John Fawcett has joined the firm as Partner
Schedule 29 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 has been suspended and amended by The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Residential Tenancies: Protection from Eviction) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 [2020/914] which came into force on 29 August 2020. The below notice periods are applicable to notices served between 29 August 2020 and 31 March 2021.
What are the new notice periods?
- For Assured Shorthold Tenancies, notices served under section 21 must give 6 months’ notice. Proceedings to evict must now be issued within 10 months of the date of service.
- For Assured Tenancies, notices periods served under section 8 vary:
- For notices under grounds 1-6, 9, 12, 13, 15 and 16 the notice period is 6 months.
- Notices served on grounds 8, 10 and 11 the notice period is 6 months if the rent arrears is less than 6 months at the date of service of the notice. If there is more than 6 months rent arrears, then the notice period is 4 weeks providing the notice does not also rely on any grounds in 2(a) above.
- For notices under grounds 7 and 7B the notice period is three months, providing no other grounds are relied on (save for ground 7A and 14);
- Notices served on ground 14 reverts to the rules before the Corona Virus Act and proceedings can start immediately.
- Notices served on ground 7A, the notice period remains at 28 days or 1 months’ notice as applicable.
- Notices served on grounds 14A, 14ZA and 17 the notice period of 2 weeks’, providing no other grounds are relied on (save for 7A and 14).
It is very uncertain times for everyone, and these new changes do not make it any easier for residential landlords. If you have a tenant you would like to evict and are unsure if and how to do that in these uncertain times, then our property litigation team would be happy to advise you of your duties.
For more information, please contact Lucy Penfold on lucypenfold@meadowsryan.com.
Related posts
