Please follow the checklist below
Ground 1
Notice Requirements for Ground 1
Notice Requirements
1
Type of Notice required
2
Was this notice served?
3
Date of service
4
This notice must state the Grounds under which possession is claimed and the corresponding reasons.
5
Date after which possession proceedings can be issued
6
Date of Notice Expiry – Proceeding cannot be issued after this date
7
Did the Grounds exist at the time the Notice was service?
8
Stating that the proceedings can start immediately
9
Outlining when to vacate the property
10
Service on joint tenants
FAQ
Find Your Question Here
No Service & Faulty Notices
What could happen as a result?
What happens if Notice was not served?
The Landlord must serve notice. Failure to do so means he has to convince the court to allow him to continue with the claim without notice.
The Court can only allow the landlord to continue the claim without serving notice if: it is just and equitable to do so (s.83(1)(b) Housing Act 1985.)
When deciding whether or not to proceed without service of the notice, the court will have to determine whether there was any prejudice caused to the tenant as a result of not receiving the notice.
Judicial Guidance on this issue
“The purpose of the requirement of statutory notice is to enable the relevant party to take steps to remedy the complaints so that he can be in as good a position as possible to avoid eviction” – Kelsey Housing Association v King (1996) 28 HLR 270, CA,
It is “obviously only in relatively exceptional cases where the court should be prepared to dispense with a section 83 notice”. (Braintree DC v Vincent[2004] EWCA Civ 415; 9 March 2004.
It is unlikely that Court will dispense with the requirement to serve a notice in cases of rent arrears, as the tenant needs to be made aware of the amount of arrears claimed and the landlord’s intention to issue proceedings in order to have enough time to remedy the situation.
Example of exceptional case where the court dispensed with the notice requirement
In the case of Kelsey Housing Association v King (1996) 28 HLR 270, CA, the court dispensed with requirement to serve notice. However, in this case, the tenant was held to have ample time to remedy the situations he was complained of doing and which as the subject of the proceedings. It did not cause the tenant prejudice that he did not have notice of the proceedings. The tenant could have remedied the situation from the point of initial complaint and by the time the possession proceedings were issued by the landlord.
What happens if the Landlord does not meet one or more of the Notice Requirements?
The notice must be in a prescribed form or in a form substantially to the same effect.
‘Substantially to the same effect’
A) A notice completed incorrectly may be held to be substantially to the same effect as a properly completed notice
b) Whether a notice that is completed incorrectly is deemed as substantially to the same effect will depend on the nature of the error.
Judicial Guidance on the issue
A notice should be interpreted on the basis of how it would be understood by the recipient – Pease v Carter [2020] EWCA Civ 175