Bank trying to repossess from LL

stephenni1971

I have been aware for some time now that my landlord has been building up arrears on the mortgage of the house I rent from him.

He has been issues with a notice to quit from the solicitor of the mortgage company. I know that this is the first stage and my understanding is that should ( when ) it goes to court when they agree and issue a possession order I can appeal and obtain two months grace to find another property.

Can anyone confirm if this is correct?

Also I think it is safe to say my deposit is gone... so bearing that in mind I would have thought I could withhold final months rent in lieu - again any comments from those better in the know?

Thanks

gazfocus

Once you gain two months grace, you will be paying the mortgage company the rent so if you intend to withhold any rent in lieu of the deposit I would do it now rather than wait for a possession order.

Werdnal

If your tenancy started after 6 April 2007, your deposit should be protected in a scheme, so should be returned to you when the tenancy ends. Has your LL given you any info concerning deposit protection? If not, in theory you can sue him for 1-3x the deposit value.

As for the repo court hearing, you need to represent yourself, either in person or in writing, to confirm you have a valid tenancy. If the LL has been letting without consent, you must make them aware that you are in residence at or before the court date, which may give you a stay of execution. No good waiting for the repo order to be done and dusted, then saying "Oh don't forget about me!" If you know who is dealing with the LL's case, or who his lender is, make contact with them asap and make your situation known!

dodger1

Have you personally had any correspondence from the Building Society or receivers regarding the property or indeed an S21 notice. I've recently been through this and I had letters from the Building Society and the receivers keeping me up to date.

First of all the receivers appointed a company to take over the LLs responsiblities and I had to then pay the rent to them. The good side to this was my deposit hadn't been protected so the new company then registered my deposit with My Deposits and added the amount to my original LLs mortgage arrears.

After a couple of months I received an S21 giving me about 10 weeks to leave even before any court cases giving me plenty of time to move.

GDB2222

What happens depends on whether the lender was on notice from your landlord that the property was let out. And you cannot know this for sure, I suggest that you assume the worst case scenario. You could find yourself turfed out of the property at quite short notice, particularly if possession proceedings take place without you knowing about them. I would work on that basis, if I were you.

In any case, "when they agree and issue a possession order I can appeal and obtain two months grace to find another property", this is not quite correct. You would have to appear at the possession hearing, and the 2 months is at the discretion of the court. I would not bank on it.

You should know for sure whether your deposit is protected, and how. Have you had all the literature about this from the landlord? If not, I suggest you assume the worst, i.e. that your landlord has not protected the deposit.

One way that you can protect yourself is to start paying the rent monthly in arrears, rather than monthly in advance. It is the same amount of rent, but it means that if you suddenly get turfed out, you are not losing say half a month rent.

In addition, unless you are 100% certain that your deposit is protect it, I would suggest withholding that amount of rent.

HB58

I thought that the law had changed to protect tenants of LLs who were letting without the knowledge/permission of their mortgage lenders?

silvercar

HB58 wrote: »

I thought that the law had changed to protect tenants of LLs who were letting without the knowledge/permission of their mortgage lenders?

It has, see here:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/1729687.pdf

In short:

The Act provides unauthorised tenants with the right to request a delay to eviction of up to two months if their landlord (the mortgage-holder) falls into arrears with their mortgage payments and the lender (the mortgagee) commences possession proceedings. This puts an unauthorised tenant on a level playing field with ‘authorised’ tenants holding an assured shorthold tenancy. It is not intended to grant ‘unauthorised’ tenants any greater rights than they would have if they were ‘authorised’ tenants.

....

A tenant may simply attend the hearing and ask the court to delay the date of the possession in order to enable them to arrange alternative accommodation. The Act gives the court power to delay the date for a period of up to two months. A tenant should bring with them to court any evidence of their tenancy.

G_M

Does your landlord have a Buy to Let mortgage, or Consent to let?

If yes, then the mortgage lender knows you have a tenancy, and has agreed to that tenancy. They have to honour the terms of the tenancy. They will become your landlord.

If that is the case, then the next question is 'what kind of tenancy do you have'?

If a fixed term, then you remain secure for however long the fixed term is. If Periodic, then the mortgage lender will have to give you a S21 Notice, just like any other landlord, before they can evict you. See here for how they do that.

However, if the tenancy is NOT authorised by the mortgage lender (no BTL/CTL) then when repossessing from the landlord they can apply for eviction at the same time.

The Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010 then allows you to request 2 months protection, but you MUST attend the hearing so that you can ask the judge for this. Look out for letters addressed to "The Occupier".

As said above, your deposit should be safely protected in a registered scheme - is it? Check with each of the 3 schemes. Deposits (Rules on deposit protection)

bouicca21

This is exactly what happened to me - and I did get an eviction notice from the court.

Ring Shelter they give excellent advice on how to go about getting the 2 month extension and offering an occupation fee to the mortgage company.

Check your deposit is protected and if it isn't then write to the landlord demanding this happen and pointing out the penalty for failure to do so.

If you move out take photos and an inventory to prove the condition you left it in, so that there can't be any argument about damage.

It may not happen - mortgage companies don't like repossessing. In my case the eviction was rescinded at the 11th hour, but by that time I had found somewhere else anyway.

Most people advised me not to pay the last month's rent but I did. The landlord wouldn't pay my deposit and gave no reason for withholding it. I then went through the deposit protection mediation scheme and got the lot back. It was stressful - but that way I got the whole of the deposit back which was equivalent to 6 weeks' rent rather than 4.