Assured Shorthold Tenancy Regulations
If you are a landlord for an Assured Shorthold Tenancy and you have not protected your tenant’s deposit, you may not be able to take back possession of your property when the tenancy ends…
Under the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices & Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015, which came into force on 1st October 2015, failing to protect your tenant’s deposit has two consequences:
- You cannot end the tenancy or regain possession, under section 21, until the deposit has been repaid or a court case has ended
- Your tenant can bring a County Court claim for compensation between one and three times their deposit’s value
In addition to this legal requirement to protect your tenant’s deposit, regulations also specify that you must provide tenant with particular information including:
- energy performance certificates
- gas safety certificates (see gas safety advice for landlords)
- the government’s guide for tenants :”How to Rent: the Checklist for Renting in England“
The regulations also specify further requirements, including that landlords:
- have to serve the relevant notices in a prescribed form
- cannot serve notice seeking possession in particular circumstances
- must protect the tenant’s deposit within an authorised scheme within 30 days of the deposit being received
Failure to provide these will prevent you from serving a Notice Seeking Possession under Section 21 of the Housing Act to terminate an assured shorthold tenancy and could result in a penalty amounting to three times the deposit
How can we help landlords
We are specialists in landlord and tenant law and can help you ensure that your tenancy is compliant. Some of the services we provide in this area are:
- Complete a compliance check of your proposed tenancy document or draft a new one for you
- Help you meet the prescribed requirements and information that must be served on tenants prior to the start of the tenancy
- Help you convert any non-compliant current tenancies into compliant ones
- Keep your documents in a safe place
- Assist you to properly conclude the tenancy at the end of the term with the Notice Seeking Possession
- Assist you with possession proceedings in the event that the tenant fails to vacate at the expiry of the Notice Seeking Possession
Next Steps
We offer a £99 fixed fee consultation to help you work out where you stand in respect of your property. Here, we can discuss any potential issues relating to your Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement, plus and further work which may be needed following your consultation can usually be done for a further fixed fee.
Call us today on 01284 701131 or use the contact form for more information or to book your consultation.
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