Changes to Section 21 notices from October

In one of my posts above I asked what is the best way to deal with tenants going away for a period of 4 to 5 weeks and said they would be returning but then three months later they are still not back, and not tried to contact as to their whereabouts,
so how do you deal with this tricky situation?
Well for those who may encounter similar problem, I sent text messages to the tenants who had gone abroad in one of the EU member country, text messages should get delivered there, I gave them an ultimatum that unless they contact me and update their situation, I have served them a Section 8 Notice left under their room door and in two weeks from this date I will be filing a court application seeking possession on failing to pay rent for over 2 months on ground 8.
Heard nothing so I filled up an online court application through http://www.possessionclaim.gov.uk/pcol/ (PCOL) paid £325 court fee, which is cheaper than filing directly with courts using paper forms.
a week later I received Court letters giving date for the hearing, which was sadly 6 weeks away, tenants still not back, sent him more text messages telling him that i have now filed a court case, gave him details of the place of hearing and date
and challenged him to send his representative to defend .
I went and had no opposition, Judge just asked me a few questions regarding when the notice was issued how much rent was owing, asked me to produce rent statement, that i only prepared the night before! The Judge accepted my notice and gave me an immediate forthwith possession, giving me authority to enter the room and start clearing their things making it ready for the next tenants.
easy as that, I asked the Judge what obligations do I have regarding their belongings, Judge said to seek legal advise,
Well we know what we have to do with their belongings, just keep them safe somewhere and give them 14 days notice to come and collect it or there will be storage charges and when the storage charges exceed the material value of goods, they can then be disposed off.
Incidentally, the tenants came back a week after I had got my possession order, still absolutely nothing in writing from the courts to affirm this, not for another three weeks after that i received written confirmation of the outcome of the hearing, you would think that at least they would update the online account, to date it is still not updated.
Tenant was shocked when I said it is your damn irresponsibility and negligence for not contacting me or even thinking that i could keep his room for ever without him paying any rent, I mean what do these bloody tenants think we are? effin piss takers!
Good riddance of bad tenants.
I lost 6 months rental income, will Shelter pay me that? or will they now help this homeless man who chopped his own roof over his head trying to have a nice long holiday at my expense. Court has awarded me judgement against his rent he owes me.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 15/12/2018 - 13:52
Mike,
Re - Abandonded Goods, - Have a look at my very detailed and practical advice on http://www.PossessionFriend.uk/abandonded-goods

Thank you Chris, good to know the legal position with regards to tenants goods, he came back took some of the things away as he is now staying with a friend, so he can only take away a few things, rest of them I have moved into my cellar with his verbal consent, I hadn't in fact emptied his room as yet when he came back, he begged me to allow him to move back in and he will clear all 6 months outstanding rent and start paying me full rent but I said sorry I have already got a tenant I have promised who would be moving in shortly, but I am sick of tenants after tenants who have been taking total piss, because they do not give any monkeys to our laws, they think only landlords are bound by laws, and that they can do what they like, and to some extent it is true, that is why they take the piss.

One tenant who took a room from me and told him explicitly that only two people are allowed to occupy that room, I asked at the onset of their tenancy how many people will be moving in, they said just them two, 6 months down the tenancy they bring in their 5 years old son, putting me in such a liable state, but were annoyed when I told them that they will need to seek another property where 3 persons are allowed in a room or they have a choice to rent two rooms otherwise, no but they cannot afford that, so what do you do now? make them homeless? come oN Shelter open your big Gob and speak out do we make these tenants homeless, so why do you not put pressure on to local Authorities to allow a little overcrowding by an addition of a 5 year old boy? and if they are made homeless and cannot afford to rent two rooms do you expect them to sleep on pavements? so now I am being a nice landlord taking every sympathy with these tenants and taking a huge risk against overcrowding and I am not getting any extra rent for tenants bringing in their son to join them.
Speak up shelter open your big gob now and tell the LA how they force tenants who cannot afford two rooms or larger properties they are more than happy to stay 3 to a room.
we landlords cannot win no matter what we try to help tenants then we get screwed up badly by local authorities, with mega fines, ridiculous! I think I should throw these tenants on the pavements for LA to house them. They will then put all 3 of them in one room in a B&B. double standards....

I am still confused regarding two things, 1. Gas safe certificates, and 2 for EPC, for pre October 2105 tenancies, was this document necessary to be given to tenants in their hands rather than being left in some safe place on the premises or near the boiler?

Assuming you did give it to the tenants, and they accepted it but no signature were obtained, they could deny having received it, so where does that leave one if should a tenant turn against a landlord and deny having received it, of course you cannot turn the clock back..

Sorry I just noticed I wrote incorrect year 2105, in which case I could time ravel back to at least now if not before October 2015.
So my question is was GSC and EPC required to be given to tenants at the beginning of the new tenancy before October 2015, for example a tenancy that started in April 2015.

I am sure if you did give it to your tenants and did not get them to sign for it, then you may ask them to sign a declaration now, that they did receive one back then, just as I asked one of my other good tenant to sign the last two years rent receipts as I signed as a landlord for receiving cash rent but the tenants did not sign any, so today I asked him to sign all previously issued rent receipts today so that tomorrow he cannot deny not having received any receipts.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 16/12/2018 - 00:46
In possession proceedings, you will be asked to ' PROVE ' you gave a copy of current Gas cert before tenancy began. Doesn't matter if your 'proof is after that ( I.e. Tenant signing or emailing or texting you to confirm they received it. )
Bear in mind the court form ( n5b ) will ask you for the actual date. If this is same day tenancy commenced, you'll need times alongside signature for receiving Gas cert and the tenants signature on AST.

Thank you Chris for your valued reply. I am now in a more clearer picture.

So technically speaking then, Chris should it not be made illegal for any landlord to allow any tenants or prospective tenants into a rental property in order for them to even just viewing whether or not the accommodation is suitable for their needs. So should the landlords not face a hefty penalty for allowing prospective tenants to enter a property without first having given them a gas safety record certificate and have that signed by them with date and time stamp, only then they should be allowed in for their own safety.
Can we therefore please all write to our MPs demanding this extra legislation and update Housing act, to ensure all landlords comply with this new safety proposal and those who fail to follow this requirement should not only be fined a hefty fine as well as refund all the rent collected from the tenants and not allowed to use a Section 21, if assuming a prospective tenant decides to take it up.
Just as a Car Hire company will ask a hirer to produce a driving licence, a tenant should ask a landlord for a gas safe certificate for his safety!
Sorry just like the legislators who often have nothing much to do, at the moment they cannot even work out how to resolve Brexit, so I thought why not come up with my own landlord bashing recipe, I might win a nobel price, do something useful to save the lives of potential tenants. Our lives don't matter much, they are protected species, and we must do all we can to protect them at all cost.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 16/12/2018 - 18:44
wtf are you on?

Reply to the comment left by Michael Barnes at 16/12/2018 - 19:15
Michael, I was just about to ask Mike the exact same question ?