The serving of the gas safety certificate prior to occupation.......has died.

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The judgement given by His Honour Judge Luba QC has been superseded by a high court appeal ruling. Search for Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz.

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The court of appeal case of Trecarrell v Rouncefield has not only completely overturned the influential case affecting thousands of landlords ability to serve a section 21 notice but in one fowl swoop has removed Shelters favourite defense. Let us not forget that His Honour Judge Luba QC was the creator of Shelters legal arm and he must surely have been a big hero of Shelter until this dagger of a ruling. There is a link to His Honour Judge Luba QC here and there lies an important question about whether or not this senior circuit judge is bias given this, and the fact that he only writes on how to defend a possession claim which might be considered to be not impartial and there is an article here on this subject.

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Now you must ensure that the tenant has been served the gas safety certificate which was in force at the start of the tenancy and  current gas safety certificate prior to serving a section 21 notice.

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The tenancy Deposit.

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If there was a deposit was it protected within 30 days and deposit prescribed information given?

The bigger picture on deposits is here and is the same for England and Wales.

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Energy performance certificate.

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To comply the tenant must also be given a copy of the EPC and the how to rent guide. Sorry to be a cynic but if you are going to evict your tenant, and you didn't give one at the start of the tenancy, so you give one just before serving the section 21 notice, will he have enough time to make any changes as recommended on the EPC before he is evicted?. Another stupid rule perhaps?  Use the word Draconian to describe laws or rules that are really harsh and repressive. In ancient Athens, Draco was a guy who made some seriously strict laws. So rules that are too restrictive — or just plain unfair — are called Draconian. 

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The bottom line is that for the tenant thinking of renting a property, the EPC is a good selling point.  It just seems a bit mad that it is a requirement if you want to evict him. Unless the purpose of this rule is one that creates just another reason to fail an eviction process rather than for any other practical or actually worthwhile reason.

 

How to Rent Guide.

 

This guide is a great document of great importance and shows that the government has grasped the nettle in the shifting of the Housing sector to the Private sector and has taken over thirty years to come up with it. 

 

Yet the rules surrounding the serving of it are enough to make your lose your hair. You can easily make the mistake of not serving the most recent how to rent guide before serving a notice. The new 18 page court paper N5b is designed to reflect all of the rules, giving the courts a bullet proof form of guaranteed failure if the author of the N5b doesn't fully understand the implications of all the questions. This is what we do and why you should use us.

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We always serve the latest how to rent guide and the EPC and the latest Gas safety certificate (given that the first gas safety was given prior to occupation, because having the latest gas safety is also a requirement) before we served the section 21 notice and we have proof of service and a court doc N215 proof of service doc with the claim for good measure. 

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The bigger picture is given on the page about the Deregulation Act here.