Possible repossession of rented house

[lemma1968]

We moved into our rented house in November last year under a 12 month lease.

In March this year we received a letter from solicitors acting for the mortgagees saying that they were taking my landlord to court for repossession of the property. It seems that he had not been paying the mortgage.

We panicked intially, especially when researching the law we found out that we had no leg to stand on as the landlords had not sought the permission of the building society before renting it out, and this BS did not do buy to let mortgages. Had they done, they may well have honoured the lease. Otherwise they do not have to, in fact will not, and their mortgage takes precedence over the lease.

Fortunately, they came to an agreement so proceedings were halted but it i found it frustrating that tenants are credit checked to within an inch of their lives yet landlords can get away with murder.

[nuke em]

Whether your landlord had a valid buy to let mortgage or not is between him & his lender. If YOU have valid AST and are up to date with your monthly rental payments, a lender is going to find it very hard to evict you. You , as a tenant have rights, how are you to know whether a landlord has a valid BTL mortgage when you signed your tenancy agreement. If reposession had of been granted you just contine to pay your monthly rental to the lender, who as mortgagee in possession will have to asume the existing AST . Doubt if the lender will ever extend the lease, but its not unkown especially if they cant sell the property an dthe rental they receive is a high % yield compared to the property's value

[Esio Trot]

Originally Posted by nuke em

Whether your landlord had a valid buy to let mortgage or not is between him & his lender. If YOU have valid AST and are up to date with your monthly rental payments, a lender is going to find it very hard to evict you ...

Sadly this is not the case, as it is one of the few occasions where a tenancy agreement is not treated as paramount.

The mortgage company has a legal charge on the property. The mortgage company will be repossessing the property, not evicting the tenants or owner-occupiers. When they are granted possession, the order will say "the dwelling house known as 20 Petunia Gardens ..." The court bailiffs will give possession to the mortgage company which in practice means they will evict all residents. It does not matter what status they hold.

It is rare for them to accept rent and allow the tenancy to continue. I have tried this for clients on occasions, and have always failed.