Protect landlords rights of repossession – Gas Safety Certificate

Protect landlords rights of repossession – Gas Safety Certificate

9:39 AM, 19th March 2019, About 5 years ago 14

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Following a recent court case in which a landlord’s attempt to regain their property was deemed invalid due to a dispute over a gas safety certificate the RLA is campaigning to protect the rights of landlords to repossess their properties.

After initially being granted an order to repossess the property using Section 21 powers, the tenant successfully appealed on the grounds that they were not provided with a gas safety certificate prior to moving in.

Despite the landlord making this available once the tenancy had begun, the Court ruled that their Section 21 powers were invalid, referring to a previous similar case in which the certificate was made available less than two weeks after the tenant moved in.

The judge in the appeal said that if the gas safety certificate was not served on the tenant before they took up occupation then a Section 21 notice could not be relied on to regain possession, and the situation could not be resolved by serving one after the moving in date.

The RLA is supporting the landlord, Trecarrell House Limited, at the Court of Appeal, on the basis that so long as the gas safety certificate is provided before the Section 21 notice is served, then it is valid. It argues that the case could breach a landlord’s rights under European Convention on Human Rights on the basis that it deprives them of their possessions.

David Smith, Policy Director for the RLA, said: “Protecting the rights of landlords to repossess properties in legitimate circumstances is key to providing the confidence the sector needs to offer longer tenancies.

“The landlord in this case was not seeking to shirk their responsibilities and provided the certificates that were needed.

“We will fight to ensure that if nothing else, logic prevails.”


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Comments

Mike

10:43 AM, 20th March 2019, About 5 years ago

I am trying to evict a bad tenant using a Section 8, which has proven to be a total battle, I have a witness statement that is nearly 7 pages long, it is filled with about 35 paragraphs, it took me well over a full day to write, I had to gather facts, dates, incidents when they occurred, rent arrears, proof of non payment of rent, rent receipts, other witness statements where the bad tenant abused other tenants sharing an HMO, the list is endless, the bad tenant also got a free court representation by a court duty solicitor paid for by tax payers money, yes you guessed it, tax payers money, the duty solicitor was shoved down the bad tenants throat, even though when he came to the court he said he did not need a solicitor to represent him, but the court official literally shoved a solicitor down his throat by having to ask him 3 times to take one, he only said OK once she explained to him that he won't have to pay anything and it is free, the first two times he said No he did not need one.

So now a simple case of rent arrears and a tenant behaving badly , intimidating other tenants, myself, caused two major grievous bodily harm incidents and I have a job evicting him, had I been able to serve a section 21, none of this contesting would have been required, and none of the witness statements would have been required, what is more, the independent witnesses are reluctant for fear of reprisals to provide witness statements. welcome to Great Britain!

Luke P

10:50 AM, 20th March 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 20/03/2019 - 10:43
Were you caught by the GSC/S.21 rule? Why not just use S.8 for arrears grounds and not get into the very subjective 'he said; she said' of tenant behaviour?

Mike

11:06 AM, 20th March 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 20/03/2019 - 10:50
In a way yes but only because the tenant won't sign for having received the GSC, I wanted him to acknowledge by him signing that i have served him a GSC and all other relevant papers such as EPC report, electrical safety test report, how to rent guide booklet, property licence, a complete bundle I tried to serve on him, but he would not sign for it.

his tenancy is a pre October 2015 tenancy, so whilst I could not do that I had already started a S 8 on him, later on a solicitor advised me that I could serve him the bundle by post and retain a proof of posting, however it can still be challenged the bundle did not contain the GSC, what then?

So I am now making another arrangement where a solicitor will be given these papers and he will post this bundle on him, rather than me posting it to him. I could then serve him a S21, hopefully before it is abolished.

wanda wang

22:37 PM, 20th March 2019, About 5 years ago

Shame this kind of story didn't go on BBC programme.

Caroline Humphrey

6:54 AM, 21st March 2019, About 5 years ago

What happens if tenant has no gas safety certificate in date because he won’t allow access to engineer to do one? I wish to serve sec 21 but can’t because tenant won’t allow access for gsc. Can i serve sec 8 without a current gsc?

Luke P

8:00 AM, 21st March 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Caroline Humphrey at 21/03/2019 - 06:54
Correspondence re access is what you need. Fit his refusal into the grounds for S.8 too.

Michael Barnes

20:58 PM, 26th March 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 21/03/2019 - 08:00
For a pre-October 2015 tenancy the regulations requiring GSC to be served before the tenancy starts do not apply (unless a new agreement has been signed since)

Mike

2:34 AM, 30th March 2019, About 5 years ago

I have terrific news, the above mentioned tenant failed to turn up at the court for whatever reason, I got the possession by default
enough to say this so far, but it took me and my solicitor flat out 4 days to prepare the case file of nearly 100 pages bundle! and I also hired a Barrister. The Judge was oh my God, never come across or seen such a harsh Judge in my life.
But thank God, the truth prevailed.

Hamish McBloggs

11:09 AM, 1st April 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 30/03/2019 - 02:34
Tenant still in your property?

Hamish McBloggs

11:14 AM, 1st April 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Caroline Humphrey at 21/03/2019 - 06:54
I have had a stand up row with a tenant who refused to permit access for a gas safety check.

My attempts at communicating were thrown back at me as 'harassment'.

This was someone who in old parlance would be considered a 'professional'.

They did not care.

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