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31 January 2025 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 8102 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Civil way: 31 January 2025

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Tenant fees and s 21; illegal but okay; decree absolute online searches; debt relief challenge ruling.

TENANT FEES TRAP AVOIDED

While in breach of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (TFA 2019), a landlord may be paralysed from serving a s 21, Housing Act 1988 notice (they haven’t gone yet, folks) and any possession claim made on the strength of such a notice will be kicked out. But is there the same paralysis as a result of a payment required and made under an earlier tenancy for the premises between the same parties which was entered into before TFA 2019 came into force on 1 June 2019, but which would have been prohibited under TFA 2019? That was the issue in Switaj v McClenaghan [2024] EWCA Civ 1457, leapfrogged to the Court of Appeal because of its importance. The tenant’s primary argument was that the position was analogous with that in the much-hated Superstrike Ltd v Rodrigues [2013] EWCA Civ 669 on tenancy deposits, where the terms of the

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