Landlord title deed and contract name differ, is this some kind of fraud

bevvie0768

Hi
we have rented a house for 3 months, catalogue of repairs need doing including broken boiler.
found out from letting agent landlord has no form of paying and no landlord insurance.
we have been getting her post constantly and highlighted our suspicions when bank and mortgage post was coming in a different name to whats on the tenancy contract.
so I got a copy of the land registry and she owns the property in a different name.
is this legal??
we feel there is some kind of fraud going on whether it be benefit or HMRC.
I just want to know what the letting agents checks should be on the landlord

davidmcn

How different is the name? It's hardly uncommon for people to change their surname, and not essential to use the same name for all purposes.

martindow

Are you wanting to stay in this house with its broken boiler?

I would concentrate on finding somewhere better so you can give notice.

Afterwards you may be inclined to let the local authority know about a rental house without heating, contact HMRC etc. LLs who are deficient in one area are likely to be omitting to pay tax, get gas safety checks and so on.

theartfullodger

You do not have to own a property to be the landlord: Entirely possible that owner (Mrs A) has granted a tenancy to your landlord (Mrs which permits her to rent the place out to you. If so Mrs B would be Mrs A's tenant, but your landlord.

But suggest you inform HMRC - someone is on the fiddle...

Pixie5740

What artful said. The landlord doesn't have to be the person named on the deeds of the property.

For those telling the OP to move, they've only been there 3 months so it's likely that contractually they have at least another 3 months left before they can leave without penalty. 3 months is a long time to go without a working boiler, especially over winter. Furthermore, as this tenancy started after 1st Oct 2015 the OP is protected from a revenge eviction.

How would the letting agent know that the landlord really has no money and no insurance in place? Hard cheese if the landlord is skint, he still has a legal obligation for repairs to heating and hot water in your home.

Read Shelter's guide, "If a landlord refuses to do repairs" and G_M's guide to Repairing Obligations.

FBaby

A catalogue of repairs in only 3 months? Didn't you notice these when you moved in? What's wrong with the boiler?

Are you on a 6 months or longer ast? Name difference: could have got married since however if you are receiving mortgage information it means they haven't changed their details with the bank and therefore likely they didn't declare they were renting. You can report them to the bank but you should be prepared to be told to leave by the end of term and for them to do nothing at all in the meantime.

G_M

bevvie0768 wrote: »

Hi
we have rented a house for 3 months,

do you mean your tenancy is for 3 months, or it's 3 months since the start of the tenancy?

Regarding repairing issues, read the links in pixie's post above.

Regarding the 'fraud', you have no proof and no concrete evidence. As Artful says, a landlord does not have to be the property owner. Plus people change their names- my sister owns a property in her maiden name, uses her married name on her bank acounts etc, but is still known by her pupils as 'Miss (maiden name)'.

Nothing wrong with any of that.

You have a valid tenancy agreement with your landlord. Pay your rent, deal with the repairs, and ignore what the LL may or may not be doing elsewhere in his life.