RENTING? Check your LL has permission to let that property.

MissMoneypenny

myvisitor wrote: »

We moved into the property 3 years ago signing a tenancy agreement. I had no experience of renting as I owned my own property from about 20 years old. Unfortunately, 3 years ago, I lost everything and had to sell my house to a quick buy company. All my troubles resulted in a bad credit record. I had to find a home to rent which was foreign territory, I also had taken out an IVA , no letting agent would look twice at me unless I had six months rent upfront, which I didn't. I took up a private rental that I saw in the local newspaper. We have never defaulted on the rent. we both work full time. However we pay £650 per month and I am worried that the landlord may be a bit dodgy. The house is damp and our bathroom is horrific.

The landlord came around about 3 months ago and asked if me and my partner would go out whilst he saw someone from the dwp, he is claiming that he still lives at this address. We know what he is up to, but don't want to lose our home.. (we have a little dog as well)

Today he arrived asking how we pay our council tax, and that he wants to put up the rent but to include council tax in his name. I am worried about my partner, as he cant sleep for worrying that he is breaking the law. The landlord has said to dwp that he is my partners brother in law.
We have just gone along with it, do we have any choice?

My partner was made redundant in November, but we dare not claim any benefits such as housing, or council tax because we think this will land the landlord in the !!!!, and we will lose our home. I just wish we could rent a home from someone who is honest, and not have all this to worry about. My partner has a new job so that has worked out ok.
We have also had the usual repo letters, to the occupier. However, he has always seemed to sort this out, but now, I am gravely worried
Any help would be gratefully accepted

If you start your own thread on this, you will get some responses.

whispywillow

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Do other families a favour and report all landlords who don't have permission to let, to their lender (details of the lender can be found on the Land Registry deeds - link above) and enclose any evidence you have that they are trying to rent the property. Then report them to the tax office
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tax-evasion/
You can do this online or by a free phone call. You don't have to leave your details.

I have just done this and found that my landlord is listed as living in this address. A fact that doesnt surprise me in the least.
If i do what you have said above, does this mean that he can kick me out of the property? I wouldnt want to report what he is doing and then have me and my son turfed out..

prudryden

whispywillow wrote: »

I have just done this and found that my landlord is listed as living in this address. A fact that doesnt surprise me in the least.
If i do what you have said above, does this mean that he can kick me out of the property? I wouldnt want to report what he is doing and then have me and my son turfed out..

As long as he doesn't know it was you, you should be OK. Tally up the positives and negatives and what you would might gain out of it.

mizzbiz

whispywillow wrote: »

I have just done this and found that my landlord is listed as living in this address. A fact that doesnt surprise me in the least.
If i do what you have said above, does this mean that he can kick me out of the property? I wouldnt want to report what he is doing and then have me and my son turfed out..

So you grass him up to his lender and the tax man, which could result in him losing the house, and you're wondering if he'll do you the favour of letting you still live there!!! Sometimes people amaze me.

My best pal has a flat from her previous life and has now bought a house with her new husband. Asked her mortgage lender for permission to let (NRAM) and they said it would have to be converted to a BTL. Not possible to magic £25k out of the air for that deposit or enough chance of covering the mortgage rate at BTL levels. So can't rent it out due to bueaucracy, can't sell it so just has to pay the mortgage on an empty flat when someone could live there and pay rent. Seems a bit daft to me but I understand why she is petrified to let it out after reading this board.

whispywillow

mizzbiz wrote: »

So you grass him up to his lender and the tax man, which could result in him losing the house, and you're wondering if he'll do you the favour of letting you still live there!!! Sometimes people amaze me.

My best pal has a flat from her previous life and has now bought a house with her new husband. Asked her mortgage lender for permission to let (NRAM) and they said it would have to be converted to a BTL. Not possible to magic £25k out of the air for that deposit or enough chance of covering the mortgage rate at BTL levels. So can't rent it out due to bueaucracy, can't sell it so just has to pay the mortgage on an empty flat when someone could live there and pay rent. Seems a bit daft to me but I understand why she is petrified to let it out after reading this board.

I never said i was going to do it, and if he loses the house then I wouldnt be living in it anyway would i, but at least i'd have some control over my situation, i don't particularily give a crap about his situation, he's a terrible landlord and the only reason im still here is because i cannot afford to move yet. The prospect of me and my 2 year old son being made homeless due to the morgage lender finding out that the landlord wasn't actually living there, doesn't exactly inspire me either. Its not right what he is doing, it's illegal. Im hedging my bets for the moment, he's had the property since 2003, so nothing has come of it yet, and like a few people have mentioned that there really isn't any way of knowing whether the landlord HAS lived in the property before, even if he hasn't changed the address. But i am certainly going to be on my guard now..

MissMoneypenny

prudryden wrote: »

As long as he doesn't know it was you, you should be OK. Tally up the positives and negatives and what you would might gain out of it.

Or maybe wait until after they are out of the property? The extra interest on the mortgage might just be enough to push the landlord over the financial edge.

whispeywillow are you on a fixed term contract (ends on a certain date) or periodical (you give 1 months notice, LL has to give 2)?

