not sell my property  so please excuse my naivety. She has been a good tenant and I have tried to make this as amicable as possible, tried to give her as much notice as I could offering her a good reference. Sadly with the way rents have soared she has not been able to find anything and social housing will be her only option, hence my need to go the Section 21 route.

Any help or suggestions much appreciated

Simon Pambin

You should really thank Nearly Legal ... and I suppose also Google for enabling me to find it in the first place.  :)

You can still use 6A: doing so doesn't mean you have to comply with the additional requirements of a post October 2015 tenancy. It's pretty much a given that the council will go over it with a fine tooth comb on her behalf but as long as you can demonstrate that the tenancy started way before 2015 and you didn't take a deposit, there isn't really anything they use to block it, so it then just becomes a matter of time and patience.

KTC

You have to use Form 6A if the property is in England.

(I can provide citation to legislation explaining why if anyone really care, but not going to bother looking things up if you just want the end answer.)

katyb

Thank you for your replies. I may have hit a stumbling block in that (my head has been up my backside this week) I inadvertantly dated the document 2021. My tenant spotted it, after passing it on to the council, and rang me to tell me so I immediately sent her a corrected one and asked that she inform the council accordingly. Do you think I will be okay? Sorry to be so naive but I am finding the whole thing really stressful!

Simon Pambin

Yes, that should be fine, as long as you've still given at least two months notice from when you served the new one. You have a very obliging tenant: another one might have kept quiet for two months so that you'd have had to start again from scratch...