Termination of Tenancies for Tenant Default - Law Commission

DISPENSATION ORDER
4.32 We can envisage circumstances in which a strict application of the requirement to
serve a tenant default notice within the default period might cause injustice to a
landlord; for example, where a landlord has been led to believe that the tenant
has agreed to extend the default period but such agreement is not in writing or
evidenced in writing, as required under the scheme. In these circumstances it
might be considered unconscionable for the tenant to rely on the expiry of the
default period to resist a termination claim.
4.33 Where a tenant default notice has been given outside the default period, the court
should have a power to waive this irregularity, where it is just and equitable to do
so. The court is given power to do this, on application by the landlord, by means
of a dispensation order.
4.34 We recommend that, on an application by the landlord, the court should be
able to dispense with any of the requirements concerning tenant default
notices if it thinks it just and equitable to do so. 22
CONTENTS OF THE TENANT DEFAULT NOTICE
4.35 It is essential that the tenant default notice contains sufficient information for a
tenant, or qualifying interest holder, to understand why the notice has been
served and what consequences may flow from it. The draft Bill sets out the
information that a tenant default notice must include. 23 The notice must be in a
prescribed form. This will ensure that the information that is required is set out in
a uniform way that can be readily understood by a recipient. The precise form will
be prescribed in secondary legislation.
The CP’s provisional proposals
4.36 We provisionally proposed that the notice must:
(1) particularise the tenant default; 24
(2) specify the time within which the tenant would be required to put right the
default. If the default comprised non-payment of rent, that time would be
no less than seven days from the date of service of the notice; 25
(3) state either: that, on the default being remedied and the landlord’s
reasonable costs being paid, the landlord shall not take termination order
proceedings (“Option A”); or that, whether or not the default is remedied,
the landlord intends to seek a termination order (“Option B”); 26 and
22 Draft Bill, cl 8.
23 Draft Bill, cl 6.
24 CP, para 12.5(4).
25 CP, para 12.5(5).
26 CP, para 12.5(6).
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