Thanks everyone, will be considering a house move at the end of the current tennancy......

Hello, for the last year we have been paying our landlords mortgage direct to the Mortgage Company. This was because the LL was in huge financial difficulties and although we were paying the rent on time, other creditors were claiming the monies from the account before the mortgage company could claim it and hence the LL had substantial mortgage arrears. To avert eviction / reposession of the property, the LL asked us to pay the mortgage company direct (and pay the remaining balance of the rental amount to the LL's personal account). Does this have any legal implications (either positive or negative)? Have we accidently entered into any kind of contract with the mortgage company by doing this? I recently found out that the LL has taken out a second mortgage on the property and is now in arrears on that loan too........ Thanks for any advice.

Hi there, thanks for advice, I'll make some calls. The reason the deposit is being returned to us is because the LL wants to avoid the agency fees (apparently around £400) so has asked us to sign the contract direct with her and not through the agency.

wow really? Then what is the point of the TDS? I thought that was the purpose was to protect tenants deposits?

Hi all, We have renewed our tenancy agreement direct with our current landlord. We moved into the property in Jun 2010. Previously we went through an agency who registered our deposit in the TDS. As the LL wanted to avoid the costs associated with going through the agency he asked us to sign a tenancy contract direct with him this time around. (Which we did.) So the agency are due to refund our deposit (which has been held in TDS for the last year) and then our LL has asked us to pay that money direct to him. Normally I would not have too much of a problem, but during our previous tenancy we became aware that the LL was not paying the mortgage, so now instead of paying the LL, we now pay the mortgage company direct and pay a residual amount to the LL. Im not keen on handing him £2,000 for a deposit and then hoping that he registers it, especially given his current fragile financial position. What can I do, can I register my deposit direct with the TDS? Thanks,

No problem. Many thanks for any advice. Got an email from the LL to say that he has made a payment to the mortgage lender and that they will no longer be applying for the court repossession at the moment. Thats gives us some peace of mind for the moment. He would still like us to pay the mortgage company direct for some reason though and in one way Im happy for this as its then unlikely to be repossessed right (!) but on the other hand, Im not sure why we should be doing this and why the LL is asking us to? I cant understand it really...... Thanks again for any help.

Hi All, We signed a 1 year lease with our Landlord in August and in October we got an eviction notice from the County Council Courts stating the property would be repossessed by the mortgage lender within 2 weeks. I contacted the landlord who told me that there was a problem with him "double paying" one month and then not paying the next month and that it would all be cleared up and not to worry. I was obviously fairly sceptical about this story. I contacted the courts to ask why a house would be repossessed for such a technical banking problem and I was told (although I probably should not have been told) that the repossession order was because over £20k was outstanding on the mortgage. So I knew that it had not been paid since well before I even moved in. I also contacted the lender, and they simply said that our landlord was a "well-known" name to them and that this had been going on for a very long time. I let it go as I should not have been told that information and we subsequently received a letter from the courts saying the matter had been resolved. I hoped that this meant that a parent / friend etc had stepped in and paid off the full debt. Last week we received a notice from the buy-to-let mortgage company giving us notice that they intend to apply to the court for a warrant of possession against the property on the 29th March. It also said the law gives certain tenants the right to apply to the lender to ask it not to enforce the order for a period of two months. We have applied for this, I am not sure if we are covered or not and will probably not hear back for a few days. I forwarded this letter to the landlord and asked what was going on. H told me that there was fraud on his bank account which was frozen and hence the mortgage payment had been missed. He also said it would be better if I paid the rent direct to the mortgage company in future months and sent me the bank details of the mortgage lender. I called the estate agent who we got the property through and they were completely not interested. Apparently its not their problem and I need a lawyer (which I cannot afford, especially if I have moving costs coming up). Again, not sure why I paid them almost £500 for a contract and credit checks when its "nothing to do with them". Our situation is that we dont really want to move. It costs a fortune to hire removal vans, pay congestion charges, pay for credit checks, contract fees, days off work etc etc. We like where we live. I think this clouded my judgement and I probably knew back in October that a problem that big would not go away. I dont imagine that the lender will allow us to make mortgage payments. Where do we stand legally if we do this as theretically our contract is with the landlord and we have agreed to pay him monthly in a signed contract. I dont want to be in a situation where I am legally responsible to pay the rent and I have already paid the mortgage direct (!). Would the lender be at risk of entering into a tenancy agreement with us by accepting the mortgage payment from us? At least by paying the mortgage direct I know that the property will not be reposessed. Can i sue for any damages here if we are evicted and the property is repossessed? I cant imagine that the landlord would have much spare cash, but it will cost us quite a bit to move and cancel 12 month contracts we have taken out for broadband, bt lines etc (as we had a 12 month tenancy agreement). As well as pay for new contracts, credit checks, moving costs etc on a new place. I'd like to understand if this is an option open to us. Would anyone recommend us trying to purchase the property direct from the LL? I know he has a portfolio of properties and Im unclear how one default would affect the whole portfolio. If I was the LL I would consider selling one to save the rest for example..... On the other hand, the landlord is not a person I trust tbh.... We are due to make the next months rent payment in 3 days time. So the question is do I: a) not pay as I may be evicted in a couple of weeks and will never see that rent money again (I really dont want to do this as I dont want to be seen to do anything which breaches my contract with the LL). b) pay the rent to the landlord c) pay the rent to the mortgage lender Also, can we walk away from this property and find another place to live or would we then be in breach of our tenancy agreement? What constitutes a breach of contract by the landlord? Are these eviction letters a breach of my right to have "quiet enjoyment of the flat"? The landlord placed almost £2,500 of my money with the TDS, I want that money back so I dont want to be in breach of any contract and lose that money. Also, by asking for the 2 months "stay-of-leave" from the mortgage lender. When does this start? Is it from the day we request it, the day they go to court for repossession, the date the court makes a decision? what happens if we find somewhere else in the meantime, can we leave before the end of the 2 months? Its all very grey and I cant get answers from the mortgage lender or the estate agents and I dare not ask the landlord as he's still claiming everything is fine and its just a banking error (!) Cloud cu-ko-land.... General rant: how come landlords credit check tenants and the estate agents do not credit check the landlords? Our landlord was in default when they signed a contract with us, surely this has to be fraudulent? It feels like an unjust system right now. Any advice appreciated!

