Landlord not paying his mortgage!

Manchester78_2

I currently rent a property via an agency in Manchester City Centre.

Today I came home and found a letter addressed to the occupier so I opened it. To my horror it is a "Notice of Commencement of Possession Proceedings" from Manchester County Court. It would appear therefore that the owner of the flat (our landlord) has not been paying his mortgage.

Firstly, I want to know what my rights are if any should the possession order be granted.

Secondly, should I continue to pay my rent to the agency has normal?

Thirdly, I am hoping to buy a property next year, if my current rented property is repossessed from the landlord, will it effect my credit rating due to the address being tarnished?

Thanks in advance for any help

Tassotti

Are you sure the repossession is not against yourself? After all, you are the occupier.

I would have thought that if the property was being repo'd, then the court would at least have the owner's name.

I reckon this could be a mistake.

Speak to the court and find out exactly what's going on.

As to your questions :-

if it is repossessed, you will have to leave
yes, continue to pay the rent
the address will have no adverse affect on your credit rating (it used to be that way, but no longer applies)

Manchester78_2

Hi, thanks for the advice.

Just to clarify, the legal notice does have the landlords name on it as the defendant but this property has his registered address. As far as I am aware he actually lives in Ireland I think

lynzpower

Is your landlord using a letting agency?

Only if he is living in the Republic of Ireland ( ie not the UK) then he also should have been using a UK based Letting agent as I understand its illegal to manage property from "abroad" as one of my ex LLs did this.

Manchester78_2

Yeah the letting agency i pay my rent to is based in Manchester. I contacted them and they have just advised me to forward the letter to them and they will deal with it but they didnt say what they would do

skylight

This happened to me.

I had no rights. The landlord had not been paying the mortgage, but the first I knew about it was a letter from RBoS stating the property had been repossed, in their hands again and I had 4 weeks notice to quit.

The council agreed that as the contract was between the landlord and I, I had no rights against the RBoS and there was no way I would win anything to stay there.

However, this was 8 years ago - things may have changed then, although my first reaction was bs'td. He had "stolen" (in effect) the rent I had been paying!

skylight

And I need to add - best of luck.
But I think that your best course of action is to start looking (fast) for somewhere else to live.

black-saturn

Agree with all the above advice but would also like to say that the landlord/agent will still have to give written notice to you as the tenant and will still have to go through the correct court proceedings for it. You have rights as the tenant and they can't just throw you out on the street. So maybe it's time to start looking for your own property now because if it does go to court and you have nowhere to move to you could end up with a CCJ against you.

Also did you know it's against the law to open someone elses post? You should have just put 'not at this address' or forwarded it onto him.

silvercar

You have rights under the AST. Tenants generally have to be given 2 months notice to quit or however long there is remaning on the AST. There is a reasonable chance it will be sold with you in situ as any sale would be subject to either accepting you as the tenant or giving you 2 months notice from exchange (or is it completion?)

Molanole

This has just happened to the people in the flat upstairs. I don't know the ins and outs but the landlord was not paying the mortgage. The tenants were evicted and I don't know how much notice they had but they had to stay in a hotel for a short time while they looked for something else. We've not seen the landlord around here for a while unsuprisingly.

Alleycat

Hi, this is something that I see all too often unfortunately and I have to disagree with Black Saturn's advice.

Basically, you do not have any legal rights when it is a repossession by the mortgage lender against your landlord, you cannot negotiate any extention to the notice to vacate that is issued by the courts. The landlord does not need to issue a valid notice to quit as you will be expected to vacate at a date set by the courts and bailiffs may be involved if you do not. At the repossession hearing, a date will usually be set for when the landlord has to give vacant possession to the bailiff and that will include yourselves as well.

It is a good job you did open that letter as you now have the heads up on the situation and can take action asap to find alternative housing. I would suggest that you start looking now as you may only have a few months until you need to be out of the property. As the letter says "To the Occupier" then you are perfectly entitled to open the letter. It is standard for it to be written "To the Occupier" in repossessions. You may find letters addressed to the landlord start turning up from solicitors. Obviously if they are addressed to them specifically then you cannot open them but should forward them to the landlord. It would also be wise to speak to them to see if they tell you anything, but don't be suprised if they spin you a fanciful story. You can get in touch with the courts to check what is happening and if you can get the solicitor who is acting on behalf of the mortgage lender's details, I would suggest ringing them to check whether the landlord had a buy to let mortgage or a personal one as this may have some bearing on the case (sorry, I don't know what difference it may have as I have only dealt with tenants finding themselves homeless when it has been a personal mortgage).

Also, get yourselves down to your local Homeless Advice Unit to make an homeless application as depending on your circumstances i.e. do you have children, significant medical or mental health issues, you may be eligible for priority to be rehoused by your local authority. They can also give you further advice on the situation.

I am really sorry to be so bleak in this post, but it is worth you being prepared for what is going to happen. I would not suggest you stop paying the rent, as whilst you are living there you are still liable and regardless of whether your landlord has been paying the mortgage he could still chase you through the small claims court for any rent outstanding.

Good luck!!