Section 21 proof of receipt

Section 21 proof of receipt

11:04 AM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago 14

Text Size

Tenant signed an AST on 11th May 2014 and was handed a Section 21 on 27th may 2014. She has been nothing but trouble, I did the council a favour by taking this girl on when she was homeless and 8 months pregnant. Section 21 proof of receipt

Since then her boyfriend has broken into the property grabbed the child and attacked a man before chasing him down the street with a knife. He is now in prison.

I have asked the tenant to leave at the end of the AST but she is now saying she never received the S21. I have today emailed her social worker with a copy of the S21 but she is refusing to accept it from her. It is now less than 8 weeks to the end of her AST.

What should I do?

Regards

George


Share This Article


Comments

12:28 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

there is no special method of serving a notice on a tenant, but it is upto the landlord to prove to a court that the notice was received by the tenant.
However thereis not legal requirment for the tenant to acknowledge receipt of the notice for it to be valid.

you could write a witness statement for the serving of the notice.
was the notice sent by post? hand delivered. emailed?

Once the S21 expires, apply straight to court for accellorated possession.

Note: if a deposit was taken for the property and you have not protected it or served prescribed information on the tenant within 30 days of receiving the deposit, then y9our section 21 is invalid unless no deposit was taken.

George Harrison

12:38 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Julie Ford" at "24/09/2014 - 12:28":

It is a paper bond given by the council

Steve Masters

13:08 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

If this tenant is nothing but trouble then it may very well be worth your while seeking professional advice. She will no doubt claim that she is the victim and trouble just seems to follow her.

If your original S21 is hard to prove then consider serving again, or consider Section 8 if you think you have grounds.

It's probably going to cost you one way or the other!

Dr Rosalind Beck

13:58 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

If you do serve it again just take it to the post office and get a proof of postage, staple this to a copy of the notice that you keep so that you can show it to the court. This has always worked fine for us. Obviously the judges know that really bad tenants would always refuse to accept or sign a receipt for notices to quit.

Sally T

14:43 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

She may been evicted before and knows the system, play it safe and reissue another sec 21 straight away. If you do it now it may only extend it by a few weeks, if a solicitor gets it thrown out of court it could take an extra 3 months.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

14:51 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

My advice is take professional advice - see >>> http://www.property118.com/tenant-eviction/39099/
.

Steve Masters

15:52 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

Or serve in person at the address with a witness or set your camera to display TimeStamp and take pictures .

Michael Barnes

20:05 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

I believe that you can make a sworn declaration that you hand-delivered the notice on a particular date and time, and that it will be accepted.
However, if you make a false declaration, then there are severe penalties (I think it comes under perjury).

Talk to a solicitor. You may get the answer you need in their free initial session.

r01

22:19 PM, 24th September 2014, About 10 years ago

I agree with those that have suggested professional advice in this case. I also suggest that in future you think about and tighten up your procedures.

Tip - as if you need it.... Don't do favours for councils - they will never do one for you, in fact they will always take the other side against you as they never want to have to re-house problem people like her, so the longer they can make you keep her, the longer they stave off the problem.

Thankfully, I've never suffered this problem because I always issue the Section 21 and get a signed acknowledgement immediately after they have moved in. What I do is have a pile of papers that I give them after signing the AST (instruction manual, key receipt, smoke and carbon monoxide release form, Section 21 notice) and they are all listed on an acknowledgement receipt that they sign confirming they have received everything. When I give them the Section 21, I state it is my standard procedure and that if both parties want one, I raise a fresh AST at the end of each term which then over-rides the notice.

I've never yet had anyone refuse to sign and have always had full proof of all notices as a result.

Sorry I can't help just now but hope this helps to avoid it happening again.

R

Tessa Shepperson

8:45 AM, 27th September 2014, About 10 years ago

There is some good advice here. Just to confirm - you will need to re-serve your section 21 notice as it does not look as if you will be able to prove service of the initial notice.

The best way to do this is to hand deliver it with an independent witness. This can be someone like your letting agent, a Council Officer (if they will agree to d this) or a neighbour.

If you can get the tenant to sign and date a copy of the notice to prove service that would be good, but she will almost certainly refuse to do this.

If the tenant will not answer the door, it is usually sufficient to put it through the letter box of the property. (Check and see what your tenancy agreement says).

Do not hand it to someone else - evidentially it is better to put it through the letter box after they have shut the door (sounds mad but true).

If you want help with eviction take a look at http://www.landlordlaweviction.co.uk

1 2

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now