Case Summary:

Title: Notting Hill Housing Trust v Roomus (2006)

Court of Appeal, 29th March 2006

Once again the wording of a section 21(4) notice has come for consideration by the Court Of Appeal.  The tenant, a Mrs Svetlana Roomus, was granted an assured shorthold tenancy of premises at 41 Bulstrode Avenue, Middlesex.  The landlord, the Notting Hill Housing Trust, then applied for a possession order under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.  The tenant was issued with a standard form section 21 notice but claimed that it was not valid.  It was submitted that the notice was invalid because it contained the phrase "at the end of the period of your tenancy" instead of "after the end of the period of your tenancy".

ection 21 of the Housing Act 1988 requires "that the landlord or, in the case of joint landlords, at least one of them has given to the tenant a notice in writing stating that, after a date specified in the notice, being the last day of a period of the tenancy and not earlier than two months after the date the notice was given, possession of the dwelling-house is required by virtue of this section; …"The Court considered the previous cases on section 21 notices, Lower Street Properties Limited v Jones [1996] 28 HLR 877, LUJ Jan 1997 at p22 and Fernandez v McDonald [2003] EWCA Civ 1219, LUJ Oct 2003 at p25.  They quoted, with approval, from the latter case -
"What does the statute require?  The answer is that the statute requires the notice to specify a date which is the last day of the period.  The statute does not require the landlord to specify a day on which he requires possession.  This is not a notice to quit.  The landlord will not get possession without the tenant's consent unless he goes to court.  That is why the statute requires the landlord to state that possession is required 'after a date specified in the notice, being the last day of a period of a tenancy'."

HELD: The Court of Appeal held that the period of the tenancy does not come to an end until midnight on the last day of that period and that the phrase "at the end of the tenancy" means "after the end of the tenancy".  The tenant's appeal was therefore dismissed and the landlord granted a possession order for the property.   

Case Citation: Notting Hill Housing Trust v Roomus [2006] EWCA Civ 407