An update to Section 21 Housing Act 1988
16 May 2019
Following on from the recent successful residential property seminar on 14 May 2019, Peter Bourke, Mike Ellis and Alexandra Sollohub have observed that the Government has now released the new form 6A, which is the form which must be given by a landlord when requiring possession under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.
As a brief reminder, since 1 October 2015 (in respect of new tenancies) landlords have been required to serve notice using a prescribed form (form 6A) published by the Government when they want to obtain possession of a property let under an assured shorthold tenancy on non-fault grounds. The Government has recently announced that this form is being updated and the new version must be used from 1 June 2019 onwards.
Why is the form being updated? The update is necessary to bring form 6A in line with the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (which precludes a landlord from serving a notice where a landlord has taken a prohibited payment) on which we will comment further shortly.
Links to relevant Government guidance and the legislation can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/assured-tenancy-forms#form-6a
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/915/images/uksi_20190915_en_001
