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Question Title: Notice & Counter Notice
| Question: 31 |
| We have just given a notice requiring possession (s21) to our tenant who holds a periodic tenancy (2 months' notice). The tenant has subsequently given us one month's notice to quit, thus bringing the tenancy to an end a month earlier. Can the tenant do this ?
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| Answer: |
| Although the Housing Act 1988 is silent on this point, there appears to be nothing to prevent a tenant counter-serving a notice to quit on the landlord in this situation. It is our opinion that, provided the tenant counter-served a valid notice to quit, then a tenant is quite within his or her rights to terminate the tenancy in this way. However, in practice, tenants rarely follow the legal requirements for a notice to quit, and the landlord would be within his rights to reject any invalid notice. The requirements relating to notice given by a tenant, in summary, are: - the notice should be in writing - the notice must be for a minimum length of four weeks (one month for a monthly tenancy) - the notice must expire or bring the tenancy to an end on either the last or the first day of a period of the tenancy. Landlords can avoid this conundrum by requiring that either party should provide two months' notice to terminate the tenancy by way of a suitable provision within the tenancy agreement, or agreeing the notice terms in writing prior to the start of the periodic tenancy.
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References:
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Pages:
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Hyperlinks:
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Letting Handbook |
Chapter 12 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
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Letting Factsheet No 21 |
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factsheet-21
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For more information, discuss on the Forum
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