Landlord has had house repossesed

trfcgirl06

Hello everyone,

Just to say in advance that any advice is greatly appreciated.

On Monday evening our LL knocked on our door to say he had bad news. He told us the house has been taken away from him and that he had lost his business (plumber).

We actually rent the property through a LA and not directly with the LL. But he had been around a few times to fix problems with the roof, and obviously wanted to tell us in person. He said either the mortagage company will take over the rent, or maybe offer us a knock down price on the property (we're not really in the position to buy). However, he said he really didn't know what was going to happen or any timescale.

The LL used to live in the house before us, but was unable to sell the house. He had to move to a bungalow due to his wife being disabled and her having problems with the stairs.

I've checked the Land Registry and there is no mention of it being a rented property. All it says is his name as registered owner.

I've also typed his mortgage lender into google and I am scared by the results! Is it possible he could have changed mortgage lender and the Land Registry hasn't been amended? I hope so, as all the results say this mortgage company are dodgy (although I've only been able to have a quick glance to be fair). They are Southern Pacific Mortgage Ltd.

We're looking for somewhere else to live ASAP and going to speak to the LA tomorrow. Any suggestions on questions for the LA?

Again, thanks for any help.

franklee

At least your LL had the manners to tell you about this, many just go out of contact.

Is he being made bankrupt or has the property been repossessed as your title says? If it's been repossessed then you would have seen a letter to the occupier about it, unless you haven't lived there very long. Always read letters addressed to the occupier!

Will he tell you how long the mortgage arrears are? As he used to live there did he switch to a BTL mortgage, get consent to let on a residential mortgage or keep a residential mortgage without consent to let? This will affect how you are treated see:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/repossession_by_a_landlords_lender
http://freelegalweb.org/6116/2010/10/guidance-on-tenant-mortgage-protection/

As for your looking to move, are you able to serve notice? That is are you on a periodic tenancy or near the end of a fixed term? If you're tied into a fixed term for some months to come then do get (written) permission to leave otherwise it's most likely you will still have to pay rent till the end of the fixed term.

Your contract is with the landlord, the agent just acts on his behalf.

trfcgirl06

Thanks for your reply.
He's a decent bloke - he's just going through hard times. Happens to us all.

He was quite cagey and just said, 'It's being taken off me'. So I guess that's a question for the LA.
Haven't seen any letters to the occupier that I can think of - recently anyway. We've lived here for a year and a half. When I get home I'll look through our pile of letters that we keep aside for the LL. Grr, I feel so stupid! I'm pretty sure I may have chucked 'The Occupier' letters out before. Lesson learnt!

He didn't tell us the mortgage arrears, or type of mortgage. I've got a sneaking suspicion he hasn't got consent to let. More questions for LA.
We're on a fixed term contract that ends in November - so we will give official notice if we do leave soon. Thanks for that.

We're jusy trying the LA to get some information, if they don't know then we'll go back to the LL. He was on the verge of tears the other night so don't want to bombard him just yet.

Thanks for that though. It's definitely one of those things that happens to you that you never think will, and then kick yourself for not being prepared!

princeofpounds

Yes, you rent through the landlord. The agent is just a facilitator for the landlord, you have no legal relationship with them even though they handle everything for him.

A property does not get 'registered' as rented at the land registry.

What happens will depend upon if the landlord had permission to let from his lender or not.

If he did, the lender is bound to respect your tenancy. It is as if you landlord changed, but otherwise nothing changes (although it can be hard dealing with a mortgage company not set up to manage properties). They will probably want you out at the end of the tenancy fixed period, though not necessarily.

If he did not, then your tenancy ends the moment his possession is passed onto the lender. You do not have to leave until a court order is made and then enforced though. However, under new legislation if you can apply to the court handling the repossession you can get 2 months notice. It would normally take several weeks after that to get bailiffs in, so don't panic, you will have lots of time to find a new place.

The key is not to pay rent to someone who is not your landlord or if the tenancy has disappeared. So don't pay any more rent, set it aside, until you know your true obligations.

You should ask your landlord if possession has already been awarded to the lender or not. If it has, ring up the court to confirm. If not, they will eventually seek possession and you will get several weeks notice of court, so keep paying your rent as normal until that stage as your tenancy is still in place.

If possible, you might wish to ask your landlord (assuming he still has possession) to agree to surrender of the tenancy as soon as you find somewhere new. This avoids the hassle of being uncertain when your current tenancy, and associated obligations, ends before committing to a new place. Get it in writing if he agrees. Or, as pointed out, serve notice if you can.

