Need help/advice desperately please....

Kensam81

I’m after some good advice on our (seemingly hopeless) situation and the only place I think I can get real advice is from this site.

In brief we have a mortgage on a property in negative equity which we rented out to someone after my partner was made redundant. This Tenant then lost his job and relations have deteriorated between us to the point where he is no longer forwarding his housing benefit to us, I have tried to evict on G8 of the housing act but he paid some rent to keep it below the required amount to launch proceedings and we are almost at the point where I can try this again but fear a repeat of the first attempt.

We rented the flat out because we had no alternative and very little money, now we have even less money and a tenant who is creating hell for me and my partner financially, I have told the T that we face the very real prospect of repossession now as we can not keep up with the mortgage payments because of him but of course he simply doesn’t care and states that I had a legal obligation to inform him of the problems we faced which I completely disagree with as I have on more than one occasion chased him for rent and stated that we can not sustain this financial loss he is causing.

So right now our finances are in ruins, the tenant is digging his heels in and seeking legal advice constantly and I know he is going to fight this right to the bitter end but we simply can’t afford to keep fighting another 2/3 months to get him out. I have seriously considered voluntary repossession and fully understand that the lender will forever chase us for the shortfall and costs of this and that we will seriously impair our credit but we’re at out wits end with what direction to take, do I fight to keep paying the mortgage and keep trying to get the tenant out (which could take months and more debt) or do I cut my losses now, go for repo and deal with consequences that way, I just do not want the property and hassle that goes with it anymore, even if I can get the T out and try to sell there is a shortfall so why not just let the bank deal with it all through repo?

If anyone can give me some good advice on this I would really really appreciate it.

Johnhowell

Kensam81,

Can I suggst that you post this in the Residential Lettings forum of ConsumerActionGroup website. There are some very experienced people there who should be able to advise you.

I do not think a tenant has any "legal" right to know of your financial problems, other than when the property is repossessed he will recieve notice from the Mortgage company (after going to court) and this Notice to vacate will be less than the notice you would have to give him!

Good luck,
John

Kensam81

Thanks John appreciate your reply and will do.

Kensam81

I also wanted to find out is there life after repossession? I hear so many stories and advice I just dont know what to think anymore and we feel like we are being held to ransom by our credit report which up until now has been perfect.

SusieT

No idea about life after reposession, but it may be worth as has already been said posting about the tenant on the housing section as people would be able to advise on if you can get the housing benefit paid directly to you as well as how to get rid of the tenant.

Hope it works out for you.

RAS

Hi

Post this up on the housing section and you will get more help.

They will want to know:

Do you have your mortgage providers approval to let?
When does the AST end?
Is the deposit secured with a scheme?
is the Gas safety CertificaTE UP TO DATE.
Have you issued a VALID S21?
Rather than issuing the S8, have you asked the Council to pay the rent directly to you when he goes over the two month limit?

UnderPressure

Hello

Just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear your story, crikey what an awful tenant you have!

Is it not illegal in some way the he is claiming housing benefit and not passing this onto the landlord? Could you not approach the local council and tell them that the benefit they are paying this person is not being passed to you?

Im sorry I dont have anything else to offer seems like you have been offered some great advice so far, I just did not want to read and run with such a sad state of affirs

Chin up and best of luck I do hope you manage to sort this all out soon

Kensam81

Thanks for comments all.

I have spoken to the council but they won't do anything until he is 8 weeks overdue in rent payments (which is approaching) but I'll post this again and see what comes up.

Thanks