Ministers recently issued a new (more complex) form of Section 21 Notice (s.21) to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) and to give effect to the ironically named Deregulation Act 2015.
With some transitional exceptions, the form must be used for almost every AST agreement made since 1 October 2015.
The regulations were only made on 7 September, so timing was already tight. However the forms contained a mistake!
The standard Form 6A, as drafted, noted that where a fixed term tenancy ends and then turns into a rolling or periodic tenancy, the s.21 notice would only be valid for four months from the date it is served on the tenant. However, this contradicted the Deregulation Act, which makes it clear the required period should have been four months from the date the s.21 notice expires.
We now have a corrected form of s.21 notice which ministers hurried through on 27th September 2015, just 3 days before they came into effect!
The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1725/made
However, the question remains, will a landlord’s mistaken use of the previous s.21 version from 7th September be valid or not?
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