I have been working on a tricky landlord and tenant case in which my client served a section 21 notice on a tenant. They had not, however, protected the tenant’s deposit at the time they served the notice which meant that the notice was invalid and would have to be served again. The legislation in this area is quite clear – for a section 21 to be validly served (and therefore for you to be able to obtain automatic possession under the accelerated possession scheme) the deposit must be protected. This has caused a delay in obtaining possession even though at first blush the notice was validly served.