landlord's defaulted on mortgage..

[Pygmy]

Hello, i need a little bit of advice,

me and my wife have been renting a flat since october 1st (tennancy start date) but just before christmas we recieved a letter (dated dec 21st) from the courts saying my landlords lender was repossessing the flat and we had about 3 weeks untill we would be evicted ( 10th jan @ 11.45am).

luckily we've managed to find oursleves a new place to live which we move into tommorrow, but we've relied heavily on borrowing from my sister (£650 for first mont rent paid back as and when) and a local housing assosiation (£650 deposit paid, but paid back over next 2 years @ £6p/w, then when we leave this property we have a deposit coming back to us)

but i've been told that i can apply to the courts for all rent i've paid to him back if he knew about the possibility of repossession by his mortgage company, is this true...? and how do i go about doing so...? and this webpage implies that we can sue for compensation, assuming he hasn't mortgaged it as a buy to let (something we're not sure about)

as far as i know, it takes more than 3 months for procceedings of repossession to reach the court order stage, which would indicate that he knew that his mortgage wasn't being paid and he risked the propert being repossessed. we also know he has had another property in the area repossessed in november.

we have a tennancy agreement which is signed by ourselves and him, (it appears to be one of these ready made ones where you just add in the names and addresses of the parties)

there's 2 small complications in our tennancy though,

1) we didnt pay any deposit to him as our previous flat is next door and we'd helped him tidy the place up when previous tennants had left (this is noted in the agreement)

2) we didnt pay him full rent for 3 of the 4 rent payments (with his verbal agreement) as the electricity meter (a pre-pay key meter type) had a debt of circa £2200 (from the previous tennant) on it when we moved in and was taking £30 every week from our credit (eg, if we wanted £20 of credit to use for the week, we'd have to top up £50 to get it) although we did pay him on-time each time.

are these going to affect any case we might have...?

[Penfold92]

Hi,

The Law on tennancies and property is long and often grey. I suggest poping down to your local CAB and talking to them. they will have experienced solicitors who will be able to advise you properly on this matter.

Whatever happens hope you get back what you deserve for the hasstle you must have suffered!

Penfold

[21stcentury]

Hi Pgymy,

Unfortunately i think if the landlord is being reposessed, there is very little chance of getting your money back you may have to just put it down to a bad experience.

I hate landlords that do things like this, there is going to be equity in the property when it is reposessed, if you are going to proceed with court action against the landlord then if you will I would suggest you get an attachment order on his property as this is going to be sold so you would get your money back.