I regularly see confusion around sections 47 and 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 and especially around the concept of the s48 notice.

The first thing to consider is exactly what the law says.

Section 47 states that a demand for rent or any other sum payable under a lease or tenancy must include the name and address of the landlord and, if that address is not in England and Wales, an address in England and Wales where notices can be served on the landlord. The penalty for not doing this is that service charges are not payable. This is not of great interest in short tenancies as service charges are not normally payable in such tenancies and would in any event be likely to violate the Tenant Fees Act 2019.

Section 48 is more of an issue. This requires that any landlord must supply a tenant with an address in England and Wales where notices and proceedings can be served on the landlord. If this is not done then rent is not due until such time as it is supplied.

As always these simple statements need to be considered in the light of the relevant cases. First it should be noted that s48 does not exempt the tenant from paying rent. So if a landlord is in breach of s48 then as soon as he comes into compliance any rent outstanding will immediately fall due in full.

Second, and more importantly, there is no specific art to giving notice under s48. So I increasingly hear people talking about a “section 48 notice” as if it was some specific form that has to be used. This is not correct. It is not like a section 8 or 21 notice which have specific prescribed forms. Section 48 is satisfied by the tenant being given information in writing, there is no specific manner in which it must be given other than it must be given in writing. So whole oral notice is not sufficient it is not a requirement that notice specifically states that it is being given under s48 or that it states an address is being given which is suitable for service. So a tenancy agreement which contains the landlord’s name and address is good enough to satisfy s48 and so is a s21 notice containing the landlords name and address on the basis that if the tenant has been clearly informed of the landlord’s address then that is clearly an appropriate place to serve notices. Equally, a letter from an agent indicating that the agent is an appropriate person on which to serve notices is also sufficient.

So, contrary to some of the suggestions I have seen recently there is no specific style or format that is required. A statement in a letter indicating an appropriate address for the service of notices or referring to s48 would be good enough as would a notice from a landlord which gave the landlord’s name and address. There is no need for a specific structure or format and any suggestion that this is required is plainly wrong. In any event, this is a problem that is easily fixed in most cases at any stage simply by provision of the appropriate name and address.