A housing lawyer has called for a “serious simplification” of the law relating to the new Section 21 regime, now just days away and with traps awaiting agents and landlords.

Tessa Shepperson, of Landlord Law, has looked at the new Section 21 rules which kick in next Thursday, October 1, in England.

She says that the requirement to provide tenants with prescribed information is going to cause endless confusion, because to most landlords and agents, the term relates to tenancy deposit protections.

However, the new prescribed information includes not just that which goes with tenancy deposits but – among other documents – a government booklet, How to Rent.

The requirement to give tenants copies of this looks simple enough. But just this single, apparently straightforward requirement has led Shepperson to write advice running into several hundred words in which she warns of “major problems in the practical implementation”.

One problem is that the booklet will be updated, and it will be difficult to know whether the booklet served at the start of the tenancy was the current version at that time.

She warns: “This will no doubt become a popular defence for tenants being evicted under Section 21.”

She suggests that very detailed records will have to be kept, implying a major administrative burden for agents.

The booklet can be served in hard format – the agent will have to print it out – or, Shepperson believes, by email.

However, it is not clear whether it would be sufficient for the agent to send the tenant a link to the online version of the booklet, or attach the booklet in pdf format.

She does suggest that the tenant must either sign to say they have received a hard copy of the book, or to acknowledge receipt by email.

Another complication is that the booklet will have to be re-served for “replacement tenancies”.

Shepperson says that under the Housing Act, a replacement tenancy is a tenancy:

* which comes into being on the coming to an end of an assured shorthold tenancy, and
* under which, on its coming into being –
* the landlord and tenant are the same as under the earlier tenancy as at its coming to an end, and
* the premises let are the same or substantially the same as those let under the earlier tenancy as at that time.

This will include situations where a new tenancy agreement is signed between the same landlord and the same tenants for the same property.

What is not clear is whether the booklet must be re-served when fixed terms end and the tenancy continues under a new periodic tenancy.

Shepperson says that to be on the safe side, all agents and landlords should re-serve it anyway.

However, she argues that a number will fall foul of this, either through ignorance or because they simply forget.

Shepperson’s full post is essential reading, with only one week to go to the changes.

Frighteningly, Shepperson’s current blog on next week’s changes is on just this one seemingly simple subject. She is now looking at other implications involved and is preparing further advice.