Renting advice
- Thread starter ARION
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- 7 Jul 2007
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They can issue a section 21 at almost any time (but they can't serve it with the tenancy agreement). They can only ask you to vacate after serving a section 21, and giving you at least 2 months notice, providing that they don't ask you to leave before the fixed term ends. So if they issued you one now, and asked you to leave on the date on the last day of the fixed term (in 4 months time), it would be valid, and you would have to vacate on the last day of your fixed term.
Breaking the lease before the fixed term ends would require both you and your landlord agreeing, and usually they wouldn't do that until they have another tenant lined up.
The notice they gave you at the start of the tenancy is probably not valid.
I think they have to serve the s21 notice early as it means that they can regain possession of the property as soon as the fixed term ends, if they wish (if they have problems with the tenants for example). If they didn't serve it early enough they would have to wait for the rent due date to serve the notice, then another 2 months after that before they can do anything to remove the tenants. When I was renting a student place my landlord served a s21 a few weeks after I started the tenancy, although they didn't act on it. It is standard practice for some landlords, they serve the notice, if the tenants are crappy, they can serve an eviction notice and get them out when the fixed term ends, if not, they simply let the tenancy run into a periodic tenancy, and the notice expires.
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