Tenant - just received repossession letter HELP!

hesjane

Snooze wrote: »

I think it's unlikely you'll get any response from the LL about whether he has permission from his lender to let, or if he does respond I'll bet you £20 that his answer will automatically be 'yes'. Likewise, I think you'll have a hard time getting anything in writing from the lender about that either but if it were me I'd keep pushing them because it will give you some breathing space to sort yourself out. On the off-chance that you haven't sent off the letter to the lender yet, I'd advise wording it saying that the LL says it's a BTL mortgage and has permission from you to let it etc, also mentioning your tenant rights of 6 months grace in the event of a repo etc etc. While this is actually completely made up from your end because you don't actually know what the mortgage status is, it puts the ball in their court and if the LL doesn't have permission then it won't be long before they contact you to tell you this. You'd be better off with this approach than writing to them asking them if the LL has permission to let, imho.

He has already sent the letter to the lender, but has put in a copy of his tenancy agreement so that they can be aware of his interest in this matter. I don't think he would have been comfortable with misleading the lender by stating that the LL had said it was BTL - will just have to wait and see what response come through.

Re your other comment, if you've already got a repo 'you must be vacated by' date then the hearing has already happened, and fairly recently too if the 'out' date is 6 May. This won't go in your favour that you've missed the hearing as this was your chance to put your case forward. About a month before the hearing date you should have received a letter with big writing on the front addressed to THE CURRENT TENANT/OCCUPIER from the lender's solicitors which would have set out all the information about lender vs. mortgagee, when and where the hearing is, etc.

He definitely did not receive any such letter.



Depending on how much he's in arrears, there's a high chance you won't ever see or hear from the LL again. That was certainly the case with my friend and his place was fully kitted out too.

I just found out that the LL is living in the flat beneath him....although that's not the address listed on the land registry documents.

Also, don't forget that the LL can't enter the property without your permission first so it's plenty easy enough for it to be 'inconvenient' for him to call round thus meaning that he can't leave you furnitureless. However, as a precaution from this possibly happening when you are out, I would spend £20 on a new pair of locks which will give you peace of mind til you've found somewhere else to move to. Obviously don't tell the LL that you've changed them or he'll want a key!

I'll mention changing the locks to him and see what he thinks.

franklee

One other avenue is to ask the agent if they have seen proof of consent to let and if they can't show this and are members of ARLA then report them to ARLA as I believe the ARAL guidelines say they should have checked for consent to let. That said I'd bet many agents doen't. I'd write to the agent's office asking for proof of consent to let or authority for the tenant to leave with no more rent owned in writing. Basically someone has to say either your son can leave or the tenancy is safe in a way that's credible, and they need to do that soon. If they don't answer in a reasonable time then your son will have to take a chance on moving and use the unanswered letters as his defence should be be perused for rent till he could have served notice. The alternative is he may end up locked out by bailiffs.

More on ARLA's view here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=23720853&postcount=12
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=26331623&postcount=242
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=26442877&postcount=5

hesjane

Ok - quick update - the document received by my son was a warrant for possession of the property on 6th May.

As I stated in a previous post the LL is occupying the flat beneath his and because the letterbox for all three flats in the property is in the main shared secured entrance door of the block of flats he thinks it is only by chance that he has collected the post before the LL on the date this court document arrived. Normally he comes home from work and his post is neatly placed on the first stair - it does, on occasion include post for the previous tenant but this is the first time he has had post addressed to The Occupier. This would possibly explain why he has not seen any previous documentation relating to this...eg. hearing notices etc.

Snooze

hesjane wrote: »

Ok - quick update - the document received by my son was a warrant for possession of the property on 6th May.

As I stated in a previous post the LL is occupying the flat beneath his and because the letterbox for all three flats in the property is in the main shared secured entrance door of the block of flats he thinks it is only by chance that he has collected the post before the LL on the date this court document arrived. Normally he comes home from work and his post is neatly placed on the first stair - it does, on occasion include post for the previous tenant but this is the first time he has had post addressed to The Occupier. This would possibly explain why he has not seen any previous documentation relating to this...eg. hearing notices etc.

Ah! That probably explains it then. I reckon the LL will have fished that out before it got to you. I obviously don't know what financial arrangement (if any) the LL has with the lender but it's worth you knowing that they only repo as a last resort if you break all contact with them or really take the p1ss not sticking to the agreed repayment plan. Certainly in my friends' case the LL hadn't paid anything to them at all for a full 12 months before they applied for repo so at, say, £400 per month rent that's near enough £5000 your LL has quite probably pocketed. If it were me I'd be wanting a lot of answers from the LL, such as why the hell didn't you tell me about this and what are you going to do to fix the pain, stress and worry you've caused me, not to mention having the find somewhere else to live at short notice, change addresses again on all accounts, sort new phone line and broadband out, utilities etc etc. He will have known about this for the best part of a year...

