On the 8 August 2019 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) posted a new version of the section 21 notice on their website. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/assured-tenancy-forms#form-6a. The confusion is, should you use this updated version of the prescribed form?
As from the introduction of the Deregulation Act 2015 the Section 21, Form 6A version, has been a prescribed form. A prescribed form means the law says what the document contains. The current version of the legislation, introducing the most recent changes, is The Assured Tenancies and Agricultural Occupancies (Forms) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 and was introduced on the 10 May 2019. We are aware that this contains some errors but it is still what the law says should be used.
Since this version of the form in the law, MHCLG have issued their own version, once in June, once in July and now again in August. In each case they have made minor wording changes. For example, in the latest version the paragraph saying about Shelter used to say if you could not find a guarantor you could go to “Shelter for help”. This has now been amended to say go to “Shelter for advice”. There are other minor changes.
The point is that the law has not been changed, only the MHCLG version of the document. If you use the version of the document contained in the law there should be no chance that your notice is ever rejected as it is what the law requires. If you choose to use a version produced by MHCLG, but not approved by Parliament, there is a small risk it could be rejected by a court. Logic would therefore dictate that using the version in the law is the safest option.
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