A recent court judgment, in the case of Murphy v Maguire, surrounded the issue of whether the failure to obtain a gas safety certificate covering the commencement of the first tenancy agreement permanently invalidates any section 21 claim.
The judge, his Honour Judge Murch, found that the landlord’s failure in this case to carry out a gas safety inspection prior to the commencement of the tenancy, was a breach of regulation 36(6)(b) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and dismissed the claim for possession.
The decision of his Honour Judge Murch is supported by the case of Byrne v Harwood-Delgardo, in that this is an irremediable breach and prevents a section 21 notice ever being served.
This is distinguished from a failure to serve the gas safety certificate on the tenant(s), as this can be remedied by late service.
This decision will be relevant for all notices served prior to 1 May 2026, and any ongoing possession proceedings that are commenced based on a section 21 notice served before this date.
However, from 1 May 2026, the new Renters Rights Act 2025 will be in force and landlords will therefore be unable to serve section 21 notices. They will instead only be able to evict tenants with a specific valid reason under the section 8 process.
Although the Renters Rights Act 2025 does not directly state that the gas safety compliance regulations will be a requirement for serving a valid section 8 notice, it does state that it is a prerequisite for possession claims that landlords have complied with new database requirements.
In order to register with the new database, landlords will have to upload key documents and information including gas safety certificates. Therefore, without a gas safety certificate, a property cannot be entered onto the database and a valid section 8 notice cannot be served.
As a result, it follows that this decision in Murphy v Maguire will be relevant even after May 2026. The distinction is likely to remain in that an administrative breach (failure to serve on the tenant(s) and/or a failure to upload the gas safety certificate to the database) can be remedied. However, in cases where there is no valid gas certificate from the commencement of the tenancy, this is likely to prevent a valid notice being served.
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