S8 Notice...Documents required for potential court case

[Kevinneilc]

Hello everyone
I have recently served S8 notice for arrears and had no response from tenant to date. As such, it seems we are heading to a court case.

I have read various examples on this forum of court applications for possesion / money orders being rejected due to incorrect and / or missing paperwork.

As such, I am concerned as , i don't have the original and / or last signed AST.

The last AST was agreed and signed in Feb 2020 and was done via e mail as I lived abroad at that time.

I did send said tenant a full AST via e mail that only required her signature. Said tenant only sent me the final signed page of said AST.

Unfortunately, I have misplaced said AST and only have that signed page and e mail conversation with tenant.

Will this cause a problem , as this is now a periodic tenancy 🤔

Please advise
TiA

[Kevinneilc]

Please can you advise on other key documents that will be required for said court case.
TIA

[DoricPixie]

If you live abroad what address did you give the tenant for the serving of notices? An address in England or Wales?

Which ground are you using with the Section 8 notice?

[Kevinneilc]

Many thanks for your reply.
I currently live in Spain so I now use a letting agent and they issued S8 notice for rent arrears.

I haven't actually seen said S8 notice so unable to confirm address used. But the letting agent use my spanish address for my rental statements as I deemed a non residential landlord with hmrc so I'm assuming they have used same for S8 notice.
I will ask them to send me a copy of S8 notice ASAP..
Thank you

[DPT57]

What grounds have been used for the notice?

[jpkeates]

Either you will have to come to the UK to represent yourself or use a solicitor.
If the latter, I'd let them sort everything out.

Losing an email isn't a great start - but it's not the end of the world.

[Kevinneilc]

jpkeates,

Many thanks again for your further reply and advice. Yes, I am paying a solicitor to represent me as and when required. That's reassuring.. The tenant will have the full electronic version of said AST anyway..And I do have e mail conversation with tenant agreeing to AST and her signed / dated last page which is better than nothing.

Said solicitor doesn't think its a major problem either. He said its self evident that said AST has now become periodic due to passage of time..
Thank you

[jpkeates]

With a section 8 notice, the main thing is that the notice is completed properly (which your solicitor can readily check) and that one of the mandatory grounds have been met.

Section 21 notices are much more complex, because the government has put a lot of barriers to then being used, which the courts are diligent in checking.
Because there are grounds for the notice in a section 8 notice, the administrative barriers are fewer.

[Kevinneilc]

Many thanks for your reply and addional advice. Good to know s8 and s21 differences for future use.

Said tenant is now 4 continuous months in arrears and grounds are met. I will ask said solicitor to double check that S8 notice has been served correctly by said letting agent before instructing Court proceedings.

Thank you again