From 1 October 2018, the Deregulation Act 2015 applied to all tenancies. The Act suggested in its wording, that the failure to provide a Gas Safety Certificate to the tenant at the start of a Tenancy would prohibit a Landlord from successfully obtaining possession of a property via the Section 21 ‘non-fault’ eviction procedure.
Indeed, the guidance previously available, such as Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz 2018, also suggested that failure to serve the Gas Safety Certificate before the Tenant moved into the property would prevent a Landlord from obtaining a possession order. This of course, left many Landlord’s feeling unable to obtain possession of their properties if they had not complied with this requirement, and the tenant was not in breach of their tenancy.
However, more recently, the Court of Appeal in Trecarrell House Ltd v Rouncefield 2020 has confirmed that a Landlord who has failed to serve the Gas Safety Certificate before the start of the tenancy was not prevented from serving a Section 21 Notice and seeking possession of the property, provided that they served the Gas Safety Certificate before serving the Section 21 Notice. However, the Court explained that there must have at least been a Gas Safety Certificate in place at the start of the tenancy in accordance with the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
This helpfully provides guidance on the position for both Landlord’s and Tenants.
If you have any queries regarding your tenancy or evictions and you require any further advice, please do not hesitate to contact our Civil Litigation team on 01702338338 or [email protected].
This article does not necessarily deal with every important topic or cover every aspect of the topics with which it deals. It is not designed to provide legal or other advice. If you require specialist advice on this topic, please contact us to discuss how we may assist you.
