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If you’re worried about being asked to leave your home, it’s important to understand your rights. Landlords must follow the correct legal process before you can be evicted, and in most cases this includes serving proper notice and obtaining a court order.
If your landlord is threatening to evict you without a court order or is harassing you with the intention of making you leave your home please contact us at housing.options@dover.gov.uk
If you have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST), then your landlord can end your tenancy without providing a reason by serving you with a Section 21 notice.
However, if you have not been given the correct information at the start of the tenancy, or if your landlord is not following the correct procedure to end the tenancy, then there may be a delay before you need to move. This will provide you with more time to find a suitable arrangement for moving home.
This notice can be served any time after four months following the tenancy start date. Any notice served before this time will be invalid.
If your property is a replacement tenancy, for example a new tenancy with the same parties and the same property, then this means four months from the original tenancy.
This notice must be served in writing and will provide you with at least two months to leave the property. Your contract may mean that you are entitled to a longer notice period than the two month standard.
All Section 21 notices must be in a specific format.
In most cases your landlord must provide you with:
a gas safety certificate (if you have a gas supply to your home)
an energy performance certificate
a booklet called ‘how to rent’ (the version which was current at the time your tenancy started or was renewed).
If you come to us for help with a Section 21 notice, providing us with this information will help us to help you.
If you have successfully made a complaint to us about your landlord not fixing an issue in your home, then in some circumstances you cannot be served with a valid notice until six months after this date.
Once a Section 21 notice has been given under a fixed term Assured Shorthold Tenancy or a periodic Assured Shorthold Tenancy (that runs from week to week or month to month), possession proceedings must be started within 10 months of the date the notice was given.
If the notice is valid when it's served, your notice will only be valid for 10 months from the date it was issued (if you have a 6 or 12-month fixed term tenancy). The landlord cannot ask the court to give them possession of the property if the valid period has expired, your landlord must issue a fresh notice.
If you've been served with a notice and you're unable to resolve the problems that has led your landlord to serve you with notice, or you don't believe you will be able to find alternative accommodation by the expiry of your notice, it is important that you seek the help from us.
