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Landlord Didn't Pay His Mortgage
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feelex
Posts: 80 Forumite
My partner and I are currently renting privately, and receiving housing benefit.
Our landlord was pleasant enough when we moved in a year ago. He moved away from the area, but was always patient about what day our rent was paid. He kept saying he'd come and collect his mail when he was visiting the area but never did; that was our only problem with him at first.
When we first moved in, we didn't have hot water. He said he'd get it fixed soon. We're still waiting for that to happen. But we were understanding and patient. He was still in contact, said he was busy and would get round to it, and we know how things can come up so we didn't push the issue and continued to do the washing up by boiling the kettle.
A few months ago a woman came to our door asking for our landlord. She told us "I own this block, and he never told me he was renting this property out, so I'd just like to have a word with him". Our landlord told us HE owned it, so we were a bit confused. We had lost his phone number/new address when my partner's phone stopped working but had an email address written down so emailed this woman's details over.
A couple of weeks ago a man came to the door, saying he was the woman's husband and they still needed to get in touch with him. The man laughed, said our landlord was always difficult to get hold of and just to ask him again. We emailed and didn't hear anything back.
Yesterday morning, two letters arrived. One was addressed to our landlord, the other to 'the occupier'. We assume his said the same as ours. It was from a debt collection agency saying they were working on behalf of the company our landlord got his mortgage out with. They said he had failed to adhere to the terms of the loan (we assume this means he wasn't paying) and that the company will take whatever means necessary to 'ensure the security of the loan'.
We emailed our landlord again asking what the hell was going on. Funny enough, no reply. Yet again. We're now trying to find somewhere new to live, but are on JSA so it's very difficult to get a deposit together (and the places we've found that accept DSS won't accept the council bond scheme). Our contract actually ended with our landlord in January, and we communicated that we didn't want to move and he didn't want to find a new tenant, so he said we could just stay. We didn't get a new contract, we just had the email correspondance. Yes, it was a naive move on our part but at the time we didn't think there'd be a reason to be suspicious of him. We have learned from it. Is this going to affect our chances of getting our deposit back? We NEED it right now, so we can get the hell out of here.
We've emailed the debt agency asking where this leaves us, but have had no response yet. Has anybody had experience with this before? Should we be worried or are we overreacting? Will we be held accountable for the error of our landlord? Are we even right in assuming that he hasn't been paying the mortgage, when they say he hasn't adhered to the terms? It makes me suspicious that people have been coming to the door saying he hid the fact he was renting the flat out, and then suddenly we receive letters about the mortgage.
He has a lot of 'urgent' mail that he kept saying "No, don't post to me, I'll come and get it when I can". Do you think this was a delay tactic, so he could honestly say he had never seen people demanding money from him? Do we have any right to see what was in some of them, to get a better idea about what has been going on?
Sorry for so many questions!
Our landlord was pleasant enough when we moved in a year ago. He moved away from the area, but was always patient about what day our rent was paid. He kept saying he'd come and collect his mail when he was visiting the area but never did; that was our only problem with him at first.
When we first moved in, we didn't have hot water. He said he'd get it fixed soon. We're still waiting for that to happen. But we were understanding and patient. He was still in contact, said he was busy and would get round to it, and we know how things can come up so we didn't push the issue and continued to do the washing up by boiling the kettle.
A few months ago a woman came to our door asking for our landlord. She told us "I own this block, and he never told me he was renting this property out, so I'd just like to have a word with him". Our landlord told us HE owned it, so we were a bit confused. We had lost his phone number/new address when my partner's phone stopped working but had an email address written down so emailed this woman's details over.
A couple of weeks ago a man came to the door, saying he was the woman's husband and they still needed to get in touch with him. The man laughed, said our landlord was always difficult to get hold of and just to ask him again. We emailed and didn't hear anything back.
Yesterday morning, two letters arrived. One was addressed to our landlord, the other to 'the occupier'. We assume his said the same as ours. It was from a debt collection agency saying they were working on behalf of the company our landlord got his mortgage out with. They said he had failed to adhere to the terms of the loan (we assume this means he wasn't paying) and that the company will take whatever means necessary to 'ensure the security of the loan'.
We emailed our landlord again asking what the hell was going on. Funny enough, no reply. Yet again. We're now trying to find somewhere new to live, but are on JSA so it's very difficult to get a deposit together (and the places we've found that accept DSS won't accept the council bond scheme). Our contract actually ended with our landlord in January, and we communicated that we didn't want to move and he didn't want to find a new tenant, so he said we could just stay. We didn't get a new contract, we just had the email correspondance. Yes, it was a naive move on our part but at the time we didn't think there'd be a reason to be suspicious of him. We have learned from it. Is this going to affect our chances of getting our deposit back? We NEED it right now, so we can get the hell out of here.
