My landlord's property has a charge from Laiki (failing Cypriot bank) - problem?

redonion

Just checked the land registry for the flat I'm considering renting. It has a charge that reads "RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered without a written consent signed by the proprietor ... in favour of the Cyprus Popular Bank Limited ...".

So first of all, regardless of which bank it is, is that sort of charge normal for a mortgage, or does it indicate debt repayment problems?

But more, er, topical, if you've been reading the news you'll know what's going on with that bank :eek:

As a tenant, should I care?

Fire_Fox

That is normal for a mortgage. Does the landlord have consent to lease or a BTL mortgage? Ask for evidence of this, see the board stickies if this means nothing to you.

If they do have consent to lease or a BTL mortgage you are protected by the laws of this country, you can't be evicted within the fixed term or at very short notice thereafter. You have to be properly served two months notice, if you choose not to leave you would have to be evicted by a court. If you want a longer let such as a year without a break clause, ask for it many landlords are delighted to have stable tenants.

G_M

It can only affect you if your landlord stops paying his mortgage and the bank repossesses.

Does he have a Buy-To-Let mortgage do you know? Or Consent To Let? Again - only matters in the event of repossession.

Read:

Repossession (What happens if a landlord's mortgage lender repossesses the property?)

redonion

G_M wrote: »

It can only affect you if your landlord stops paying his mortgage and the bank repossesses.

Presumably the is hardly going to encourage them to keep rates low or be lenient when people fall behind, though!

Here's evidence of that, in fact:

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/cyprus-expat-forum-expats-living-cyprus/146820-trouble-laiki-over-mortgage.html

Though they say there that the rate rise is not connected with recent problems because it happened earlier than the last few days, I'm not sure that's true: the problems won't have come as a huge surprise to the bank, after all.

Does he have a Buy-To-Let mortgage do you know? Or Consent To Let? Again - only matters in the event of repossession.

I have reason to think so, yes.

On the other hand, while I've been looking I tried asking landlords about this. Uniformly, none of them were having it. "Feel free to look elsewhere" was the response, in essence. So I gave up on that, and I don't intend to ask this time. The law is an <MSE won't let me post this word, oh dear, how prim>.

abbicory

Officials said senior bondholders in Laiki would be wiped out and those in Bank of Cyprus would have to make a contribution.The effect of this of course was to discourage use of bank accounts and encourage cash transactions. But if central banks are so wedded to their inflation targets that they need to impose negative rates, and banks are so short of profits that they need to charge people for safe deposit and transaction services.

Land_Registry

As Fire Fox states the restriciton is a normal one for a mortgage (a registered charge)
G_M has highlighted an example of when the freehold charge might impact on the leasehold title

The wider issues are not an area Land Registry can specifically advise on but in some cases it is important to consider how and where the actual bank is registered i.e. is the actual company a UK one or registered in Cyprus or another country for example?

A charge in favour of say The Bank of Cyprus (UK) Limited may be protected from events elsewhere, whilst one in favour of The Bank of Cyprus Limited may not. Just something to add to the mix as far as this thread is concerned

redonion

Land_Registry_representative wrote: »

...

I think it's great to see representatives of companies / organisations reply like this.