Landlady Defaults twice on her morgage. Advice needed.

Clh87

Hi,

It's a long one so thanks & sorry in advance!

I moved into my private let property in December 2011, 8 months later received a letter to occupier, opened it only to find my families home was going to be repossessed by the landladys mortgage company. 6000.00 was owed. I called the lenders immediately who informed me that they knew nothing of a tenant living at the property. I called the LL who told me I was wrong for opening the post & I should have called her before calling them. Perhaps I should have but I panicked! Long story short she went to court she made a payment arrangement.

We had a brief meeting in a coffee shop where she told me what had gone on at court. The lenders asked who the young lady was that called stating she paid rent every month, my landlady apparently told them I & my son where family simply staying with her & I panic called them. I wasn't happy about this but what could I do? I asked her to contact her lenders to tell them she had remnants in there, she said she tried but her arrears meant it was to much of a risk to them.

Since then things seemed to be fine, until yesterday another letter, this time addressed to her, I opened it by mistake with my own mail. Only to find she has defaulted on the arrangement set in court in 2012. They want the full balance of the arrears which is now just over 4k or the house will be repossessed. This time I called her first, apologised for opening her mail by mistake & explained what the letter said. After a few stumbled words she said she paid the mortgage yesterday (not the full arrears just the usual monthly figure). She said I have no need to worry & that because she's paid the morgage now I'll hear nothing off it.

My question is, am I to believe her? Yes she may have paid her monthly figure, but the lenders wanted the entire 4.2K in the letter, are they now going to be happy that she's paid the 400 odd monthly balance albeit 2 weeks late & leave it at that?

Next question is where would we stand if we chose to withold the rent until I get proof she's paid it & the lenders are happy to continue her mortgage agreement? If it comes to us being evicted & having no leg to stand on in regards to the property being repossessed I don't just have 2k to move out instantly. I don't have that now or we have moved in 2012 when this all started.

I found my house on right move we went through TLA so I thought everything would be well above board with regards to insurances ect, our deposit being secured the property being properly looked after but since we've been here we've had quite a lot of uproar & upset with worry. The rent is what's stoping us from saving to move to our next property.

Any advice appreciated.

Many Thanks.

silvercar

Next question is where would we stand if we chose to withold the rent until I get proof she's paid it & the lenders are happy to continue her mortgage agreement?

In default. If you don't pay the rent you risk eviction.

If it comes to us being evicted & having no leg to stand on in regards to the property being repossessed I don't just have 2k to move out instantly.

The protection of tenants law gives you rights from being evicted.

Notify the lenders IN WRITING that you are tenants living in the property. If you have it send a copy of the tenancy agreement. If the landlady is repossessed you have the right to 2 months notice. If the property is repossessed, the mortgage lender will notify you to start paying the rent to them and not the landlord.

Have you renewed your original tenancy or is it now periodic?

Do you have details of your deposit protection? It should be the case that the deposit is safely protected irrespective of the mortgage situation.

Clh87

Hi, thanks for you're response.

It states on my agreement (written up by the TLA) that my deposit will be secured, however I've never received any details of where, or how. I've NEVER spoken to the company. An inventory was never made. My contract was only 6 months, I requested a new contract be written up in the June 2012 & my LL said she would just keep it rolling over. We've lived here 3 years in December.

Would I not get into trouble going to the lenders & informing them that I am a tenant here? She has made it perfectly clear that she isn't supposed to be renting the property out, I knew this after her court hearing in aug 2012 & I still stayed. (Through lack of funds more than anything else)

Thanks Again.

G_M

Clh87 wrote: »

It states on my agreement (written up by the TLA) that my deposit will be secured, however I've never received any details of where, or how.
So check. Now. With each of the Deposits schemes.
I've NEVER spoken to the company. An inventory was never made.
That's a problem for the landlady, not you.
My contract was only 6 months, I requested a new contract be written up in the June 2012 & my LL said she would just keep it rolling over. We've lived here 3 years in December.
So you have a Statutory Peiodic Tenancy

Would I not get into trouble going to the lenders & informing them that I am a tenant here?

You risk getting a S21 Notice and being evicted.

.

