Recent findings have revealed that 62% of legal notices served to tenants (Section 8 and Section 21) were deemed incorrect, which meant they were invalid or posed a greater risk of being thrown out at court; resulting in the need for new notices to be served according to Landlord Action.
With some landlords opting to serve notices themselves as a cost saving exercise with mistakes made in eviction notices among the most common reasons for delays and increased costs when a landlord tries to recover possession from a tenant who has an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST).
Paul Shamplina, Director of Landlord Action, said: “I understand the need for landlords to consider every cost but I can’t stress enough that the notice is the most important part of a possession court case and the slightest mistake can end up costing a landlord significantly more than the cost savings - in extra legal fees, delays and with lost rent.
“Over the last year, we have encountered an increasing number of problems with notices served by landlords and agents. As a result, our legal department has carried out a full analysis of our last 200 cases, not only to get a true reflection of how common this is, but also to find out exactly what mistakes are being made. Unfortunately, some landlords and even agents are still making classic errors when drafting and serving notices.
The worst case scenario for a landlord desperate to regain possession of a property is to be three months down the line and find they have to start the whole process all over again, costing them a small fortune in legal fees and lost rent. That’s why in cases where we are not instructed to draft the notices, we carry out a full ‘health check’ on notices/legal paperwork, before it is filed at court.”
The study carried out by Landlord Action found the top five reasons for notices being invalidated are:-
- Incorrect expiry dates
- Failure to comply with deposit legislation
- Inaccurate accompanying rent arrears schedules
- The method of how the notice was served
- Typing errors on the notice
