HELP - Landlady not paying mortgage & bank started repossession proceedings.

starlight886

Hi,

I'm in a bit of pickle and could do with some help from you lovely people. In February this year, for reasons that are irrelevant to this, myself, DH and our young child sold our house and moved into a rented property, closer to my family.

All was going well with the rented house until christmas Eve. We have received a court order, addressed to 'The Occupier', with our Landlady as the Defendant. She has not been paying the mortgage and the bank have started repossession proceedings for the house. The court hearing is the middle of January. I contacted the banks solicitors to see if they would give me any advice, but they told me that as I was a tenant, I had 'No Rights and should start packing up and looking for a new place to live'. Charming attitude. It's not my fault that the owner hasn't been paying the mortgage. She has had her rent from us on time each and every month.

So, my question is: what do we do? Do we need to attend the court hearing? We will start looking for a new rental property next week, as the local letting agents are not open during the Christmas/New Year period.

Any help would be appreciated.

Starlight

skint-student-nurse

contact shelter or your council as you will be homeless through no fault of your own and they should be able to help you find accomodation.

Zelie

You don't need to attend the hearing though you might like to do so in order to find out what's going on. Phone shelter, phone the landlady and ask what the hell is going on and personally I'd stop paying any rent cos you know you are not getting your deposit back.

starlight886

Forgot to mention that the property management company that was dealing with the house (landlady owns property management company too) appears to have gone bust. the office is no longer there, phone number doesn't work and website is gone.

I have no personal address or phone number for the landlady as any problems were to be dealt with via the property management company.

I contacted the letting agents and they were gobsmacked. They said that they had no clue and if we need help finding another property, they will do all the can. They said our deposit will be ok as it was registered with TDS and also told us to cancel the standing order as it was going to the Landlady directly. Just feel so annoyed.

Zelie

Poor thing. Try to put it aside to think about once New Year is past. Difficult I know but there's nothing practical you can do at the moment and worrying never helped anyone.

Give Shelter a ring on the 2nd and ask their advice. And phone back the letting agency and ask them to look for any and all properties they think might be suitable for you and your family. Given the circumstances I think they will knock themselves out trying to help you.

FraudBuster

Some advice from Shelter

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/eviction/repossession_by_a_landlords_lender

LydiaJ

So sorry you are going through this. No special advice to offer, but just wanted to say ((hugs)). And the LA sound supportive, so make the most of that, and see what advice they have for you.

Lydia

mbga9pgf

They should bring back debtors prisons for scum like this.

I hope she has a rubbish 2009.

DawnW

mbga9pgf wrote: »

They should bring back debtors prisons for scum like this.

I hope she has a rubbish 2009.

It certainly does not sound as though it has got off to a very good start!

clutton_2

i think it is in your b est interest to attend the court and tell the judge of your circumstances. Judges do not like putting families with children out onto the streets, and if you were to go, say, with a new tenancy agreement in hand which did not start for say another 28 days, a judge would almost certainly give you that time to move out.

what have you go to lose my going to tell your side of the story ?

but do start looking for somewhere else to live pronto

edgex

FraudBuster wrote: »

Some advice from Shelter

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/eviction/repossession_by_a_landlords_lender

interesting bit on there:

You may be able to:

• persuade the lender to take over as landlord and/or to give you more time

The lender will be looking to take posession of the property, in order to sell it.
Considering the state of the market, this could be a problem for them.
Properties do get sold with existing tenants, this may make the property more sellable at auction, as there is an existing income from the property.

You might want to contact all involved, & state that you do have a rental agreement/contract, even send them a copy of it, & any records you have of making the rent payments. I think that they will all have at least a moral responsibility to take this into account.



seek compensation from the landlord. The court can award damages for loss of the tenancy and/or for storage and emergency accommodation costs. The court cannot reinstate you in the property. And bear in mind that if your landlord has lost the property due to mortgage arrears, there may not be any money left after the mortgage has been repaid.

well somethings happened to all that money!


Sounds like your letting agent is quite a good one, might also be worth contacting them to see if they can tell you if others are in the same situation with the same landlord.

You do need to cancel any payments, as the agent has said to do. Save that money, just in case the lender does allow you to stay longer, & requests some rent payments.


You started the tenancy in February, if its a 12 month one, ask the lender to allow you to stay till the end date, but also be prepared to move on that date.