A recent Court of Appeal has decided that a deposit taken before 2007 and the fixed term ended before the regulations came into force in April 2007 must still have the deposit protected.
It was decided in the case of Charalambou v. Ng that a although not in breach of the regulations and therefore could not be sued for the penalty a section 21 notice could not be served as the deposit had not been protected.
This now means that there are no circumstances now where you can serve a valid section 21 notice if you have not protected the tenancy deposit.
Therefore the advice to all landlords and Letting Agents who took a deposit before April 2007 should protect the deposit and serve the prescribed information or return the deposit to the tenants should you wish to serve a Section 21 notice.