Having been through the process, you are lucky the landlord is in contact with you. If they don't speak to you, the lender won't citing 'data protection', the lawyers won't citing 'client confidentiality' and the courts won't as you aren't a party to the case, unless you actually turn up in person and ask to be heard.

princeofpounds

We're on a fixed term contract that ends in November - so we will give official notice if we do leave soon. Thanks for that.

Remember it is not necessary to give notice to leave at the end of your fixed term, although it can't hurt to give it.

trfcgirl06

Thanks to the both of you.

I've come on here asking for advice, but I obviously don't know all the information - so it makes it's difficult to advise me! I do appreciate the help though.

We're just trying to take this as a positive thing - a bit of a kick up the bum to move jobs (to ones we might like) and maybe area. To start fresh.

I'll try and find out all that information, and will be back for more advice probs!

franklee

You can leave at the end of the fixed term without giving notice but I'd give a little notice even if only a few days so there can be no dispute you were out on time.

Normally if you don't leave by the end of the fixed term then you are on a periodic tenancy and need to give a minimum one months notice which must end at the end of a period. Unless you get written permission to waive any of this.

Also is your deposit protected in a scheme, you want to know it's safe and maybe worth asking them what happens to the deposit in this case.

If you have missed the occupier letters then you don't know how far along any repossession is so I suggest you find that out. The guidance linked to above should help with this basically you'd need to write to the lender IIRC. I would be asking the landlord more details as he sounds a decent bloke. It may be things haven't got that far yet, hard to tell. I would not trust the LA, they probably won't know the details and are likely to fob you off IMO.

trfcgirl06

Oh yes, our deposit is in a tenacy scheme with the LA. We've learnt from our other renting experience about that!

Think I'm going to write down in bullet point everything I need to find out and then proceed accordingly.

I might take your advice and ring the LL instead. I think you're right. I'm just procrastinating from doing it much like we have been from facing this issue all week. I guess we've just been hoping it'll all go away, or something will turn up! Time to face it though

G51shopaholic

If the property has been repossessed then you'll receive written notice at the property address.

The mortgage company may also choose to have this notice delivered by a court officer so that the delivery is witnessed. This is normally a 7 day notice of reposession.

Worked in Letting for over 7yrs only ever dealt with 1 of these. Bank gave tenants time to move and we ended up getting another one of our landlords to buy the property.

trfcgirl06

I know it's been a while, but I thought I'd update this with what's happened.

Our fixed term tenancy ended on 5th November, so the Letting Agents suggested we go on a month by month contract. We agreed and have been trying to find somehere new ever since, but where we live there's not much going!

Today the Letting Agent rang to warn us that they were sending a letter for one month notice to leave. They also told us there was going to be a court hearing for our LL.

We rang the LL straight away and he confirmed he's gone bankrupt and that is why the house is being repossesed. He won't know fully what's going on until the court hearing in early January. He is in A LOT of mortagage arrears (sounds like he probably remortgaged his house 3 times) and is also in negative equity. He's had a lot of personal problems with looking after his disabled wife - so I really feel for the guy.

We've managed to scrape together a deposit and said we'd consider buying the house. As he's built up so much arrears/negative equity he said he couldn't sell it to us because, it'd have to be well over what the house is worth. He gave us the mortgage company number, so we rang them. They said they couldn't take an offer until they gained possession after the hearing in January and then after a valuation on the property.

We think we're just going to put triple effort into finding somewhere new. The hearing and the end of our tenancy are just too close for comfort. It's a shame, we really like this house and have enjoyed living there, but maybe it's time to move on. We can always put an offer in if it comes up on the market maybe, if it's a reasonable price.

Just one question... Being the time of year it is and how sparse affordable rental properties are in our area. What happens if we can't find anywhere by the time our tenancy is up?

It may be our LL will let us stay on a bit longer. He did say he was serving notice because, he was so unsure as to what was going on, and he didn't want the mortgage company/bailiffs to start bothering us. Hopefully it won't come to that, but who knows.

Thanks everyone.

BitterAndTwisted

If you're on a periodic tenancy (month to month) you are legally entitled to two month's notice, not one. I'd be minded to stick in the property for as long as humanly possible. At the very least until the hearing in January. The mortgage-lender could give you more time to find somewhere else but you should attend the hearing and make your presences known.