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watson1312
Posts: 38 Forumite
Hi all, and thanks in advance for reading. Hoping to get some advice from this great forum.
My partner and I have been privately renting our flat for the past 7 years. In that time the property has been managed by 4 different estate agents (the first estate agents were a family company who actually owned the property and so were also our landlord, although we never met them in person) Sadly, the Mother of the family who also ran the business suddenly passed away 2 years after we moved in, hence why the management of the property then passed to another estate agent. In the time that we have been here we have always paid our monthly rent on time and have renewed our tenancy agreement each year at the end of July.
The flat has recently gone into receivership and we have now received letters from the receivers including 'Appointment of LPA Receiver' This is where is gets complicated....We had literally both just signed our new 12 month tenancy agreement on 25th July '18 and returned it to our current Estate Agent to renew for another year, along with making our monthly rent payment for August. The receivership notice was dated 20th July but we didn't receive it or know anything about it until until 26th July when it arrived in the post (but was dated 20th July!) The timing of it all is terrible!
The receivers have told us that none of this is valid and that they need to make arrangements with us to come and do evaluations/gas inspections etc. (I've only managed to do a little bit of research on this matter before turning to this forum for advice, but I think that the fact that they acknowledge that we are tenants here is a positive in itself?)
We're confused as to what our rights as tenants here are and whether it's within the law for the receivers to deem our most recent renewal tennancy void??
We've been in touch with our current estate agent who we've always had a good relationship with and they've basically said that it's nothing to do with them now and that all future matters go through the receivers.
The receivers are stating that we're now on a rolling monthly contract.
Just don't know where we stand here.....?
Does anyone have any experience of this? or can anyone advise in any way? Any advice would be massively appreciated.
My partner and I have been privately renting our flat for the past 7 years. In that time the property has been managed by 4 different estate agents (the first estate agents were a family company who actually owned the property and so were also our landlord, although we never met them in person) Sadly, the Mother of the family who also ran the business suddenly passed away 2 years after we moved in, hence why the management of the property then passed to another estate agent. In the time that we have been here we have always paid our monthly rent on time and have renewed our tenancy agreement each year at the end of July.
The flat has recently gone into receivership and we have now received letters from the receivers including 'Appointment of LPA Receiver' This is where is gets complicated....We had literally both just signed our new 12 month tenancy agreement on 25th July '18 and returned it to our current Estate Agent to renew for another year, along with making our monthly rent payment for August. The receivership notice was dated 20th July but we didn't receive it or know anything about it until until 26th July when it arrived in the post (but was dated 20th July!) The timing of it all is terrible!
The receivers have told us that none of this is valid and that they need to make arrangements with us to come and do evaluations/gas inspections etc. (I've only managed to do a little bit of research on this matter before turning to this forum for advice, but I think that the fact that they acknowledge that we are tenants here is a positive in itself?)
We're confused as to what our rights as tenants here are and whether it's within the law for the receivers to deem our most recent renewal tennancy void??
We've been in touch with our current estate agent who we've always had a good relationship with and they've basically said that it's nothing to do with them now and that all future matters go through the receivers.
The receivers are stating that we're now on a rolling monthly contract.
Just don't know where we stand here.....?
Does anyone have any experience of this? or can anyone advise in any way? Any advice would be massively appreciated.
0
Comments
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Read:
* Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?
(applies equally to bankruptcy /receivership)
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Thanks for this info. Interesting.
Is it worth disputing that we didn't actually receive the notice from the receivers until after we had signed the new tenancy agreement?0 -
watson1312 wrote: »Is it worth disputing that we didn't actually receive the notice from the receivers until after we had signed the new tenancy agreement?
I doubt that's relevant.
What will be important is the date that the LL went into receivership, not the date that you found out about it.0 -
The key question is actually who authorised the renewal?0
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The current Estate agency authorised the renewal, obviously before they were informed of the repossession too.0
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Should make for an interesting discussion.watson1312 wrote: »The current Estate agency authorised the renewal, obviously before they were informed of the repossession too.
Right here's the bottom line.
You will need to move at some point, the receivers will need to liquidate assets to pay creditors.
That will take time, arguing over 6 months probably isn't worth while (you've got atleast 6 months there even if eviction started today).
Best thing to do is negotiate with the receivers for a mutual surrender once you have somewhere new to live.
Also check that they have your deposit (or was it in the custodial scheme?)0 -
From a legal perspective, I suspect that
* the agent signed the new contract with you on behalf of the original landlord
* thus it was the original landlord's 'instruction' that would have made the contract valid
* however, at the time the contract was signed, the landlord was no longer the owner, thus his instruction to the agent was null and void
* the new landlord (Receivers) had given the agent no instruction to sign, and had no legal relationship with them
The contract is, I believe, therefore null and void.
However I'm not a lawyer, nor have any personal experience of this precise scenario, so I might be wrong.
Plus of course courts can sometimes be unpredictable, so if this contract was ever determined in court, the judge might go either way!0 -
I agree, I think it would get even more complicated if the OP was charged for this renewal.From a legal perspective, I suspect that
* the agent signed the new contract with you on behalf of the original landlord
* thus it was the original landlord's 'instruction' that would have made the contract valid
* however, at the time the contract was signed, the landlord was no longer the owner, thus his instruction to the agent was null and void
* the new landlord (Receivers) had given the agent no instruction to sign, and had no legal relationship with them
The contract is, I believe, therefore null and void.
However I'm not a lawyer, nor have any personal experience of this precise scenario, so I might be wrong.
Plus of course courts can sometimes be unpredictable, so if this contract was ever determined in court, the judge might go either way!
I tend to side with your interpretation that it is ultimately null and void; despite being made in good faith0 -
Have you stopped paying the old agency? You should now be paying the receiver's agent.It's nothing , not nothink.0
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Our last payment was made on 25th July to our Estate Agency as per usual, before we knew of the repossession. We are aware that future payments need to be paid to the receivers.
As for the money we have just paid, we've been in touch with the estate agency and they took their fee and passed the remainder onto the LL (this was before they knew anything of the repossession too)0
This discussion has been closed.
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