Help-Landlady gone bankrupt!

Fergie73

Personally, I wouldn't pay any more rent until you know exactly where you stand. I'm not sure whether that's good advice or not though, just a personal gut feeling. Try Shelter or the citizen's advice as they'll know the legalities. However, I would want to know from the receivers

1. How long you're likely to be able to stay? Will they be selling immediately? Will they be sending bailiffs around?

2. How high up are you on the creditors list? It may be that there won't be money to return the deposit, and why should you dutifully pay rent if you're unlikely to get the deposit back, and spend the next couple of months showing viewers around or fighting off bailiffs?

If they can give you decent information about these things, then carry on paying the rent to them, but you have the right to find out where you stand and withhold rent until you do, I would think.

NymphFerry

Thank you all for your help and advice - i'll let you know how i get on (hopefully not from my new bus-shelter residence!).

iolanthe07

Personally, I wouldn't pay any more rent until you know exactly where you stand.

I really think this is bad advice from Fergie 73. Your position in any future negotiations with those who are administering the bankruptcy will be greatly weakened if you have withheld rent. You need to be squeaky clean so no one has any excuse to evict you.

Inactive

Fergie73 wrote: »

Personally, I wouldn't pay any more rent until you know exactly where you stand.

Bad advice.

HugoSP

As for the deposit, if your tenancy started after April 2007 then you should be protected by a Deposit Protection Scheme.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TenancyDeposit/index.htm

If you are not then normally you could sue the LL for 3 times your deposit, but this is likely to be a non starter, however, the law might allow you to demand the same from the receiver, with the hope of getting back the original deposit in full.

If your tenancy started before April 2007 then this would not apply.

In any case the receiver have a duty of care to you as a creditor so they MUST at least give you as much information as they can about your deposit.

If your tenancy started before then

macaque_2

silvercar wrote: »

If your landlady has been declared bankrupt she won't be in a position to sell the house. Any equity after the mortgage will belong to the official receiver.

Presumably, the house is going to be sold and the OP will have to leave anyway.

In this situation, shouldn't the OP just withhold rent to cover the lost deposit whilst making arrangements to leave? Or would this make things worse?

firsttimetom

SOme good advice on this thread.

Sadly we will see a lot more of this over the next year. The BTL boom has been 'great' for those looking to make a quick buck, but it leaves the poor tennants with some very bad landlords.

I think we need to see some kind of regulation and not just let anybody be a landlord of a property.

Fergie73

I really think this is bad advice from Fergie 73. Your position in any future negotiations with those who are administering the bankruptcy will be greatly weakened if you have withheld rent. You need to be squeaky clean so no one has any excuse to evict you.

It might well be bad advice - I have no idea about the legalities.

However I do think it's really important to find out exactly where you stand and how far it's gone. Does a tenant have any negotiating rights anyway? As far as I'm aware, if the lender is repossessing and selling the house, the tenant can simply be given a month's notice and if the sale's going through there will presumably be viewers coming round in that month too. In addition, if the landlord is in arrears they may be sending bailiffs. Without fully knowing what position you're in, it's hard to know what would be the best (if not necessarily quite legitimate) thing to do.

If you can negotiate to stay in the place, definitely keep paying rent. But if you're going to be kicked out anyway, and the bankruptcy might mean you then have to fight the liquidators for your deposit back, it makes far more sense to withhold at least a month's rent to cover the deposit. If you don't, you'd face being kicked out, having to look for somewhere new, and not having the deposit back to pay for it.

That's certainly what I'd do, rightly or wrongly. But do get professional advice, and speak to whoever's dealing with it first to find out exactly what the situation is.

epz_2

iolanthe07 wrote: »

I really think this is bad advice from Fergie 73. Your position in any future negotiations with those who are administering the bankruptcy will be greatly weakened if you have withheld rent. You need to be squeaky clean so no one has any excuse to evict you.

no its not, there is not a chance in hell the op will be allowed to remain in the property (sorry about that) as the market for houses with sitting tennants is much smaller and prices lower, the administrator would be negligant if they sold it as such.

the best the op can hope for is to remain there till the end of their lease and hope the deposit or a % of it is returned.

by expaining to the recivers that you are owed a deposit and will withold that ammount of rent the op will get their deposit back and hence be able to rent elsewhere.

im sure others will be allong to hurl personal abuse at me as in another recent thread but i have yet to hear another way to ensure the deposit will be returned which is the main concern.

silvercar

There is a big difference between landlords going bankrupt and property being repossessed. One doesn't automatically lead to the other.

There is also a difference between a lender repossessing a tenanted property where the lender acknowledged the tenants and one on a residential mortgage.

Properties are often sold with tenants in situ; they fetch less money generally but if a lender (in repossession) or an official Receiver is arranging a property sale they will follow the law. This means the tenants are provided for under their existing tenancy, though should expect to be given notice to leave at the end of the tenancy.

Advising tenants to stop paying rent will result in their eviction and could damage their credit rating.