Concern with landlord's mortgage

Back2basics

Hello all,

I'm growing concerned that my landlord is not keeping up with his mortgage repayments. It is only a suspicion but I have two questions:

1. Say it gets too far, he hasn't paid and they want to repossess the house - what are my rights? I run my business from home, I have a 3 year old child and my wife will be giving birth to another in less than a month. Furthermore my wife has been suffering with serious and life threatening depression for the last two years and is only just starting to make some inroads into recovery. There is no doubt that moving house will set her right back again. What are our rights? Do we have any?

2. Is there any sort of insurance for tenants that can cover these sorts of eventualities?

Thanks in advance

b2b

Mr_Moo_2

Read this -

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=60088465&postcount=5

And don't panic, yet. Forewarned is forearmed and all that. Read the links embedded in that post too from the ever helpful G_M.

princeofpounds

There is no doubt that moving house will set her right back again

Try not to assume that's an inevitability!

The law was changed recently so you have a bit more protection. If the bank decides to repossess then as long as you attend the court (a letter should come to the house beforehand) then you can request for 2 month's notice from the court.

If your landlord has consent to let from the lender then your tenancy agreement still stay valid with the lender as your landlord. Ask him.

No, no insurance.

The key is not to pay more than 2 months of rent in advance, but you can be pretty sure you will get at least 2 months notice of any changes and probably more.

You can also take control of the situation, if your landlord will co-operate, and request he allows you to surrender the tenancy when you find a new place at the time of your choosing. Get any agreement in writing.

Good luck.

Cissi

I'm very sorry to hear of your situation, and hopefully your suspicion is wrong. In case it isn't, try to get as much information as you can as forewarned is forearmed!

If there is a repossession hearing, you will be notified of this by a "notice to occupier". You must attend this hearing and make yourself known. A key question is whether your LL has permission to let - check out this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1377883 . It's very long but there is a lot of information in the last few pages. If the bank is sending his correspondence to the house that you're renting, then he almost certainly doesn't have consent to let, and you could theoretically be forced to leave with very little notice. Given your family situation you could almost certainly negotiate a few months' grace, but you must attend the hearing.

If your LL does have consent to let, then you can't be given notice until the end of the fixed period of your AST, but the bank could issue a s21 for the end of the current AST (just as your LL could). If you're on a periodic tenancy then an s21 could be issued at any time, giving you two tenancy periods' notice. So at the very least you'll have two months' notice - but yes, if the house is repossessed you could be forced to move eventually. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that!

Edited to say I hadn't seen the other replies posted while I was typing but Mr Moo's link is more useful than the one I posted.

Back2basics

Part of the reason for my suspicion is being hounded by people doing an occupancy check

Back2basics

Thanks everyone for your replies. Despite assurances from my landlord that he will pay the arrears I have received a letter addressed "to the occupier" requesting my tenancy information and it is from the arrears department. They are threatening to commence possession proceedings if I do not provide the information. It is possible that the landlord's payment has crossed over with this letter but I can't take that chance right now.

So do I just provide this information and wait for the outcome?

G_M

Cissi wrote: »

...... A key question is whether your LL has permission to let - check out this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1377883 . It's very long but there is a lot of information in the last few pages.
Edited to say I hadn't seen the other replies posted while I was typing but Mr Moo's link is more useful than the one I posted.

Thanks Cissy,for the recomendation.

I actually think the thread you link to :

a) contains a confusing mix of helpful and unhelpful advice
b) contains inaccurate information, presented as fact (even the initial post in the thread)

I like to think that my own post (linked in Mr Moos post above) is as accurate as it is possible to get (short of writing a legal book) but at least

a) I am open to correction
b) when corrected, I update my posts

and just to get it off my chest - it annoys me that that somewhat unhelpful/inaccurate thread is a sticky, which gives it the impression of being 'authoritative'.

laidbackgjr

Back2basics wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your replies. Despite assurances from my landlord that he will pay the arrears I have received a letter addressed "to the occupier" requesting my tenancy information and it is from the arrears department. They are threatening to commence possession proceedings if I do not provide the information. It is possible that the landlord's payment has crossed over with this letter but I can't take that chance right now.

So do I just provide this information and wait for the outcome?

Yes provide it, if you don't and the bank repose and don't know you exist then it can get much more messy than if you provide the data.