What's The Position For Evictions of Residential Tenants?
Historically, landlords have been required by sections 8 and 21 of the Housing Act 1988 to provide 2 months’ notice to tenants of assured shorthold tenancies that the tenancy will be terminated.
Schedule 29 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 amended the 2 months requirement to 3 months in relation to both section 8 and 21 notices which were served between 25 March 2020 and 30 September 2020.
This notice period has now been amended to 6 months’ notice in England (The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Residential Tenancies: Protection from Eviction) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020), and in Wales by The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Assured Tenancies and Assured Shorthold Tenancies, Extension of Notice Periods) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2020.
Practically, this means that landlords will now have to wait a 6 months period from the date of service of the notice before being able to begin possession proceedings.
The 6 months’ notice period will be in place in relation to notices served until at least 31 March 2021 in England. The position in Wales is currently different, in that the requirement for 6 months’ notice is set to be in place until 30 September 2020, but the Welsh government has recently announced its intention to also extend this until 31 March 2020.