Repossession: What are my rights?

shartnymills

I am currently living in my step dad's house. He has emmigrated and just left the house and has not made a mortgage payment since Dec 2008. I mark any post he gets with "gone away" and put them back in the post box. I am living here with his permission, free of charge with no lease/contract although I am paying council tax and utilities.

I understand that a lender has to wait 12 months after receiving a single payment before they are able to repossess. Is this correct?

I cannot afford to buy the house from him, nor can I afford to pay the mortgage payments (around £2.5k p/m).

Will I be made aware when they are going to repossess (considering that I am returning all post) so that I will have time to get out/get my stuff out? What are my rights if they turn up at the house while I'm not at the property (I'm sometimes away with work for upto a couple of weeks)? Can they break in and, if so, can they take my stuff?

Any info/advise would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Joe.

opinions4u

shartnymills wrote: »

I understand that a lender has to wait 12 months after receiving a single payment before they are able to repossess. Is this correct?

No. It's nonsense. A court can potentially grant a repossession order after 2 missed payments. Highly likely that they will if there's no contact from the borrower.

Will I be made aware when they are going to repossess (considering that I am returning all post) so that I will have time to get out/get my stuff out?

Not if you're returning post marked "gone away".

What are my rights if they turn up at the house while I'm not at the property (I'm sometimes away with work for upto a couple of weeks)? Can they break in and, if so, can they take my stuff?

You have no rights. You're an unauthorised tenancy.

Not sure about the personal belongings. I'd suggest that you mark them as "not the possessions of xxx" just in case the bailiffs consider taking them.

Perhaps you should contact a solicitor, Shelter or CAB for verification of what I've posted.

Radiantsoul

If the bank take possession of the property they will not be allowed to take your possessions and so they might store them for a bit. But they will add this to the amount outstanding. And I am not sure if you ask they will just return them to you, there will be no evidence they are yours and the company will presume they belong to the owner of the property.

As above you are an unauthorised tenant without much in the way of rights. The mortgage company might well write a letter addressed to the occupier, but the risk is that you might come home one day to find the locks have been changed.

The 12 month thing is to do with bankruptcy and has no relevence here.

shartnymills

Hi Guys,

Thank you so much for your responses! Sounds like I should be getting out of here!

Also, do you have any idea what they would do with my dog if they came whilst I was at work? He's a large Labrador with a very big bark. Could they impound him?

Thanks Again

Scad

They would hook your dog and give him to the dog pound - or whatever its called these days.