Landlord has gone bankrupt just before move-in

VanyaHargreeves

Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, but here's the situation:

We're a group of uni students who have put a deposit down on this house since January. The tenancy was meant to start on Friday (06/09/13), but we got a call from our letting agency today telling us that our landlord had filed for bankruptcy, thus his assets are being seized. They told us that they've never had this happen before so they don't really know what to do, but to not bank on being able to keep the house, and that we should be looking for a new one. Now, this puts us in quite a predicament, as all the halfway decent houses have been taken. I live in an area with a LOT of students (two universities) and one of the unis doesn't even have enough accommodation for first years.


My question is - is there any likelihood that we may still be able to keep the house i.e. our contract passes from the landlord to another person? Our deposits are in deposit schemes, but two of us (myself and one other) have paid our rent upfront because we don't have guarantors. Is it likely that we will get our rent back?

We were only told of this at about 4:40pm today, so didn't have much chance to call people. The letting agency themselves seem at a complete loss on the situation, and I spoke only briefly to the university accommodation office - I will call them again tomorrow. I have also been advised to call the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Any help given will be greatly appreciated, as I'm entirely at a loss for what to do!
Thanks,
Jenny

HappyMJ

If he's got the money and going bankrupt...no...if the agency hasn't passed the rent on then yes the agency should still have it and you get it back. Chance of keeping house...minimal.

kboss2010

I'm sorry to hear that, students often get a raw deal when it comes to unscrupulous landlords, I've had my fair share myself!

If your rent wasn't in a protected scheme (which I suspect it probably wasn't) I doubt you'll get anything back but your deposit.

The first thing I would do is contact your student union advice centre. They can sometimes help with free legal advice (mine did when I had issues with a flatmate who skipped out on a joint tenancy agreement).

Also, have you set up any student possessions insurance yet? If you have then most Endsleigh policies used to come with legal cover for this type of thing.

Which uni are you at if you don't mind me asking?

lemontart

any deposits are supposed to be in scheme to protect them by law. But sadly does not always happen.

As for house that will now be in the hands of the people he had any loans for it with and will no doubt be sold and empty houses sell quicker.

debt_doctor

Hi,

How did you pay for the advance rent?

If it was cash, then sadly you will not see that money again,
But,
If you paid by credit card then make a claim against your credit card company under s75 of the consumer credit act.
or
If you paid by debit card then ask your bank to initiate a 'chargeback' from the landlords bank
You will have to battle a bit (especially chargeback) but both methods should bring your money back.

DD

kboss2010

debt_doctor wrote: »

Hi,

How did you pay for the advance rent?

If it was cash, then sadly you will not see that money again,
But,
If you paid by credit card then make a claim against your credit card company under s75 of the consumer credit act.
or
If you paid by debit card then ask your bank to initiate a 'chargeback' from the landlords bank
You will have to battle a bit (especially chargeback) but both methods should bring your money back.

DD

Great points!

If it's a funds transfer or cheque, it's treated the same as cash so, again, you won't get it back without following the legal process of being added to the (probably long) list of creditors.

Good luck!

VanyaHargreeves

I paid by bank transfer, the letting agents wouldn't take debit or credit card

VanyaHargreeves

kboss2010 wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear that, students often get a raw deal when it comes to unscrupulous landlords, I've had my fair share myself!

If your rent wasn't in a protected scheme (which I suspect it probably wasn't) I doubt you'll get anything back but your deposit.

The first thing I would do is contact your student union advice centre. They can sometimes help with free legal advice (mine did when I had issues with a flatmate who skipped out on a joint tenancy agreement).

Also, have you set up any student possessions insurance yet? If you have then most Endsleigh policies used to come with legal cover for this type of thing.

Which uni are you at if you don't mind me asking?

The uni just advised me to demand all my money back and immediately look for a new place
I have student insurance, I can't remember what company by - I used cover4students, which I believe is a middle man...

And I'm at University of Brighton.

stressed_mummy

I would have thought as you have paid the letting agent and its not them that have gone bust you can claim it all back they are an agent after all

Prothet_of_Doom

stressed_mummy wrote: »

I would have thought as you have paid the letting agent and its not them that have gone bust you can claim it all back they are an agent after all

Contract is with agency, and THEY haven't gone bankrupt. They have a contract with Land Lord, who has failed to deliver the services they are buying from him. That's why they make money by being a middleman.

Most student letting agencies, will be aware of single rooms, in houses where people have failed their exams and won't be coming back, so if you ask them to look at if they can find single places with other groups that will help (A mate's son, has a room he's committed to in Hull, but he's not going back, but thinks he should be able to find a single student to take it on)

lemontart

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

Contract is with agency, and THEY haven't gone bankrupt. They have a contract with Land Lord, who has failed to deliver the services they are buying from him. That's why they make money by being a middleman.

This is only applicable if the agency has not informed the op of the principle in this case the landlords details which they are supposed to do if acting as intermediary - if they have failed to do that then yes they become liable, - learnt this last night from Dom on the beeb.