Landlord wants our help to convince mortgage lenders he lives here

albyota

As advised above, do not get involved, a friend of a friend is still inside sowing mailbags for exactly this......report his actions to whomever it may concern...HMRC etc...

purplefiona

You won't believe this but when I was renting a converted house many years ago, my landlord actually took my kitchen out so that the mortgage guys could come over and see that the house was one house, and put it back afterwards. Unbelievable!
In return he repainted two rooms that need doing anyway. Chancer. Check your rights!

tizhimi

Report him to the taxman and go on the land registry website, find out who his mortgage people are, report him to them.

This is not acceptable and by him asking this of you and even if you do NOTHING the law states you are now an accessory for NOT reporting him.

silvercar

albyota wrote: »

As advised above, do not get involved, a friend of a friend is still inside sowing mailbags for exactly this......report his actions to whomever it may concern...HMRC etc...

tizhimi wrote: »

Report him to the taxman and go on the land registry website, find out who his mortgage people are, report him to them.

This is not acceptable and by him asking this of you and even if you do NOTHING the law states you are now an accessory for NOT reporting him.

My advice in an earlier post to look for your next home still stands, but...

it is not a criminal offence to let a property that was your main home, it is a civil breach of contract by the landlord against his lender.

If however, he has never lived in the property and applied for a mortgage with the intention of letting it, that would be fraud, obtaining money by deception. (Though I still can't believe a prison sentence for a tenant.)

DVardysShadow

silvercar wrote: »

.... If however, he has never lived in the property and applied for a mortgage with the intention of letting it, that would be fraud, obtaining money by deception. (Though I still can't believe a prison sentence for a tenant.)

I find it hard to categorise that as fraud.

To me, fraud is where a lender is deceived into handing over money which is not paid back. In the cases we are talking about, there is deceit of the lender, in that the loan is used in a way which the lender was not told about. But I don't think that the lender is necessarily deprived of the money - although I do note that there is a suspicion of arrears.

BitterAndTwisted

You can't be an accessory to a crime for just knowing about it, you have to actively take part in the crime, or take steps to help the criminal evade arrest If asked the OP and flatmate can deny they ever heard of such a thing which would be quite easy as they have no intention of agreeing, OP said so

naijapower

ukbilly wrote: »

We don't have reason to believe he's in serious arrears but he doesn't seem to pay very promptly because he always gets reminders (which we forward).

My interpretation of this statement is that you have been opening his mail which amounts to an illegality expect of course he had authorised you to do so

BitterAndTwisted

It is not against the law to open someone else's mail! It's only illegal to put it to fraudulent use. OP said that reminders had been received and forwarded to LL, not that they'd opened them

naijapower

You wrong.In the UK it's a criminal offence to open other people's post under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000023_en_2#pt1-ch1-pb1-l1g1.
Note it's an offence to open the post, whether the intention is to delay or prevent someone getting the letter and the info therein or to use it for identity fraud.

My initial point was that how did they know the letters were reminders if they didnt open them

barnaby-bear

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I find it hard to categorise that as fraud.

To me, fraud is where a lender is deceived into handing over money which is not paid back. In the cases we are talking about, there is deceit of the lender, in that the loan is used in a way which the lender was not told about. But I don't think that the lender is necessarily deprived of the money - although I do note that there is a suspicion of arrears.

Of course it's fraud whatever the "intention" of the fraudster. Mortgage companies are moe willing to lend to occupiers as they are statistically less likely to defualt, risking their home and in negative equity situations struggle through. A BTL on the other hand means the LL may be relying on the rent to cover the mortgage and paying elsewhere - maybe ok most of the time but one non-paying tenant and the LL has to cover two places where he lives and the BTL.
Getting a residential mortgage and letting is fraud as the banks probably would have insisted on a lower LTV, higher deposit and higher earnings - so by lying the landlord has got the bank to risk money on a fake facts, lies..... It's obtaining money by deceit. It's also fraudulant IMO that a LL is offering the tenant if there is no permission to let a contact with a fixed term and two months security which may not be honoured.