Now read:

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

moneyistooshorttomention

You've received some good advice.

I definitely echo checking as to where your deposit is being held urgently. Thankfully, I've not been a tenant for many a long year, but I would definitely expect some sort of official receipt in my hands for how much my deposit was/what rate of interest I was getting/where it was being held and that it was safeguarded from that improvident landlady of yours getting her hands on it and stealing it quite frankly.

In your position, I would make sure I hung onto enough rent owing to her to match that deposit unless and until I had proof my deposit was safe and she couldn't get at it. I would be telling her exactly what I was doing and that the rent would be paid up to date once I had proof my deposit was safe.

I have to say, my distinct suspicion is that your deposit ISNT safe at all and its in her "hot little hands" personally and has been blown, along with her own money. Hence why I would be doing this..in order to protect my deposit from being stolen by her.

moneyistooshorttomention

NB; I've just clicked on to that link given for deposit schemes in previous post and it didn't work.

OP needs to be given direct links, I think, to those deposit schemes so that she can start contacting them urgently.

(NB; OP = you need to keep proof of your checks with these deposit schemes. I would think it would help prove that, as far as you are concerned, that that is where your deposit money is. More to the point - it will help provide you with proof that none of them are holding your deposit - which is what I suspect is actually the case).

EDIT: I've just found:

https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/overview

and

https://www.tds.gb.com/

Game_Over

I'd suggest you start looking for somewhere else to live ... pronto!

bouicca21

Gosh it weren't for the fact that you actually met your LL I'd have you down as living in my old rental. I left it in December 2011 under very similar circumstances, but my LL was in Australia and the face to face stuff was dealt with by her charming but equally dodgy brother.

In my case it seems that the arrears were long standing. She had an arrangement to pay but didn't. I had already taken steps to ensure my deposit was protected, so that was one bit of stress removed. I'd also noted that much of her post was from debt collecting agencies. She insisted all would be well, and tbh I think in the end it was but I couldn't cope with the threat (and the lady in the upstairs flat said the previous tenants had also faced the same thing, so it was likely to happen again). Under the circumstances I just found somewhere else and moved.

I did tell Santander's lawyers that I was living there as a tenant, but even though she did not have a btl mortgage they did not seem bothered.

Kynthia

You were completely right to open post addressed to 'the occupier' as it is why the lender sends out a letter addressed like this instead of addressed to the borrower. As your LL has defaulted again it is clear that your home is at risk. The fact that you aren't in a fixed term but on a SPT (rolling tenancy) is an advantage to you as it means you are free to find somewhere else to live and give your one rental period notice. It is incredibly stressful for those trapped in a fixed term.

As you are free to leave, you can choose whether to look for somewhere else now or see whether the property starts to get repossessed (but why wait when you can take the time to find the right place now). Therefore at the moment your main concern is your deposit. Check that it is protected with all of the schemes. If it isn't then there's a problem as clearly your money is at risk, as even if you successfully sued the LL for its return and even being awarded up to 3 times its value, if the LL has no money to pay you are unlikely to get anything. Therefore this is the only situation I would suggest deducting the deposit value from your last month's rent (not protected and with good reason to think the LL has no money or assets).

G_M

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

NB; I've just clicked on to that link given for deposit schemes in previous post and it didn't work.

Edited. Thanks for pointing that out.

:kisses3:

mrginge

Clh87 wrote: »

My question is, am I to believe her?

Clearly not, since she's already demomstrated that she is lying to the lender.

Next question is where would we stand if we chose to withold the rent until I get proof she's paid it & the lenders are happy to continue her mortgage agreement?

What's the difference between you not paying your rent and her not paying her mortgage? Not that i'm saying don't do it, just that it puts you on the same moral footing.
In reality you had plenty notice of these problems, so you should have been saving up to move right from day one. If you had then you would have been able to move at a time convenient to you. However, you appear to have buried your head next to hers and hoped the problem would go away. It rarely does with situations like this.

Anyway, in reality if your deposit isn't protected you wont be getting it back and there wont be any point in suing for non-protection. In this case i think your only real option is to find somewhere else, hand your notice in and tell the LL that the deposit is to be used to cover the rent.