Our client had lived in her home since 1992. Before moving into her home, she had been renting another property and had been a Rent Act / protected tenant at her previous flat. Being a Rent Act tenant gave our client a lot of security in her home and meant that her landlord could not evict her without good reason and had to continue to charge a “fair rent”.

When our client moved into her new home, she understood that her landlord would be the same person. However, she was asked to sign an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement, which meant on the face of it, she had lost her Rent Act status.

Our client continued to live at her home and raised a family there. In 2020 the landlord decided to sell its housing stock to another company, including our client’s home. Subsequently the tenants were all given section 21 notices of seeking possession and claims for possession were issued at court. Our client came to see us because she had nowhere else to live and wanted to see whether she could defend the claim for possession. 

We carefully considered the historic papers in the case and asked a specialist lawyer (barrister) to provide his advice. We were able to show that the landlord had remained effectively the same as her previous landlord when she was a Rent Act tenant. We were able to persuade the landlord to accept that our client was not an assured shorthold tenant, but had kept her Rent Act / protected tenancy status. This meant that her rent reduced significantly (as it now had to be regulated as a “fair rent”) and she was able to stay in her home – no longer afraid of being evicted under the “no fault” section 21 procedure.