Submitting an N5B

[Piisadog]

We are going to serve an N5B. We have had the same tenant for 3 years. The N5B asks if the property has been let to the same tenant for the 3 years and wants us to supply the AST for year 1. But for the first 2 years a housing trust was the Landlord. For the third year we have been the Landlord.
Should we:
(a) provide a covering note explaining this, and/or..
(b) try to get hold of the landlord agreement from the housing trust (which will be difficult) and supply this to the court or..
(c) say to the court it's been let for 3 years and just supply the AST for us as landlords for year 3, or..
(d) should we ask the court what they would want?

As a separate question - we are doing this work on the N5B ourselves. What is a reasonable fee to claim as costs for our time that the judge won’t reject out of hand? And should we enter this fee in the "legal representative's cost" box?

Many thanks for any advice.

[jpkeates]

Did you buy the property from the housing trust?
Otherwise, the two different landlords would (usually) mean two different tenancies - so you have one tenancy which started a year ago.

I'd expect the judge to reject any claim for your time completing the form "out of hand", you're landlords and it's part of what you do.
If you will lose any income as a result of attending court, I'd mention that - but you're not legal representatives, and if you're using the accelerated possession route, you (pretty much invariably) won't be able to claim your own costs.