Advice regarding possession notice

WispyMisty

My son has received a Notice that his home is at risk under Section 2(4) of the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010 from TLT LLP acting on behalf of a lending company, Wave Lending, stating they applied for a warrant for possession on 20/10/2023 . The letter was addressed to the 'Tenant(s) / Occupier(s)'.

I can see there have been other threads on this but none are current and I would like some advice if possible.

As the tenants are my son and his wife with a 15 month old child initially he is trying to contact the legal firm on the number they provided but has been on the telephone waiting for over an hour - the phone is unanswered and there is no message either.  He does have an email address for the company, if he asked for the 2 month extension by email, now he has failed to reach them by telephone, is it likely to still be granted? I know that is what I feel he should do, but I don't want him to take any actions that will cause issues later down the line.

Next, it appears they are being treated as unauthorised tenants, they only moved in February, and the property had been listed by an agent who also arranged the agreement (Landlord lives overseas) I should imagine the agent would have a duty of care to ensure any lender had given consent to a tenancy agreement? If they didn't take this step has my son any recourse/protection there? He obviously believed everything was above board.

I will have more questions I'm sure when I know more and I think we will be visiting CAB if/when we can get an appointment, but I thought it prudent to ask for some initial thoughts in the meantime.

Thanks in advance

*Edited to add - he eventually got through but the person on the phone told him not to ask for the extension yet - but to wait until the possession order has been granted?  That doesn't sound correct to me?

loubel

I suggest reading about the repossession process:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/possession_and_eviction/mortgage_possession_proceedings/possession_proceedings_for_tenants_of_mortgagors
Unfortunately, if the landlord did not have consent to let the property then your son is going to have to move out.

WispyMisty

loubel said:

I suggest reading about the repossession process:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/possession_and_eviction/mortgage_possession_proceedings/possession_proceedings_for_tenants_of_mortgagors
Unfortunately, if the landlord did not have consent to let the property then your son is going to have to move out.

Thank you loubel, that is what we fear will have to happen. My son is now trying to contact Shelter as CAB don't have a housing officer in our area.

We are also trying to get the initial agent to advice whether they checked for Lender Consent when they listed the property.

WispyMisty

They have just checked and there tenancy is an Assured Shorthold Tenancy - I believe this should give them more rights? 

silvercar

WispyMisty said:

They have just checked and there tenancy is an Assured Shorthold Tenancy - I believe this should give them more rights? 

Most tenancies are generally ASTs. It gives you rights with the landlord. If the landlord let with the mortgage company's consent, then the repossession will mean that the mortgage lender becomes your new landlord and things continue as before - though expect that the lender won't extend the tenancy beyond the fixed term. If the landlord didn't have consent to let or a BTL mortgage than the mortgage company can try to evict the tenants. In this case it is important to notify the lender of your presence. Worth telling them that under the law (
Guidance to the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010)
 they know they have some protection:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a79e10de5274a684690cc16/1729687.pdf

WispyMisty

silvercar said:

WispyMisty said:

They have just checked and there tenancy is an Assured Shorthold Tenancy - I believe this should give them more rights? 

Most tenancies are generally ASTs. It gives you rights with the landlord. If the landlord let with the mortgage company's consent, then the repossession will mean that the mortgage lender becomes your new landlord and things continue as before - though expect that the lender won't extend the tenancy beyond the fixed term. If the landlord didn't have consent to let or a BTL mortgage than the mortgage company can try to evict the tenants. In this case it is important to notify the lender of your presence. Worth telling them that under the law (
Guidance to the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010)
 they know they have some protection:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a79e10de5274a684690cc16/1729687.pdf

Thank you so much for that - really appreciate it

propertyrental

Read:

Post 6: Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?

bouicca21

This happened to me about 10  years ago. In my case the landlord eventually stumped up enough money to get the repossession put on hold. Had this not occurred I knew what to do court-wise through detailed advice from Shelter.  Majorly stressful, I got out of there asap.

The lender didn't seem bothered about the unauthorised tenancy. 

WispyMisty

propertyrental said:

Read:

Post 6: Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?

Thank you - I will show this to my son 

WispyMisty

bouicca21 said:

This happened to me about 10  years ago. In my case the landlord eventually stumped up enough money to get the repossession put on hold. Had this not occurred I knew what to do court-wise through detailed advice from Shelter.  Majorly stressful, I got out of there asap.

The lender didn't seem bothered about the unauthorised tenancy. 

Thanks for your reply, I'm glad your situation was resolved, it is as you say very stressful 

WispyMisty

I have an update to this situation - the landlord (who lives abroad) is quoting a lot of US and Aus case law saying that the mortgage deed is not legal so he just stopped paying !

He has told my son not to worry, he's protected blah blah blah - and yet as to be expected there have now been 2 Court notices - a Warrant of Control and an Eviction Notice dated for 7th December.

My son has now got them to suspend that eviction notice until end of Jan due to their young child and Christmas looming but the lender has said they don't want the rent paying to them (presumably so they don't legally become the lender's tenants?) The lender also says there was no permission given for the tenancy.

Does this mean that the lender now owns the property? Or is there still a chance for this to be overturned and the landlord retain the property?

So - rent ? What to do with it?  I'm minded for it to be put aside in a savings pot labelled 'rent' in case it gets asked for at a future date - but obviously don't want this to cause them any future problems.

I'd appreciate any advice please