Landlord not been paying mortgage

princeofpounds

There are two possibilities here.

One is that your LL has been assigned rights to the house by the real owner. You are therefore being sublet to by a legitimate landlord.

The other is that your LL has no rights over the house. You are therefore basically a squatter, although if you have been left alone this long I wouldn't worry as the real owner is almost certainly fine with you being there and as you have possession you can only be evicted by court order.

Actually I forget that there is possibility 3 - an administration 'mistake', intentional or not. For example your LL is actually just an agent for the real LL and property owner, but one who has put their own name to your agreement. Might be so that the rent is collected by a non-working relative to benefit from a tax-free personal allowance and harder to tie back to the real owner or something.

Personally, I would just ask your LL why their name does not appear as the true owner on the land registry record and what their link is. It's a public document so it's not so weird you would look at it. And don't pay lots of rent in advance at any point, just a month.

missusd

Thanks for the advice...I think it is a tax kind of thing..there is no way it is an admin error lets put it that way.
I think it is a family members house who doesn't want to pay HMRC personally-where that leaves us seems to be with very few rights at all.
I have an appointment on the 4th May with the Housing Office at my local council so I know what my options are in regards to re-homing us if the need arises.

princeofpounds

where that leaves us seems to be with very few rights at all.

Not necessarily. If there is a link between the individuals then a court might interpret them to be agents of the LL and not a separate party. The fact that you have had a long term tenancy in operation would seem to indicate that there is a high possibility of tacit consent from the LL.

cjmumto2

Why would an old CCj rule you out from an agent? Normally if you tell an agent upfront you have a CCJ and it is all sorted they will still take you on as long as it was a one off and explainable. At least my friend has just taken on a tenant though an agent with an old CCJ.

missusd

Hello All,

Again thanks for all the replies.

I have since checked with all 3 TDS and unsurprisingly our deposit is not registered with any.

I am so stressed out at the moment I feel constantly on edge...one thing I am desperate to know is...given the arrears are already at 4 months...realistically how long will it be until the mortgage company takes court action?
The mortgage is through a sub-prime lender not a main stream bank so not sure if this affects matters.
If we fail to pay a months rent and use it as a bond against another property will that look bad on us?
We still have 7 months on our AST..will we have to sit it out and wait until repossession case has occurred to prevent being in breach of tenancy?

What makes this harder is the landlords live directly across from us!

Sorry but feel so upset and stressed out right now.

missusd

Update- I did a quick search on the Mortgage company last night; they closed in 2008 and are part of the HBOS Group. Apparently they did BTL and Self-build mortgages and Birmingham Midshires are now dealing with the mortgagees etc.
I am not sure if the fact it will have been a BTL mortgage will change matters so can anyone advise.

Also, reading some of the other threads the Gas Safey Cert keeps coming up and we have never had one or a gas safety check..is this compulsary??

Again thanks for all the replies, it really does mean alot.

poppy10_2

missusd wrote: »

Also, reading some of the other threads the Gas Safey Cert keeps coming up and we have never had one or a gas safety check..is this compulsary??

Yes, its part of the prescribed information, you should have been given a copy when or shortly after you moved in

missusd

poppy10 wrote: »

Yes, its part of the prescribed information, you should have been given a copy when or shortly after you moved in

Hi Poppy...we were never given anything to do with the gas.
We do have a carbon monoxide detector and the gas fire has never been switched..it is one of the old wooden fronted ones and we daren't!

poppy10_2

Try and get in touch with the landlord and ask for the gas certificate.

In the meantime, I'd start looking for another property. If you don't get any explanation from the landlord, stop paying the rent and put the money aside each month.

missusd

Thanks Poppy,

I will contact and ask them.

The rent is due on Tuesday; the difficulty in not paying it is that they live across the road from us and have access to the property through the day-in that they have a set of keys and know the alarm code etc.
Were we not to pay I am worried they may try a fast one, or worse...
I was praying another letter would arrive today so we know where we stand, but it hasn't...which means with the Bank Holiday nothing will come Monday neither and then the rent is due Tuesday.

I also don't want to be in breach of tenancy..although if the name on the tenancy is not the owner of the property I am not sure if I could be-but I don't want to risk them taking me to court for monies owed etc.