Social housing speed read: Serving Section 21 notices – no pre-tenancy gas certificate?
4th November, 2025
Section 21 (S21) evictions are soon to become a thing of the past as the Renters' Rights Act is eradicating the procedure. However, until the law changes and the Section 21 notice remains an option, the general requirement has been to serve the first and last gas safety certificate.
Annual gas safety checks are required under law and if this is not carried out then a Landlord will not be entitled to gain possession of the property through the S21 procedure. This is because non-compliance with the prescribed law bars landlords from the S21 process. (Byrne v Harwood Delgado).
What happens, though, if a gas safety check has been carried out but the gas safety certificate is lost or defective?
Sidhu & Sidhu v Cassell & Cassell [2025]
Sidhu v Cassell – No Pre-Tenancy Gas Certificate
In this case, a pre-tenancy gas certificate was provided to tenants as required under law. However, the certificate was missing the address for the Landlord. This rendered the certificate defective as it did not meet the prescribed requirements under law.
Despite the defective certificate, at first hearing the possession order was allowed as it was deemed that a defective certificate was not a bar for Landlords to serve a Section 21 notice.
The tenants appealed the decision to allow possession and the question arose as to whether failure to provide the pre-tenancy gas safety certificate (in this case, because it was rendered defective) was fatal to a Landlord’s Section 21 notice even though the check had been carried out.
The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 s36(6) requires the following (in summary):
- To provide a copy of the gas safety certificate to existing tenants within 28 days of the check being carried out; and
- To provide a pre-tenancy gas safety certificate to new tenants whose right to occupy the premises exceeds 28 days.
If the tenancy has been of a length that means only the pre-tenancy certificate and subsequent check has been carried out then the Landlord must provide copies of the pre-tenancy and existing tenancy check to serve a S21 notice.
In Sidhu v Cassell however, the tenants had been in occupation for longer than two years and the Landlord had carried out gas safety checks each year. This meant that the Landlord was able to provide gas safety certificates for the last two years. Was this sufficient even though the pre-tenancy certificate was defective?
HHJ Clarke’s judgement suggested that a Landlord should only need the last two gas safety certificates and that as these were available, there was not a bar to a Section 21 notice being served despite the ineffective pre-tenancy certificate.
This judgement is persuasive only but is nonetheless potentially helpful for landlords who do not have a valid gas safety certificate, although it is crucial to note that the gas safety checks must have been carried out.
Key takeaways
- Strict compliance with the information requirements on gas safety certificates is essential to prevent them being considered as defective and potentially barring a Section 21 application; and
- If a Landlord has carried out the required gas safety checks (failing to do so will bar them from serving a Section 21 notice), but has a defective certificate, they might not be prevented from serving the notice provided they have valid certificates for the last 2 years; and
- If you have the valid pre-tenancy gas certificate available, it is still advisable to provide a copy in proceedings to evidence compliance.
If you have any questions about these changes, please do not hesitate to contact one of our expert Social Housing lawyers.
Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.
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