Residential Landlord and Tenant and Housing Solicitors
Muswell Hill (N10), Colney Hatch (N10) and East Finchley (N2)
We are a firm of solicitors whose core area of work is landlord and tenant law and housing law.
Our offices are located at 212 Regents Park Road, Finchley N3 – very close to Henlys Corner/The North Circular Road and the A1.
Street parking in the vicinity of our office is no difficulty – in particular, Cyprus Road (opposite) has no parking restrictions except between 2 pm and 3 pm.
Residential Landlord and Tenant and Housing Law
Examples of matters which we deal with in this area are as follows:
- Possession claims for Landlords. The Section 21 procedure has become more difficult to use – particularly now that there is a range of qualifying conditions which must be satisfied in order for the Section 21 shorthold/non-court hearing procedure to be used. We will need to file additional evidence in support of the application, where a tenant seeks to claim that any of the qualifying preconditions have not been satisfied.
The alternative route is in relation to about cases of rent arrear grounds is through use of the14 day pre-action notice under Section 8 of the Housing Act. This route will require a Court Hearing. In fact, if there are any arrears, it is perfectly possible to serve a Section 8 Notice as soon as the rent has been unpaid and to issue the proceedings 14 clear days after service of this notice.
This should not make any difference if the Tenant has completely stopped paying rent, although a discretionary ground of possession will be relied upon. For there to be a mandatory ground of possession, there must be at least two months’ arrears of rent.
Where possible, we endeavour to rely upon former owner/occupier grounds, but this does usually require the service of a proscribed notice before the commencement of the tenancy. - Defending Landlords against dilapidation claims by tenants. Where there is a residential tenancy of fewer than seven years, the Landlord has a number of wide-ranging statutory repair obligations. These are set out in Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 – and cannot be contracted out of. We are experienced in defending these claims. We would, in the normal course, engage a surveyor to assist in defence of the claim. A Landlord is only liable for disrepair if he has noticed and does not undertake the relevant remedial work within a reasonable period of time.
- The defence of proposed civil fines where there has been a breach of licencing regulations in respect of a house in multiple occupation. This has become a keen area of work for Local Authorities, and the fines which they are seeking are normally fairly substantial. We are experienced at defending these claims and defending the claims by tenants for rent repayment orders.
- Defence on the part of the Landlord of unlawful eviction claims. The amount of compensation which can be sought by the tenant can be relatively high.
- Applications by long leaseholders to the First-Tier Tribunal to extend the lease of their flat.
Instructing this Firm
Our fee charge rates are reasonable and competitive.
Please telephone 0208-4466-223 or send an email to enquiries@sr-law.co.uk.
We can arrange for an initial fixed fee meeting to discuss the matter in depth.
If you wish we can meet with you in our Central London office at 32 Bloomsbury Street (near Tottenham Court Road Underground Station).