Find Out If Your Section 21 Eviction Notice Is Valid
Interactive Section 21 Validity Checker
Deposit Not Correctly Protected? The Section 21 Notice May Be Invalid And You Might Be Owed Compensation!
If your landlord or agent didn’t protect your deposit on time and for the whole duration of your tenancy, not only could a Section 21 notice be invalid, you may be owed up to 3x your deposit as compensation, which means you might be owed thousands!
Tenant Angels is the UK’s leading experts in Tenancy Deposit Claims and it won’t cost you a penny as all claims are handled on a no-win, no-fee basis.
Common reasons that your Section 21 notice may not be valid
The Section 21 notice must be served correctly, the information must be accurate and the landlord must have adhered to all laws and rules throughout your tenancy, so its certainly worth checking through everything with a fine-tooth comb!
The information in this section is valid for England only.
Your section 21 notice must be on Form 6A.
Your notice may be invalid if the notice period is less than 2 months, if you receive the notice within the first 4 months of your original tenancy or if your landlord applies to court more than 6 months after giving you the notice.
You do not have to leave by the date on the Section 21 notice and your landlord would have to apply to the court to end your tenancy if you stay.
Your landlord cannot evict you with a Section 21 if your deposit is not protected in a government-backed scheme or it was protected later than 30 days after you paid it.
If your deposit was not protected correctly, on time or it was removed from the scheme early, you may be eligible to make a tenancy deposit claim. Check your eligibility here.
If your landlord or the letting agency has broken the deposit protection rules, they must return your deposit in full before they can issue you with a Section 21 notice.
Normally, your landlord cannot issue a Section 21 notice unless they give you a gas safety certificate (if applicable), your energy performance certificate (EPC) and the ‘How to rent’ guide from GOV.UK.
This only applies if your tenancy started or was renewed on or after the 1st of October 2015.
*EPCs are valid for 10 years and Gas Safety Certificates are valid for 1 year.
If your tenancy started on or after the 1st of June 2019, most tenancy related fees are banned, this includes renewals.
Landlords and letting agents can take a maximum of up to 5 weeks’ rent as a tenancy deposit (which must be protected) and they can only charge fees in certain situations.
If you have been overcharged, you must be repaid the overcharged fees or deposit before a Section 21 notice can be served.
Many HMOs/shared housing require the landlord to have a license and some local councils also enforce licensing for all private landlords.
If your landlord requires a license in your local council area, they cannot serve a Section 21 notice unless they have or have applied for a license from the council or a temporary exemption.
Some scrupulous landlords may try to evict tenants who request repairs.
The Section 21 may not be valid if you complained to your local council about repairs and they issued the landlord with an improvement notice or emergency works notice.
Your landlord cannot issue a Section 21 notice for at least 6 months if the council have issued them with a notice.
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