Civil Way: 18 September 2020

POSSESSION CORNER

Here’s a new mandatory feature of this column.

* The life of an assured shorthold notice seeking possession under s 21 of the Housing Act 1988 was six months. This was temporarily extended in England to ten months by SI 2020/914 (see ‘Civil way’, NLJ 4 September 2020) which did not reflect the necessary changes in the prescribed notice in form 6A. That has been corrected by the Assured Tenancies and Agricultural Occupancies (Forms) (England) (Amendment) and Suspension (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/924) (already on the ‘Civil way’ shortlist for the Sassiest (Legislative) Handle of The Year (Subordinate Legislation) Awards (Remote)). The revised 6A should be used as from 2 September 2020 and hold good until 31 March 2021 from which date you can expect to have to use another version. * In Wales, the paralysis on enforcement of forfeiture and re-entry of business premises on the ground of rent arrears has been extended