There is a Bankruptcy clause in my tenancy agreement...

panickymum

Hi everyone

Although we told the agent we were going to go BR they have still issued us with a standard assured shorthold tenancy agreement which has the following clause;

A court may order you to leave the property before the end of the contact if any of the following happen;
You become bankrupt, your belongings are seized by baliffs or you enter a voluntary arrangement with people you owe money to. If any of these things happen we have the right to enter the property after the bailiffs evict you following a court order for posession. We will start this process by sending you a notice in line with the procedure set out in section 8 of thr Housing Act 1988. We may only enter the property and take posession if a court allows us to do this.

We haven't signed this yet. Does anyone understand what this really means? I am scared we may now be unable to move into this house. All the houses in this area seem to be rented through agents and I don't know what we'll do if we lose it. I have been trying to remain positive up to now and was looking forward to moving prior BR but sometimes it just feels like one long great big battle and I'm really tired of it all. My poor OH is at his wits end - he lost his job due to ill health which is what has started all of this. All we want is to get things sorted but this has been a bit of a blow. We love this house!

Any comments/advice would be much appreciated. Thanks everyone

jo70

Is your agreement with a property agent? Contact your local CAB or SHELTER for some advice. Sorry can't be of any real help.
Best wishes

J & A

panickymum

Hi Jo yes it is with an estate agent who also rents out properties (all the properties which currently aren't selling!). Trouble is there are hardly any private rentals where I live and I don't want to move as my son goes to a good local school so we are a bit stuck on that front.

betterlatethannever

Hi PM..firstly, try not too panic:D

I had that same clause in my TA, though the agent was never informed of my BR, either by the OR or myself.
If they did want you to leave they would still have to issue a court order and this gives you 2 months before you have to leave.
If they're aware of your BR, i would prehaps mention it again to the agents.
It seem likely that they have just issued you with the standard TA. They would have had to have had a new agreement typed out, especially for you, without the above clause in, for it to be accurate, and they're not going to go through the hassle of that.

fudge59

As you've mentioned the forthcoming bankruptcy - it might be worth just querying that clause with them.

It could be that that is like you say a standard tenancy agreement, which someone has just forgotton to amend.

I've lost count the number of times we've had to have our agreement amended, as it says 'no animals' yet we were given the ok for a cat - and it has to be manually amended every time.

panickymum

Ahh thanks Better, I hadn't looked at it that way...I was panicking again, as my name suggests!!

Broken_hearted

The clause is to protect LL from BR incase they run up a lot of arrears and go BR again.As long as the rents paid on time I doubt they would care.

betterlatethannever

Broken_hearted wrote: »

The clause is to protect LL from BR incase they run up a lot of arrears and go BR again.As long as the rents paid on time I doubt they would care.

But a BR would be really hard pushed to run up any arrears/bad credit, at least for the next 5 years (apart from rent ones, and then the LL can get a court order to get you out)
I'd say a BR makes a perfect tenant:rolleyes:

jo70

Most important billtopay is the rent/mortgage-everything else is secondary-then the utility bills.
So wish i could help more

fermi

I think the clause is normally there to protect the LL if the tenant goes BR for the first time with rent arrears. Then the landlord would be able to use the courts to gain possession.

If you don't have arrears, then there is no reason for them to care.

fatou256

at my BR hearing the judge told me this kind of clause is usually found in a comemrcail agreement and not a private renting one as it is as no sense or value i forgot the reasons why although ?