Rented house to be repossed tommorow

[ramouth]

Not sure where i stand here. I have been renting a property through an agent for the last 7 months. I had a call from the agent today to say that the landlord has not been paying their bills and the property is going to be repossed tommorow. I gave notice about three weeks ago and am due to move out at the weekend anyway but am not in a possition to move all my belongings and furniture tonight. Can the balifs take possesion of my things? If they change the locks (which the agent thought they might) will i be able to get my things after? also if they change the locks where do i sleep? can i charge them for b&b? any advice would be appreciated.

 

r

[Joa]

Have you seen any official documents or did you just speak to the agents today?

You ned to find out which bailiffs are involved; private? court appointed?

Then you need to call them straight away and explain your situation.

Do contact the bailiffs first and then let it rip into the agents and the landlord for not letting you know earlier.

 

This is very helpful reading: Shelter: Repossession by a landlord's lender

 

Edit: I have assumed that this is a mortgage related repossession. I may be of course wrong. Speak to the agents and ask to be told exactly what is going on and then tell us. Not paying "their bills" doesn't somehow sound like a mortgage provider's repossession though...

[ramouth]

just in case anyone finds themselves in this situation i thought i would say what happened to us.

 

It tunrs out that we had been sent a letter on the 30th Jan addressed to Our landlord with "and any other occupants" under his name. I had seen the landlords name and put the letter onto the pile of post to be forwarded (we always had a lot of post for them).

 

If i had read this letter i would have been able to go to the court and apply to be added as a party to the action and then apply for it to be delayed. Unfortunately it was too late when i went to the court yesterday at 9 because the eviction was at 10.

 

Tennant do not have any automatic right to stay at the property because the tennancy agreement is a contract with the landlord and once the property is repossesed it belongs to someone else.

 

We were very lucky because our letting agents were extreamly helpfull and arranged for some removal me to come and move our things (we stayed up all night packing). They also offered to temporalily put us into a house they had on their books which was currently empty but we were able to go into our own house (we bought it about a month ago but it is currently being renovated was not really ready). If the agents had not done this i don't think we would have been able to get a removal firm at such short notice and everythingg would have been seized by the balifs. As it was we left our surfboards and barbeque in the garden to collect later and the reposesion people wanted to lock these into the house and keep them. In the end the agents took these and put them into their office for us to collect later.

 

I can't beleive that tennants have so few rights in this situation. If the agents hadn't called us and told us about the eviction we would have been at work and would have come back to find that we couldn't get into the house and potentially no longer owned any of our posesions - scary thought.

 

Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else, always open letters with "and any other occupier " on even if they have anyone elses name on.

 

x r

[clavileno]

Start lobbying your MPs to amend legislation to re-instate proper security of tenure for tenants!

[JOSH_IOU]

A tenant has a right of a peaceful occupancy not the licensee.

 

Further If you payed a deposit were you informed 14 days after you entered the property the deposit was registered in a deposit protection scheme by the landlord? If not the landlord is breaking the law and you can not be evicted.

 

The landlord has the duty to perform health and safety checks on the property believe it or not this lies under the health and safety at work act. Ok this is your house but the landlord is self employed renting out the house which he is a licensed owner.

 

http://england.shelter.org.uk/files/seealsodocs/21333/HA%20leaflet%2Epdf

[Joa]

What are you on about Josh? Did you mean to post this somewhere else? Your post is completely irrelevant and has nothing to do with OP's issue. Your advice about being evicted and the TDS is quite out of place.

I just don't want any future readers to get an idea that "quiet enjoyment" or not adhering to rules about TDS can be of help at all, if the house is being repossessed by the landlord's lender.

[chidren5]

please can someone help me,

ive been renting the property im in since december 2007 and ive just found out that my lanlord has never paid his mortgage since ive been here. the property has now been repossed but i didnt know he has just given me 2months notice to quite (unsure why ).i have 5children and no where to go we where ment to leave the property on the 19th aug 2008.

ive spoke to cab and they have said i can take him to court for my money back and comp aswell.

 

the other thing is my landlord has sold the property on the 18th aug 2008 can he do this i thought it belongs back to the morgage company now.

 

can anyone help me

[BADGER 69]

please can someone help me,

ive been renting the property im in since december 2007 and ive just found out that my lanlord has never paid his mortgage since ive been here. the property has now been repossed but i didnt know he has just given me 2months notice to quite (unsure why ). i have 5children and no where to go we where ment to leave the property on the 19th aug 2008.

ive spoke to cab and they have said i can take him to court for my money back and comp aswell.

 

the other thing is my landlord has sold the property on the 18th aug 2008 can he do this i thought it belongs back to the morgage company now.

 

can anyone help me[/quote ]

 

If the bank,or who ever, has not yet started legal proceedings for repossession the land lord is within his rights to sell the property.

If the mortgage company has already taken possession, he has no rights to sell without the express authority of the mortgage company. Unfortunately, tenants have very few rights in a situation like this. Moreover, it will depend upon whether the land lord is made bankrupt or not. That could happen if the amount he received for the property does not cover the mortgage and/or if he has insufficient resources to pay them. If he is made bankrupt there would be very little point in suing him as you would be right down the bottom of the pile of creditors.

[surfaceagentx20]

When a mortgagee (lender) brings proceedings for the recovery of possession of mortgaged residential property, the lender MUST SEND a notice to the property addressed 'to the occupiers' at least 14 days before the date fixed for the hearing of the claim.

 

The notice MUST

(a) state that a possession claim for the property has started;

(b) show the name and address of the claimant, the defendant and the court which issued the claim form; and

© give details of the hearing.

 

If you did not receive such a notice there was a failure on the part of the lender to obtain the possession order properly and you would be entitled to apply to the court to have the possession order set aside.

 

You are additionally entitled to receive notice of an intention to enforce a possession order by warrant of eviction. If you did not receive such a notice that was a failure on the part of the court.

 

If the eviction has been carried out without compliance with either of the above, the eviction may be classed as irregular. The failure might even amount to an offence within the meaning of The Protection from Eviction Act 1977 s1(3).

 

Whether or not you would now be entitled to apply to the court for the property to be restored to you very much depends on whether you are absolutely certain you did not receive any of these notices. If for example the notice was addressed to you and the landlord in the one envelope (as would appear to have been the case with the OP) that would not suffice.

 

The notice from the lender has to be filed at court. I would check with the court to see it is fully compliant before applying to the court for the property to be restored to you.

 

Further, if in truth your landlord completed the sale of the house at any time prior to the eviction, that sale will or ought to have (if the buyer had notice of the mortgage) resulted in the discharge of the mortgage upon the transfer of the house from the landlord to the new owner. Mortgage discharged = no right to possession.

 

If the property was sold without first discharging the unpaid mortgage, the new owner takes the property subject to the unpaid mortgage.

 

Further still, on becoming the new owner, the new owner becomes your new landlord. Your first landlord has just become your ex-landlord

 

If the new owner became your new landlord, your new landlord owed you the duty to ensure your undisturbed occupation of it. Your eviction from it would give rise to a right to sue the new owner.

 

If you can provide more information about this shocking incident, any documents which you received, how you came to know what you know and from whom, I may be able to better understand your position and beef up any rights you may have.

 

x20

Edited August 21, 2008 by surfaceagentx20