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Eviction after six weeks & no section 21

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I have heard of a housing Association that writes into their tenancy agreements that if no rent is paid after six weeks, they will evict the tenant. Is this lawful or even possible? I thought the normal procedure was to serve a section 21 after two months arrears, then L & T go through the normal method, via the courts?

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I would have expected section 8 in the circumstances of rent arrears.

 

S21 is often referred to as 'no fault' notice. Rental arrears is hardly such.

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I have heard of a housing Association that writes into their tenancy agreements that if no rent is paid after six weeks, they will evict the tenant. Is this lawful or even possible? I thought the normal procedure was to serve a section 21 after two months arrears, then L & T go through the normal method, via the courts?

 

They will need a court order and so will need to have served valid notice. Some starter tenancies with housing associations are ASTs but they still need to use ground 8 during the fixed term.

 

Edit: thinking about it, this may relate to the now common practice of HAs writing into the tenancy agreement that the tenant must be 2 weeks in front with the rent. They might argue that if a tenant were 6 weeks in arrears then they are effectively 8 weeks in arrears but they'd still have to use ground 8 and I'd be sceptical it would succeed on that basis.

Edited by Bob Arctor

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I have heard of a housing Association that writes into their tenancy agreements that if no rent is paid after six weeks, they will evict the tenant. Is this lawful or even possible? I thought the normal procedure was to serve a section 21 after two months arrears, then L & T go through the normal method, via the courts?

 

Rent arrears and Section 21s are usually unrelated. A Section 21 is a safer way of evicting a Tenant. Your linkage of Section 21 to a timeframe of two months arrears is incorrect. Section 8 has various Grounds, some discretionary some mandatory, that can be cited as reasons for the eviction.

 

The kind of clause somewhat echoes that which I would put into my own AST, it is perfectly legal, and perfectly possible.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_notice

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Rent arrears and Section 21s are usually unrelated. A Section 21 is a safer way of evicting a Tenant.

 

I was under the impression that some landlords prefer to use the section 21, as it saves them correlating all the proof required for evicting a tenant on a section 8 and the going to and from court if the tenant challenges things. If landlords state they just want to claim back their property to sell, then a section 21 is easier, no questions asked or challenging from the tenant.

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I think that's what I said. But the whole point of a Section 21 is you don't have to give any reason, never mind saying you want to sell. The reason(s) can exist, of course. If you want to evict for rent arrears, the situation you started off describing, then it would be Section 8.

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Pointer: 'in arrears' does not mean 'owing'. Here's an example:

 

L lets to T @ ÂŁ800 per calendar month, payable on first day of each month.

T does not pay in January, February, or March 2018.

Today [4 March], T owes ÂŁ2400. There is three months' rent unpaid.

But T is not 'three months in arrears' until the end of March.

This distinction is relevant to the grounds under s.8 of the Housing Act 1988.

Here's ground 8 in full:

 

Ground 8

Both at the date of the service of the notice under section 8 of this Act relating to the proceedings for possession and at the date of the hearing:

(a) if rent is payable weekly or fortnightly, at least eight weeks’ rent is unpaid;

(b) if rent is payable monthly, at least two months’ rent is unpaid;

© if rent is payable quarterly, at least one quarter’s rent is more than three months in arrears; and

(d) if rent is payable yearly, at least three months’ rent is more than three months in arrears;

and for the purpose of this ground “rent” means rent lawfully due from the tenant.

 

See? Grounds 8a and 8b say 'unpaid'; grounds 8c and 8d say 'in arrears'.

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