The Supreme Court has refused to grant permission-to-appeal to the tenant in the important ongoing Section 21 notice case, Trecarrell House Limited v Rouncefield.
The background to this case is that in June 2020 the Court of Appeal ruled in a 2-to-1 majority decision that late service of a gas safety certificate does not prevent a landlord from serving a section 21 notice on their tenant, provided the certificate has been given to the tenant before service of the section 21 notice.
The tenant in Trecarrell House Limited v Rouncefield had sought to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision by taking the case to the Supreme Court.
Finally, after nearly two years, a panel from the Supreme Court have now rejected the tenant’s application on the basis that the application does not raise a point of general public importance.
Anthony Gold Solicitors, together with barristers Justin Bates and Brooke Lyne of Landmark Chambers acted for the landlord in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The landlord’s successful appeal to the Court of Appeal was supported by the National Residential Landlords Association.
The Court’s decision will be welcomed news for private sector landlords who feared that a failure to provide the gas safety certificate before occupation – due to a simple oversight, rather than any malicious intent – permanently prevented them from recovering possession of their properties.
The Supreme Court’s decision means that the interpretation of the law accepted by Court of Appeal’s in June 2020 remains binding on District Judges who deal with possession claims.
Furthermore, the Courts ruling has clarified that a failure to complete a subsequent annual check on time will not prevent the landlord from serving a section 21 notice, provided the certificate is given to the tenant prior to serving the section 21 notice. Again, this will be reassuring to landlords.
However, the Court of Appeal’s decision did not clarify all the issues that have arisen since gas safety was linked to the section 21 procedure in 2015.
For example, what does this mean for a landlord who has failed to carry out a gas safety check at all before the tenant goes into occupation? Are they able to rectify this breach and serve a valid Section 21 notice?
In addition, the gas safety regulations only require landlords to retain the gas safety certificate for two years from the date of the check, which means even where a check has been carried out before the start of the tenancy, but a copy of the certificate not supplied to the tenant, this may be difficult for the landlord to rectify if the certificate is no longer available.