Hi all, We went through an estate agents to find a flat. We found one we liked and were asked to pay a "holding deoposit" of £500 which would be non-refundable if we were to pull out of the contract. We agreed, tranfered the cash and then filled out several forms to allow references / credit checks etc. Its has been almost 2 weeks since we handed over the money and we have not heard anything by way of a contract from the estate agents? I called the Credit Cehck company and they have confirmed that we passed everything and this was all returned to the estate agent a few days ago now. I contacted the estate agents and they said that there were 1 or 2 things still outstanding which the LL has to provide them with and this is what is causing the delay. I asked what was outstanding, but they avoided the question and I didn't like to push the issue too much as the lady we are dealing with is a bit abrupt already. We are now in an uncomfotrtable position where we do not have a contract for this flat, and time is ticking before we need to vacate our current flat (we had to serve our notice letter before our current LL would complete the credit check reference form for us). If we pull out of this flat we will lose our "holding deposit" of £500. However, does there not come a point whereby the LL can be classified as having pulled-out of the agreement if they have not provided us with a contract to sign? Can the estate agent and LL just keep us waiting for as long as they see fit or can we do anything to either get a contract drawn up, or get our money back? It seems unfair that they can avaoid paying us our money back whilst at the same time avoid signing a tenancy agreement with us. Any advice appreciated!

Last email on 8th / Aug: Dear Madam, Thank you for your e-mail of 7th August 2008, the contents of which are noted. We simply do not agree that the Tenancy Agreement was brought to an end as, by your own admission, the Tenancy Agreement was a legally binding contract that could not at that point in time be brought to an end. Close scrutiny of the e-mails passing between you and our client clearly show that you had every intention of holding our client to the contract and after taking legal advice our client was made aware that the Tenancy Agreement was in fact binding and had to be honoured. Nowhere in your e-mails is reference made to you seeking alternative accommodation. Consequently, our client has now lost 6 months rental income. We are instructed that our client will be paying you no compensation whatsoever and if you wish to commence legal proceedings, then a counterclaim for our client’s loss of rent will be issued against you and your co-tenant. We are instructed to accept service of legal proceedings. Yours faithfully

Well kind of....... the lawyers came back with a similar response... I'll post it once I get it from my home email. But I get a free lawyer from 1st October so Im waiting until then......

Me too... but I dont want to end up having to pay the 8month of rent.... Thats the only downside, we need to get advice on that before we start legal proceedings..... The actual cost of this is only £150 if the claim is below £3000, is that correct? also, do we have any LBA (I assume Letter Before Action?) examples? I cant find any on Google. Do I need a lawyer to write this? Thanks, M

yeah.... our situation defo HAD changed. Had it not there would be no question that we would have taken the flat.... It was only because we had signed a new contract and were going through the credit check process that we did not..... Also, the lawyers refuse to copy me in on any of this. I have heard nothing except what my flatmate has Cc'd me on in resposes back to them. This is quite strange is it not being as I also signed the joint contract?

So this all hinges on what an "acceptance of breach" is defined as.... If cashing the cheque does this and signing a new tenancy agreement, then we are home free.... (see below) Any advice? What is a breach of Contract? What are the rights of the injured party and the liabilities of the defaulting party? These are some of the main issues raised to an estate agent by his clients. While an estate agent shall not give legal advice to his clients, it is important that he knows the answers to the above questions. A breach of contract occurs when a party to the contract, breaks an obligation imposed on him, by contract. There are two types of breach; one is by repudiation and the other by way of anticipatory breach. Repudiation of a contract takes place when a party to the contract, renounces the contract, makes its performance impossible or fails to perform his obligation under the contract. An Anticipatory breach, takes place when a party, expresses an intention either by word or conduct, before the time for performance of his obligation has arrived, that he does not wish to perform its obligations pursuant to the contract. The innocent party may then accept the breach, discharge the contract and claim damages or seek to affirm the contract. The courts prefer that where damages are sufficient to compensate the innocent party, he should not be allowed to try and affirm the contract, especially if it poses a greater detriment to the defaulting party. Remedies are the means by which the default of one party is redressed. The main forms of remedies available to an injured party are damages, specific performance and injunction. We shall look at each of these remedies individually and explore how they can be applied when a breach takes place in different contractual situations.

I like this bit of law (from Wikipedia): [edit] Anticipatory breach A breach by anticipatory repudiation (or simply anticipatory breach) is an unequivocal indication that the party will not perform when performance is due, or a situation in which future non-performance is inevitable. An anticipatory breach gives the non-breaching party the option to treat such a breach as immediate, and, if repudiatory, to terminate the contract and sue for damages (without waiting for the breach to actually take place).

Hi all, How do I start this battle then? Do I write to the lawyer saying we intend to take this to the Small Claims Court? Any advice appreciated! Thanks, M