Thread: Tennents in a house which has a re-possesion order

Me and a couple of friends have been in a rented house for a couple of months now and it's been fine so far until yesterday when we got a letter through saying that the owner/landlord is going to court on the 7th of July for a re-possessing hearing.

I have, of course, immediately notified the letting agency and they have spoken to the landlord. They think that he seems to have resigned himself to losing the house.

Is there anything we can do to keep staying in the house? I've tried to speak to NR but they won't speak with me as i'm not the mortgage holder. I'm trying to contact the CAB for advice, but they're unreachable.

Has anyone ever experienced this sort of thing before? Does anyone have any advice for us? Any help much appreciated

Hi

The same thing has happened to me just recently, I was given 2 weeks notice of the impending eviction as it had already gone to court without my knowledge.

I went to see CAB .. yes, hard to get hold of on the phone! They rang the court for me and were advised that I could apply to be considered in the case. I went to the court, put in the application which cost £35 (non-refundable) and got a hearing date within 2 working days.

For various reasons I ended up cancelling the court hearing but I wont go into that here as it will be the subject of another post!

The way I understand it is the application is to request the court to consider your circumstances in the case. The outcome may be that a repossession/eviction could be delayed to give you (the tenant) more time to find another place to live.

I rather thought I'd be able to remain in the property and pay the rent to the bank but apparently it doesn't work like that. All together it's been (and continues to be) a very bad experience.

Good luck!

There is considerable difficulty here in that unless the mortgage is a Buy To Let mortgage the tenancy is unauthorised, and if the mortgage predates your tenancy then sadly you have no rights at all. However, the Court will at worst make a 28 day possession order so you have at least four weeks from the date of the hearing to find alternative accomodation.

It might be worth checking the date of the mortgage just to ensure it doesn't post date your tenancy.

Mark

I'm no expert but this guy appears to be. It is an interesting piece from February this year, so maybe it is possible new rules have been brought in to ease the plight of tenants in such cases? Anyway he's a lawyer working in debt-courts, and from what he says, I'd be careful in the way a tenant should try and be heard in court. Certainly were I a tenant with no close association to a landlord, I wouldn't want to become susceptible to an order for costs.

From time to time unauthorised tenants of mortgagors will attend a hearing, asking to be joined as defendants so they can be heard on the matter of whether a possession order is made. As the law stands at present you ought not to grant the application (see Britannia Building Society v Earl [1990] 1 WLR 422). However, whilst that case is the authority for the principle, the purpose of this note is to point out that if you accede to the request to make the tenants parties they become susceptible to an order for costs. Emphasis on the final sentence – it is what it is.

Tenants Interrupted Our Daily Debt