How should you respond to complaints? Join #Section21...

A Twitter debate on Section 21 notices will take place today from midday to help property professionals, including landlords, properly understand the changes introduced in October 2015.

It has been more than 12 months since the Deregulation Act was introduced requiring an agent or landlord to provide an adequate response to a tenant’s complaint within 14 days to ensure a section 21 is served.

Despite the changes last year, thousands of landlords are still unaware of what is required to provide a statutorily defined ‘adequate response’ to a tenant repair request, according to the latest report from Fixflo, one of the UK’s leading repair reporting software providers, which has teamed up with software provider VTUK to provide today’s debate, to be held exclusively on VTUK’s Twitter page.

Those landlords or agents that fail to provide an ‘adequate response’ in writing to a tenant repair request, leave themselves open to litigation and to reputational damage as tenants take advantage of their operational failures to successfully defend a Section 21 notice.

Rajeev Nayyar, managing director of Fixflo, said: “The demands on property management continue to increase with the legislation that has come through the door over the past 12 months. These mounting tasks, that are time consuming to perform on a daily basis, are difficult to deal with correctly.”

There is now a raft of prescribed documents that must be provided in a legally compliant manner to each tenant, meaning it is more difficult than ever for a landlord to regain possession of their property at the end of a tenancy, if the correct procedures are not followed.

VTUK’s managing director Peter Grant commented: “There is clear evidence to suggest many agents and landlords are struggling to adapt to the Section 21 changes. That’s why we’re conducting the very first Section 21 Twitter debate. We’re urging property professionals to tweet their questions, queries or opinions on the changes using #QuestionTribe.”

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