We've emailed the debt agency asking where this leaves us, but have had no response yet. Has anybody had experience with this before? Should we be worried or are we overreacting? Will we be held accountable for the error of our landlord? Are we even right in assuming that he hasn't been paying the mortgage, when they say he hasn't adhered to the terms? It makes me suspicious that people have been coming to the door saying he hid the fact he was renting the flat out, and then suddenly we receive letters about the mortgage.
He has a lot of 'urgent' mail that he kept saying "No, don't post to me, I'll come and get it when I can". Do you think this was a delay tactic, so he could honestly say he had never seen people demanding money from him? Do we have any right to see what was in some of them, to get a better idea about what has been going on?
Sorry for so many questions!
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Comments
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As a guess rather than not paying his mortgage I would say he hasn't had consent to let and the lender has found out and called in the loan. Anyone else think this from the wording?I am a Mortgage Adviser
You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.0 -
That was another possibility we wondered. Not following the terms could be anything, really. I'm completely unfamiliar with mortgage protocol!
What would that mean if that was the case?0 -
I am not entirely sure. Is it possible to ask who sent you the letter what the situation is?
If he hasn't got consent they may give him a certain period of time to pay off the mortgage either by remortgaging to a btl or selling. If he can't get a btl mortgage then he may have to sell.
If not paying the mortgage then it would be an eviction.
Either way wouldn't be a good thing for you. I would phone the person who wrote the letter to ask what the infringement is and then talk to cab about what to do next.I am a Mortgage Adviser
You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.0 -
We've currently sent an email out to the debt collection agency and asked where this situation leaves us. Other than that, we're just looking anywhere and everywhere for somewhere else to live. If it starts to get nasty CAB will be our first port of call, but if we can handle this by just moving out and wiping our hands of this guy/leaving him to clear up his own mess, we'd much prefer to do that.
Really hope we don't end up with someone else's battle on our hands.0 -
As you're outside of the initial AST, if the lender knows you're living there then you'll get the legal amount of notice to move out, which'd be two months. So you must let them know you live there. If there are any court dates, go to court - take your original AST with you.
Did he take a deposit off you? Is it protected?
You might like to think about not paying rent any more - but putting that into a separate account until you're clearer what's going on/he contacts you.
What you don't want to do is end up paying him money after a repossession because you forgot to cancel the standing order -and- having the lenders after the rent -and- finding out he's not protected your deposit/you won't get it back -and- getting 2 months' notice to quit from the lender.
Protect yourself first. Keep the rent money safe, so it's there if you do need to pay up to somebody/once you know you're doing the right things.
And .... start looking for somewhere to move to as you won't be there much longer.0 -
Cheers PasturesNew - is exactly what we're doing
rent isn't a standing order, we usually go to the bank to pay it in to his account, so until this gets sorted out the rent money can be moved to my other account and will stay there. At least that way we can work towards a deposit.
He took a cash deposit from us. This time last year I was made homeless (due to lots of things happening at once) and forced to kip on my grandad's couch 200 miles away from my partner while we tried to find somewhere to live. We finally found a landlord who would accept DSS without a guarantor and didn't want two months rent (we could only provide a month and a half) so we went for it so that we weren't split up anymore. I've no idea about whether it was protected or not (I wasn't there when the deposit was paid) but I'm assuming it wasn't which I guess means we'll lose it.
Could the people who sent the letter yesterday ask for the money from us instead of him?
Already sent emails out to a load of landlords asking if they'll accept DSS. Going away to my Mum's wedding on the 17th for 10 days so ideally we'd have moved by then - think that's pretty optimistic though!!!0 -
He is obliged to register your deposit, so check your property details with each one - tds dps & mydeposits. Chances are he hasn't done so but at least you'll know.0
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Already sent emails out to a load of landlords asking if they'll accept DSS.
Phone your local council and see if they have a list of landlords who take DSS.
As well as the CAB, you could email or phone Shelter for their advice on what to do: they see lots of tenants in your situation.
If you are in England, then this is their contact details
http://england.shelter.org.uk/about_us/contact_us
Don't forget to check that the potential next landlord has either; a Buy to Let mortgage; or they have Consent to Let from their mortgage lender for the dates you want to rent the property.Our contract actually ended with our landlord in January, and we communicated that we didn't want to move and he didn't want to find a new tenant, so he said we could just stay. We didn't get a new contract, we just had the email correspondance.
That will work in your favour as you don't have a fixed term to continue to pay rent. You can give 1 month notice from the day before a rent day (start of contract date) and walk away from it all.
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/ending_a_tenancy_or_licence/ending_a_periodic_agreementRENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0
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