Landlord's property being repossessed! What can we do?!?

agrinnall

thesaint wrote: »

Who is holding the deposit?

Already answered, post #3.

Thrugelmir

franklee wrote: »

The letting agent should have checked the landlord has consent to let, go back and ask them if they did. If they say they did ask for proof. If not you may have a claim against them or at least a complaint.

Sounds if this of no relevance in this instance. The LL was already in default prior to the letting one assumes due to mortgage arrears.

G_M

Guest101 wrote: »

You should be safe for the initial contract period (6 or 12 months usually).

This is NOT necessarily true.

As Pixie suggested above, read:

* Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?

Aka_Breeno

Thanks guys, I'll try to aswer everything as best as possible.

I rang Shoosmiths today during work.

•the ladlord HASNT a buy-to-let mortgage or even a Consent-to-let. (Shoosmiths were very surprised when i called as they didnt realise he had sublet!) But they said to send them in writing the situation and a copy of our tenancy agreement and they will arrange for us to stay up to 3 months in orderto find another suitable home.

•tenancy agreement was for 6 months (not sure if it even valid anymore!)

•Deposit (£480) is held by the DPS Scheme. Anybody know if i can get it released early??

•Landlord still not answering any calls (suprise suprise! )

Aka_Breeno

What about thd letting agents? Surely they should of checked that he had a Buyto Let mortgage before agreeing to let??

Yorkie1

Aka_Breeno wrote: »

Thanks guys, I'll try to aswer everything as best as possible.

I rang Shoosmiths today during work.

•the ladlord HASNT a buy-to-let mortgage or even a Consent-to-let. (Shoosmiths were very surprised when i called as they didnt realise he had sublet!) But they said to send them in writing the situation and a copy of our tenancy agreement and they will arrange for us to stay up to 3 months in orderto find another suitable home.

•tenancy agreement was for 6 months (not sure if it even valid anymore!)

Until a court order for repossession is granted, the existing tenancy remains in force. Shoosmiths don't have authority to release you from the tenancy; only the LL could agree to release you from it early.

•Deposit (£480) is held by the DPS Scheme. Anybody know if i can get it released early??

No, you can't. The tenancy remains in existence for the time being.

•Landlord still not answering any calls (suprise suprise! )

See above.

As others have said, make sure you attend the repossession hearing once you have notice of it so you know what's going on and the court knows you exist. Don't rely on Shoosmiths to represent your position for you.

You will be entitled to 2 months to find a new property if the court does grant possession to the mortgage company.

jjlandlord

Forget about whether the agent should have checked. It is a distraction at this point.

The letter to the occupier you have received is standard procedure. You must reply to make yourself known to the court and request a delay.
While you are not entitled to any, the court has the power to grant one not exceeding 2 months.

Sammydog

I was in a similar position a few years ago with a house in London I shared with some friends. We got a letter basically saying the house was being repossessed due to mortgage arrears and to call right away. The solicitor then gave us instructions to start paying the rent to someone else (mortgage company?).


It must have all been sorted out eventually as we got another letter about a month or two later telling us to resume paying the rent to the LL and we heard nothing more about it. I guess he sorted the arrears before it went to court.


I'm guessing in our case, the LL had proper authority to let the house though as they seemed to know it had tenants.

Marktheshark

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Your contract is with the landlord not the letting agency. You have no contract with the letting agency they are simply employed by the landlord to act as his agent.

In a Tri party arrangement the agent is employed by both parties.
Hence why they "charge" you for the service they provide.
You should have a claim against this agent.

The agent will wriggle and throw their hands up, they can not charge you for a service and then claim they do not work for you.

franklee

Yorkie1 wrote: " You will be entitled to 2 months to find a new property if the court does grant possession to the mortgage company.

Not entitled, the court has discretion to assess.

"(5) When considering whether to exercise its powers under this section, the court must have regard to—
(a) the circumstances of the tenant, and
(b) if there is an outstanding breach by the tenant of a term of the unauthorised tenancy—
(i) the nature of that breach, and
(ii) whether the tenant might reasonably be expected to have avoided breaching that term or to have remedied the breach."

The OP has stopped paying rent "At the moment the next rent payment is due tomorrow but I've stopped it for two reasons" which is a breach of the tenancy agreement to me albeit an understandable one in the circumstances. It would look better if the OP writes to the address for the serving of notices explaining he has put the rent aside until it becomes clear who he should pay it to but by breaching the agreement the OP risks his request for a delay being refused..

Agree with the rest of your post, OP do note as Yorkie1 points out, Shoosmiths don't have authority to release you from the tenancy.