Witness Statement for Serving S.21 Notice

We served a S.21 notice last November to a tenant for anti social behaviour. She did not leave the property so we commenced court proceedings. 

This week the case was heard at county court however because the tenant did not attend, nor did we provide evidence of serving the notice, the judge could not continue with the hearing and grant the property back to us as there was no evidence the notice was served. 

I know this was our own fault but historically we have not provided a witness statement to the court stating notice was served. 

Please please please can you highlight the importance of producing a witness statement at the time of serving the S.21 notice and tell landlords to keep it on file to submit to the Court if it gets that far. 

Our own mistake, and a frustrating one! 

Thank you.