Ending Tenancy and Landlord has changed but we have no contact details...what are our options?

onthemend88

We are completing on our house in the next few weeks and currently live in rental accommodation and need to give our notice. 

Our last tenancy agreement was signed for 12 months in December 2018. In October 2019 our Landlord, who was a joint owner with his brother, contacted us to say that his brother was going through a messy divorce. This meant that the house we live in and several other properties would be taken over by his brother's wife. He continued to say that both he and his brother would no longer have anything to do with the property. We were informed that the brother's wife would be in contact with us in December to introduce herself and get a new tenancy agreement signed. 

December came and went with no contact so in January, I contacted our original Landlord but no calls or messages were going through. We had continued to try to contact him but there was radio silence.  We never had a contact number for his brother. On our tenancy agreement, there was an address of our original Landlord so we sent a letter via recorded delivery to obtain the details of our new Landlord - this was returned to sender as 'no longer at address'. We have continued to try all the contact details we have for our previous Landlord but have had no luck. We have tried looking for him on Facebook, Twitter but there are no profiles that match for him. We do not even know the wife's name to be able to search for her. 

This leaves us in a position, not knowing what to do. What would you suggest we do? We are at a bit of a loss. 

davidmcn

Legally all you need to do is send notice to the last address you had. Practically what you do is a different question, though I expect someone might pay attention when the rent stops coming in. 

onthemend88

davidmcn said:

Legally all you need to do is send notice to the last address you had. Practically what you do is a different question, though I expect someone might pay attention when the rent stops coming in. 

It doesn't feel right but I feel we have exhausted our options. What do I do with the keys? How do we get our deposit back? 

onwards&upwards

Can you do a land registry search to find the wife's name as the owner?

davidmcn

onthemend88 said:

davidmcn said:

Legally all you need to do is send notice to the last address you had. Practically what you do is a different question, though I expect someone might pay attention when the rent stops coming in. 

It doesn't feel right but I feel we have exhausted our options. What do I do with the keys? How do we get our deposit back? 

Assuming it's in one of the protected schemes, I'd hope their procedures default to the tenant getting the deposit back if there is no response from the landlord. But maybe somebody else here knows more.

onthemend88

onwards&upwards said:

Can you do a land registry search to find the wife's name as the owner?

I think I will have to but at £22.50, it's frustrating that I would have to pay this to find out who my landlord is. 

onthemend88

davidmcn said:

Assuming it's in one of the protected schemes, I'd hope their procedures default to the tenant getting the deposit back if there is no response from the landlord. But maybe somebody else here knows more.

It is protected with the DPS. 

davidmcn

onthemend88 said:

onwards&upwards said:

Can you do a land registry search to find the wife's name as the owner?

I think I will have to but at £22.50, it's frustrating that I would have to pay this to find out who my landlord is. 

Where are you getting £22.50 from? Sounds like one of the overpriced scam sites rather than the official one.

Besides, that would only help you if a change in ownership has actually been registered. It may well be that the delay is because the divorce wrangling is still going on.

onthemend88

davidmcn said:

Where are you getting £22.50 from? Sounds like one of the overpriced scam sites rather than the official one.

Besides, that would only help you if a change in ownership has actually been registered. It may well be that the delay is because the divorce wrangling is still going on.

This website https://onlinelandregistry.org.uk/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=AdWords&kw=land%20registry&mt=p&gclid=CjwKCAjwxqX4BRBhEiwAYtJX7YOxm1tGLvT_17wPNDQhWZxAqhZBTZlHftCi813pronSQxZbI_NVNhoCu0IQAvD_BwE

I really wouldn't know if the change in ownership has been registered but I guess this is the only way to find out. 

Madmel

Try this one instead: https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry.  This is a money saving site 

davidmcn

onthemend88 said:

davidmcn said:

Where are you getting £22.50 from? Sounds like one of the overpriced scam sites rather than the official one.

Besides, that would only help you if a change in ownership has actually been registered. It may well be that the delay is because the divorce wrangling is still going on.

This website https://onlinelandregistry.org.uk

"We are a commercial company neither owned by nor affiliated with HM Land Registry or the Government. We are an online service provider that charges an administration fee for our online services."