Section 21 (A) Notice

[mad_maz]

Hi

I have a tenant who was paying her rent on time up until when her partner left her, and she now has rent arrears dating back to 1st April. The rent is due monthly and the tenant put a claim in for housing benefit in early April. however I have now discovered that the benefit has been paid directly to her and she has not paid any rent to me.

I would like to issue a section 21 (A) notice to regain possession of the property but am unsure what date to show in the "ON THE LAST DAY OF A PERIODIC TENANCY NEXT OCCURRING. "

The tenancy start date was 24th Sept 2005 with the fixed term ending on the 23rd March 2006, however their rent was due on the 1st of each month.

Can anyone please confirm how I should date this, as I understand that if I have to take it to court and the dates were not completed correctly, it will be thrown out.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Trojan]

Hi mad-maz

Firstly, get on to your housing benefit office tomorrow and advise them that this claimant is 8 week or more in arrears. They have a statutory obligation to suspend and investigate the claim when there are arrears of 8 weeks, if a misappropriation of funds by the claimant is found they will pay direct to you. Sadly you will not get back the money that has been paid to the tenants and mis-used.

The Section 21 needs to expire on the 23rd of the month. Use the dates used for the tenancy start & finish, not the due rent dates.

Apologies if you know this already, but the Section 21 Notice must run for 2 months.

If you need a copy of our own version, already tried and tested in court let me know and I'll email one to you.

Regards

Trojan

[mad_maz]

Trojan

Thank you very much for the reply. I have sent a letter to the Benefits Agency, as rquested by one of their advisors, and hopefully any future payments will be made direct to me.

I will prepare a section 21 notice now that I know which dates to use, to issue to the tenant.

Kind regards

mad_maz