UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi

In July 24 I had a property inspection which I was delighted about as I had a number of issues including severe rising damp. The agent was horrified how bad it was, took many photos and said would come back to me.

Out of the blue on August 5th I received a whats app from my landlord saying I had damaged the property (the damp existed when I took tenancy on but nowhere near as bad) and he said "the appropriate documentation to take possession will follow in the post"

I spoke to the council immediately who said I should put in writing the complaints I put to the agent on inspection and give a further 14 days. I did this on August 8th, at this point I still had no received a S21. On August 9th I received the S21 which was hand delivered to my letter box.(but they put a stamp on it) They dated the S21 as 5/8/24, they requested to leave 5/10/24 therefore not giving the requisite 2 months or even (2months 2 days by post)

The council issued an improvement notice to the landlord on 25/11/24.

Yesterday I received possession proceedings. It was dated 25/12/24 but I did not receive it in post to 4/1/25. They are now alleging (the landlord) that he posted the S21 on 1/8/24. But it's lies clearly. Why date it 5/8/24 if you sent it 1/8/24. Also the receipt of the S21 was as a direct response to my email of complaints on 8/8/24 ie I emailed them late evening 8/8/24, they drove around with the S21 on 9/9/24. Other than that I also did keep the envelope, I took a picture dated of the unopened enveloped on the date I received it, the stamp on the envelope does that have any postal mark on it.  I also have an email from my landlord on 11/8/24 telling me to retract everything I said in my email and he consider discussing me remaining as a tenant. I didn't because I could not trust him.

My question is really, I am obviously scared and will be filing a defence. But will the info I have be enough to stop the S21 ?

Any advice I would be so grateful if.

Thanks

There's a sticky thread on the forum called section 21 flowchart which links to the definitive checker for whether or not the section 21 notice is valid. That's your first point of call.

Your most obvious defence otherwise is the delivery of the notice. But that will come down to who the court believes, and it might not be you. It probably should be, but it's not guaranteed.

Being realistic, even if this attempt fails (as it should), the landlord will almost certainly be able to evict you at some point. You can probably delay things but that's not a long term solution.

However