Rented House Being Repossessed

karen310 · 12 September 2008 at 2:14PM

My 19 yr old daughter has moved 100 miles away to live with her partner , the found a house to rent through a letting agency , paid a deposit , the landlord gave them £50 for paint , they bought some more themselves , gave it all a lick of paint and moved in like loves young dream last weekend. She has rang me this morning distraught , she has received a letter "to the occupier"stating that the house is about to be repossessed. She has rang the letting agency who have said this is correct and advised her to get a solicitor. She is due to start a new job on Monday in a new city , all their money has been to help them equip their house and they have been hit with this today. I have advised her to contact the CAB and am driving down there tomorrow , but any advice would be gratefully received as at the moment we dont know where they stand and how they stand regarding their hardworked for deposit.

sooz · 12 September 2008 at 2:22PM

When did she move in?
How long was her AST for?
Is her deposit held in a scheme?
Has she informed the LL's lender that they are renting & have an AST?

Premier_2 · 12 September 2008 at 2:46PM

Look on the bright side, they'll be able to take all the things she has spent all her money on equipping the property to the new rental property she'll need soon. (well apart from the paint used, of course)

If the lender wants to repossess the property because the LL has not kept up payments on a mortgage secured on the property, there's not much that can be done - a court will decide to pass possession back to the lender, kicking any tenants out into the process.

I suggest they start looking for somewhere else, preferably though a better LA who doesn't let properties about to be re-possessed

karen310 · 12 September 2008 at 3:15PM

Just spoke to daughter again , the tenancy agreement was for 6 months , the deposit was paid to the LL (£600) , the agency was purely to find the tenant (self managed property?) Her partner has spoken to the landlord who has said "dont worry" ! The agent is trying to find out what he can .

poppy10_2 · 12 September 2008 at 5:50PM

Premier wrote: »

If the lender wants to repossess the property because the LL has not kept up payments on a mortgage secured on the property, there's not much that can be done - a court will decide to pass possession back to the lender, kicking any tenants out into the process.

I thought if the owner had a BTL mortgage, or had consent to let on the property, then the mortgage company was obliged to honour the AST?

tbs624 · 12 September 2008 at 6:29PM

Karen - what a horrible experience for your daughter's first move away:sadly tales like this crop up here on a regular basis.

Your daughter's LL may yet stave off the repossession for the time being but if the LL is struggling financially she clearly needs to ascertain what exactly is happening.

If your daughter has not already been told by the LL or LA that the deposit is scheme-registered, as it should be by law in Eng/Wales,then you or she can check that by using the links here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TenancyDeposit/DG_066391.

Follow that up as a matter of urgency.

If necessary, the LL can be taken to court to make him repay the deposit or register it immediately and pay 3x the deposit if it wasn't registered within 14 days/by the time of the hearing. Obviously, if the LL has no money then it may be harder to get subsequent enforcement of any judgement but he would have a CCJ against his name.

Send a recorded delivery letter to the LLs lender (I presume she has kept the letter about repossession?) enclosing a copy of her tenancy agreement so that they know that a tenant is in the property.

She could ring the Private Sector Rentals Team at the local Council - they should have a tenancy relations officer who can offer advice (separate from council housing dept).

She could also talk to someone at Shelter 0808 800 4444 (7 days a week, 8 until 8) who can advise about future rent payments, deposit return etc.

She should bear in mind that the LA acts for the LL, and will probably be more interested in getting their own fees out of him rather than helping her.

She could start making enquiries about somewhere else to live, via the local LL association or online at gumtree, vivastreet, letalife etc

silvercar · 12 September 2008 at 10:40PM

First thing to do is to contact the lender and inform them that there is a tenant in the property. Ask them if the landlord had the correct mortgage (BTL or consent to lease).

Rifleman · 12 September 2008 at 10:50PM

I'm not an expert in this area but can she not ivoke her break clause, get her £600 back and rent elsewhere? Personally I'd even be prepared to loose the £600 rather than have the hassle and worry of wether or not I'd be getting evicted.

iamstacie · 13 September 2008 at 1:50AM

If the LL has the lenders consent to let, then there is a chance the lender will honour their contract, at least for the initial 6 months. Has the letter come from solicitors acting on behalf of the lender? It may be that they ask the rent to be paid directly to them for the time being. I am in exactly the same situation, for the second time and with the same landlord (paid some arrears first time, and has obviously fell behind again). The lenders solicitors (Stevens Scanlan) are acting as management company, and won't let me leave until my contract is up, and even they I may be able to stay indefinately "unless they have an owner occupier champing at the bit to get in", which in the current market is unlikely. Also, ownership may well pass back to the LL if he pays some of his arrears off. Your daughter needs to speak to the people acting on behalf of the lenders and find out what they actually want.

Here is my early thread which I asked for advise on the same problem - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1029733

Horseygal_2 · 13 September 2008 at 5:27AM

I had a similar experience when I first left home. It was only due to shall we call it 'women's intuition' that I started to get bad feelings that something was a miss. I eventually opened a letter addressed to my landlord that had been delivered to our property and discovered that the house was being repossessed in 6 weeks. Now I'm not recommending this but it worked for me. We stopped paying the rent there and then and by the time we had to leave we had got our deposit back.

I really hope it works out for your daughter - it's a truly horrible situation and I symathise.

rizla01 · 13 September 2008 at 9:38AM

Not sure here but if it can be proved that the LL must have known about imminent repossession whilst offering the place as available to let, she must be breaking the law surely?

Offering a 6Mths SECURE tenure knowing that she is unlikely to be able to guarantee that must come under obtaining money by deception.

She has certainly (directly or through her agent) deceived your daughter.

I'm pretty sure that this is fraud and that the police could get involved here.

Personally, I think I would threaten that in order to get my daughters monies returned.

Speak to Police and see what they say.

Rented House Being Repossessed

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