If you are in a fixed term contract and the LL has financial problems, you might not be given to the end of your fixed term, if the mortgage lender has to take the house. There is no protection for your full term fixed contract if the landlord hasn't been given permission from his mortgage lender.

If the landlord has lied about something as important as Consent to Let, then what else he lying about? Can you even trust him to pay the mortgage?

Can you start looking for property with a legal landlord? Then when in the new place, report this landlord to his mortgage lender and the tax office.

MissMoneypenny

mizzbiz wrote: »

So you grass him up to his lender and the tax man, which could result in him losing the house, and you're wondering if he'll do you the favour of letting you still live there!!! Sometimes people amaze me.

I doubt if the landlord is doing her "the favour of living there". He will need the tenant's money to pay the mortgage he can't afford!

Landlord's who rent their properties out without their mortgage lenders consent, have no regard at all for the families they take rent from. They just pass their financial problems onto other families. In other words, they are a low life.

mizzbiz wrote: »

My best pal has a flat from her previous life and has now bought a house with her new husband. Asked her mortgage lender for permission to let (NRAM) and they said it would have to be converted to a BTL. Not possible to magic £25k out of the air for that deposit or enough chance of covering the mortgage rate at BTL levels.

Isn't NRAM the Northerm Rock split for those who are high risk? Often those who took on 125% mortgages?

Northern Rock will need the 25k to protect themselves from further falling house prices. They will also need this 25k to cover the higher risk of renting. We have seem too many posts on these boards from tenants who have paid their rent but found out that the landlord hasn't paid the mortgage: or landlords who can't pay the mortgage because the tenant hasn't paid the rent.

mizzbiz wrote: »

So can't rent it out due to bueaucracy, can't sell it so just has to pay the mortgage on an empty flat when someone could live there and pay rent.

She can't rent it our because she hasn't got a good enough LTV (loan to value), unless whe puts up 25k to cover the difference.

She can sell the property, but I assume not for the money she would like? If the sale price she is offered results in negative equity, she will have to get a loan or increase her second mortgage she took out, to pay for the negative equity.

Why did she buy another house before selling her flat??? She had doubled her exposure to the market.

mizzbiz wrote: »

Seems a bit daft to me but I understand why she is petrified to let it out after reading this board.

Perhaps you are underestimating your friend and she is just a decent person who doesn't want to put her tenants at risk without that Consent to Let? Or perhaps she doesn't want to break her mortgage terms agreement with NRAM? Or both maybe?

Welshwoofs

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

I doubt if the landlord is doing her "the favour of living there". He will need the tenant's money to pay the mortgage he can't afford!

Landlord's who rent their properties out without their mortgage lenders consent, have no regard at all for the families they take rent from. They just pass their financial problems onto other families. In other words, they are a low life

You have a serious problem and Christ knows why MSE saw fit to sticky your horrendous bile. The type of landlords you advocate ruining are often just normal people who had to move and were unable to sell and also didn't have the funds to come up with the draconian demands some lendersmimpose when one asks for permission to let.

I am one of your 'low lifes' and the reason is my lender who simply won't give permission to let. I also couldn't sell...my house was in an area with 70% unemployment and houses were not moving at a time I HAD to move. My choice was to leave the place empty or let it out. I let it out....for well under Market rate and well under the mortgage repayments just to ensure it wasn't empty. My tenants are happy; they have a newly returned house for cheaper than anything else around. There are annual safety checks, issues are fixed straight away and yes, it is declared to the tax man. My tenants are in no danger of eviction for me non-paying the mortgage because I can afford it without their payments but I just didn't have the savings to swap to a BTL.

So it saddens me when people like you, out of some warped malevolence, encourage people who are probably having no issues with their tenancy in many cases, to 'shop' and attempt to financially ruin their landlord....and in so doing seal their own fate.

Warped. Really warped

Shakethedisease

because I can afford it without their payments but I just didn't have the savings to swap to a BTL.

And if you lose your job ? Or become ill ? Or for some reason can't afford the monthly top-ups ? What about your insurance company, are they happy you're letting a residental property out without your mortgage provider's consent ?

No-one's immune from financial misfortune. You have choice of what kind of tenant you'll let to. It's not so much to ask that vice versa should apply to tenants re landlords. I doubt many respectable tenants would be happy knowingly renting from landlords who are doing so ' under the table' so to speak.

prudryden

Shakethedisease wrote: »

And if you lose your job ? Or become ill ? Or for some reason can't afford the monthly top-ups ? What about your insurance company, are they happy you're letting a residental property out without your mortgage provider's consent ?

No-one's immune from financial misfortune. You have choice of what kind of tenant you'll let to. It's not so much to ask that vice versa should apply to tenants re landlords. I doubt many respectable tenants would be happy knowingly renting from landlords who are doing so ' under the table' so to speak.

Insurance companies don't care if you have asked the lender. It has nothing to do with their risk calculations on the building itself. Consent to let mortgage is a business loan. Before it became known as a BTL mortgage, it was called a commercial mortgage.