As we mentioned here on Thursday 6 December 2018 there will be a debate at Westminster about the private rented sector and its use of Section 21 Housing Act 1988.

Section 21 allows a landlord to recover possession of its property by serving a two month notice.  If the tenant does not vacate the property on expiry of the notice, the landlord may apply to court for possession and the claim for possession is a mandatory claim, meaning that other than in limited circumstances the court must order possession.

As a result the s21 procedure regularly comes in for criticism with many reports that the procedure is used by landlords where there is no fault on the tenant and in response to rent increases or complaints of disrepair.

In advance of the debate, the House of Commons Library has produced a Debate Pack which can be seen here and which provides a number of links to some very interesting articles, research papers and briefing notes and is well worth a read.