S21 issues?

What is your reason for eviction? It might be possible to use a mandatory ground of section 8 if your S21 would be invalid.

If you wish to serve a s21 notice, then you should have done appropriate compliance pre-start. This includes the EICR, EPC, gas check and How to Rent Guide. It begs the question why you let the tenancy start without all these things in place.

I suggest you refer to an eviction specialist to sort thigns out for you.

Can't OP re-issue/serve all the documents now and then serve S21? Is this not possible anymore?

Also remember that S21 would only be challenged if the tenant decides to or you need to escalate to the court as they are refusing to leave. It's very likely that you can serve an invalid S21 and the tenant complies and leaves anyway. But before you serve any notice I hope you have a good relationship and can speak with them informally first.

You can check if a s21 notice would be valid here: https://nearlylegal.co.uk/section-21-flowchart/

It’s an easy one as I have been here a few times.

Before you can serve a section 21 you must have sent the following in date and valid documents to the tenant:
Gas Cert
Electrical safety Cert (EICR)
Prescribed information
EPC Certificate
How to rent guide
And proof that all the above was delivered / received by the tenant.

So you need to have given these to the tenant before you serve the section 21.

Here’s what I do and have never had any issues with a section 21 in court.

1) Check all the above is up to date. If not get them done.
2) serve the documents on tenant 2 days before the section 21. Use a document serving company as the will provide proof of delivery and what documents were delivered (providing you tell them what needs delivering)
3) Serve section 21 2 days after above documents have been served. Again use the document server company as they will again provide proof of service.
4) Process the section 21 as normal.

The law only stipulates that the tenants can only be served a section 21 after they have received the above documents.

I have not mentioned smoke detector certificates but you should have one for these too (if reqd) and check your Gas Cert has the box ticked that you have a CO2 detector if you need one… sometimes the gas Cert people forget to do this.

Going forward make sure you do it correctly in future at the beginning of the tenancy.

Just to add, it doesn’t beg the question Graham, we rented out my partner’s home to her friend, split with partner wanted new fresh start, all the tears etc and little legal help available in Newcastle, so any more advice please on the original post?

It is illegal to rent out a property without a valid EPC or ECIR in place.

Without a valid EPC, you could suffer repercussions from your Local Authority Building Control department and/or court can give you a fine of between £500 and £5,000.

Without a valid EICR Landlords who fail to conduct an EICR (and any work it recommends) before a new tenancy commences will face a fine of up to £30,000. Local authorities are responsible for enforcing these rules, as specified under the Housing Act 2004.

Did you take a deposit? Put it on protection? Give the Prescribed Information? If not then likely will have more fines.

I’m sorry but it’s landlords like yourself that are responsible for the rise in landlord bashing and increasing landlord regulation and legislation..