You need to be careful awaiting your reply from the lender/solicitor as usually the envelopes come with their company name on them as part of the post mark (if it's franked) so your LL will probably fish it out before you get chance to get it. He sounds like a real devious xxxx to me. Personally I'd be looking for revenge if he'd done this to me. Does he have a nice motor parked outside that belongs to him? A can of Nitro Mors would do wonders to it, or if you don't feel that brave, go and get a couple of bags of flour and wait for a rainy night then chuck them over his car. When the rains stops it sets like concrete on the bodywork and is nigh on impossible to remove.

Edit to add: I see you said he's living beneath you... you could accidentally leaves the taps running and something get, ahem, blocked in the plughole.

hesjane

Snooze wrote: »

Ah! That probably explains it then. I reckon the LL will have fished that out before it got to you. I obviously don't know what financial arrangement (if any) the LL has with the lender but it's worth you knowing that they only repo as a last resort if you break all contact with them or really take the p1ss not sticking to the agreed repayment plan. Certainly in my friends' case the LL hadn't paid anything to them at all for a full 12 months before they applied for repo so at, say, £400 per month rent that's near enough £5000 your LL has quite probably pocketed. If it were me I'd be wanting a lot of answers from the LL, such as why the hell didn't you tell me about this and what are you going to do to fix the pain, stress and worry you've caused me, not to mention having the find somewhere else to live at short notice, change addresses again on all accounts, sort new phone line and broadband out, utilities etc etc. He will have known about this for the best part of a year...

You need to be careful awaiting your reply from the lender/solicitor as usually the envelopes come with their company name on them as part of the post mark (if it's franked) so your LL will probably fish it out before you get chance to get it. He sounds like a real devious xxxx to me. Personally I'd be looking for revenge if he'd done this to me. Does he have a nice motor parked outside that belongs to him? A can of Nitro Mors would do wonders to it, or if you don't feel that brave, go and get a couple of bags of flour and wait for a rainy night then chuck them over his car. When the rains stops it sets like concrete on the bodywork and is nigh on impossible to remove.

Edit to add: I see you said he's living beneath you... you could accidentally leaves the taps running and something get, ahem, blocked in the plughole.

Son has asked for replies to request for information to be returned to his partner's solicitor as he is now handling this for them. Hopefully that will scare the LL - but I doubt it if he also has courts and lender chasing him anyway.

I think my son would be upset at being out of pocket having had services connected etc and being tied in to contracts for 12 months but at the same time I get the feeling he is now likely to be glad to be walking away from all this.

He definitely wouldn't do anything malicious or attempt revenge. He might be angry but not to that extent. As he says they are fortunate to have parents on both sides who have offered them accommodation for as long as they need it, together with large savings and at least they have their family and health - that's far more important than the LL and the flat.

terryw

Snooze wrote: »

Personally I'd be looking for revenge if he'd done this to me. Does he have a nice motor parked outside that belongs to him? A can of Nitro Mors would do wonders to it, or if you don't feel that brave, go and get a couple of bags of flour and wait for a rainy night then chuck them over his car. When the rains stops it sets like concrete on the bodywork and is nigh on impossible to remove.

Edit to add: I see you said he's living beneath you... you could accidentally leaves the taps running and something get, ahem, blocked in the plughole.

Unless this is a joke it is not very good advice.

kmmr

Have you told the mortgage lender that you know where the LL is living? If it doesn't match the address on the title, perhaps they haven't been able to contact him.

They may be very interested in finding out a new address!

hesjane

terryw wrote: »

Unless this is a joke it is not very good advice.

I took it as a joke and although I can see why people would harbour thoughts such as this, I very much doubt the poster would do anything like this. Asyou can see by my reply my son would not comtemplate anything like this.

hesjane

kmmr wrote: »

Have you told the mortgage lender that you know where the LL is living? If it doesn't match the address on the title, perhaps they haven't been able to contact him.

They may be very interested in finding out a new address!

I don't think he did mention it, but will ask him. It took him long enough to mention it to me :rotfl:

teeni

Has he somewhere to go when the notic eexpires. if not he can apply to court under the mortgge repossession act (protection of tenants ) 2010 that came in a week or so ago and ask for time to find alternative acc. the court can allow 2 months for this.

With regard to the money he has paid out he can sue the landlord for breech of his tenancy agreement and damages for any costs incurred as a result of this breech, but in reality unless the landlord has funds else where, and if he did woudl the house be being repossessed is it worth is as your son would have to cover application to court costs and may not get anythiong other than satisfaction back in return.