Am currently involved in situation with a loan from Together whereby they have served default notice and appointed LPA Receivers - who are trying to push towards auction of commercial property that loan is secured on, which obviously we do not want to do. Both the Lender and the LPA are not helpful in any way and the LPA is not acting on behalf of the Borrower given that the arrears is £1,600 and the figure the LPA-R wants is just short of £4k, and the Lender is charging another £2k for appointing him! Statement of account lists various charges such as 'Property Company Management Charges £xxx Professional Costs £xxx (this was followed 5 days later by exactly the same item - and amount!) I asked for an explanation of what these were for and proof of 'work' carried out when I know nothing has been done, Together stated that 'the charges are explained'. Eventually I have discovered that the LPA-R is actually the Property Management Company which is nice, and completely undisclosed by the Lender or the LPA-R who in theory is supposed to be working on the borrowers behalf. On the statement of account, for the 27 months the account has been running, the charges on the account actually total circa £6,500 - with the receivers costs on top, so a five figure sum. I was wondering if anybody else had encountered similar situation with regard to Together and their LPA-R of choice Waterfold, and if there was any advice as to how to deal with them and obviously challenge the 'plucked from thin air' fees?

I’d heard how awkward banks can be with Power Of Attorney so I was pleasantly surprised when I registered the one I hold for my aunt’s financial affairs. It took about 45 minutes and seemed to be plain sailing. Sadly all downhill from then on. I’d set up internet banking for her a couple of years ago when she could still deal with a fair bit on her own and would help her do anything she found confusing. We’ve bumbled along - if she needed things I’d tend to order them and get paid back directly from her account to mine. More recently as she’s gone into care and lost capacity I realised I would have to register this LPA with the bank and take over completely. It’s been an utter disaster. The bank deregistered her internet banking but left something on the system saying she is still registered. Try and log in and it says no longer registered, try and re- register and it says already registered. I have been every which way round with advisors in various departments and they all end up saying it is a fault with their system. This ‘fault’ has the added effect that they cannot verify my details. Her account cannot be accessed by her as I stupidly answered ‘no’ when asked if she has capacity and cannot be accessed by me because their systems cannot verify me for some reason. Luckily I set up her online accounts with national savings etc. so could open a new bank account for her money to be paid into as necessary to pay care home fees and expenses. It doesn't sit well with me that this has to be in my name and I have to spend a great deal of time ensuring funds do not build up in an account which could (should) be subject to close scrutiny because it isn’t my money. When she first asked for my help nearly all her money was in the bank. Thank goodness I suggested she move most of it or we would now be totally screwed. I now wish I’d never tried to do the right thing by registering that LPA with the bank. I could happily have continued logging into her online account to pay her expenses even though she was no longer really approving each transaction as had previously been the case. There are still small amounts which get paid into that Lloyd’s account occasionally and I don’t have enough detail to get them changed. None of it can be accessed until the day I can walk in there with a death certificate and her will. With the benefit of hindsight I would suggest anyone thinking of setting up an LPA goes for the option of adding their proposed attorney as a joint account holder on their bank accounts instead. It could save an awful lot of time and stress.

The appointment of a receiver(s) can be effectively challenged by scrutinising the terms and conditions of the mortgage and the contents and form of letter or deed of appointment. The appointment document must be executed in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions, which may include any or all of the following: The Law of Property Act 1925 s109(1) – Must be under ‘his’ hand The Companies Act 2006 s44 – Execution of documents - Hilmi & Associates Ltd v 20 Pembridge Villas Freehold Ltd [2010] EWCA Civ 31 The Law of Property Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1989 s1 – If made by deed of appointment, although even if the appointment is not affective as a deed it may still be affective as ‘under his hand’ In practice this means that the letter of appointment must be signed in accordance the Companies Act 2006 s.44 and be signed either by: Two authorised signatories A director in the presence of a witness, who attests the signature By a person authorise to execute documents on behalf of the company under a power of attorney , in accordance the Power of Attorney Act 1971 If the letter of appointment is not properly executed the appointment is void and the ‘lender’ and any receiver(s) acting under the appointment are liable for damages. The next thing to check is whether the appointment is in accordance with the mortgage deed, for example if the appointment document appoints two receivers to act jointly and severally, but the mortgage only allows for the appointment of one or more receivers and does not stipulate that they may act jointly and severally then the appointment is deemed ineffective and void. The principle that the Lender is obliged to appoint receivers in accordance with the Mortgage is accepted and applied by the courts throughout the common law world. The Bank purports to appoint Receiver(s) without the aid of the courts in pursuant to its contractual rights under the Mortgage with the Receiver's authority being derived directly from the Mortgage. Therefore the receiver has to be appointed in strict compliance with the terms of the contract between the parties (mortgagee and the mortgagor). Since the receiver's authority is derived from the mortgage under which he is appointed, an appointment is not valid unless it is made in accordance with the terms of that mortgage. This principle has been recognised by the leading commentators (Receivers and Administrators, Kerr & Hunter; and The Law of Private Companies (3rd Ed, Courtney). Lynch-Fannon Corporate Insolvency and Rescue (2nd ed.) has noted that "the penalty for non-compliance with the formalities for the appointment of the receiver is that such appointment is void". She also observed that non-compliance with formalities of appointment amounts to an abuse of process. In Wrights Hardware v. Evans (1988) 13 A.C.L.R. 631 the Supreme Court of Western Australia, the deed of charge authorised the Chargee under clause 4.3 to “appoint in writing any person to be a receiver or receiver and manager ... of the mortgaged premises" and under clause 4.4 "in addition ... appoint in writing any person to be an additional receiver or receiver manager" who had “full powers and authority to exercise all or any part of the powers expressed to be conferred on a receiver appointed...". The Chargee had in fact appointed the defendants “jointly and severally to be receivers and managers" of the plaintiff. The plaintiff sought interlocutory relief restraining the defendants from acting as receivers and managers on the basis that the appointment was invalid, there being no power in the charge to appoint receivers and managers jointly and severally. The defendant argued that the proper construction of the charge authorised the appointment of joint and several receivers and managers or, in the alternative, the appointment was nevertheless valid insofar as it authorised the defendants to act jointly. The Supreme Court of Western Australia held that the relevant clauses could not have the meaning contended for by the defendants and granted the injunction. Franklyn J. emphasised the importance that the terms of the debenture be complied with by stating: "I am satisfied that the relevant law applying to the appointment of a receiver or receiver and manager, and receivers or receivers and managers pursuant to the charge is as follows: 1. The manner in which a receiver is to be appointed is prescribed by the debenture deed, in this case the charge, and must be strictly followed…” I am aware that many mortgagees are appointing two receivers to act jointly and severally, when in fact the terms of the mortgage do not permit the appointment of receivers to act jointly and severally; any such appointment is void. If the receivers appointment is void, then the receiver(s) are trespassers and liable to damages for trespassers and if they have sold your property they are liable for conversion and/or trespass with conversion. The lender may also be vicariously liable for trespassers and conversion, and liable for breach of contract. Even if the letter of appointment is valid, receive(s) will routinely act outside of the scope of their powers, and as such commit acts of trespass. Unless the power of the receiver(s) are extended by the terms of the mortgage, the extent of the powers of the receiver(s) are limited to those derived from the LPA 1925 s.109(3) – (8). This means that unless the powers of the receiver(s) have been extended the receiver(s) may not: Grant tenancies, or leases Accept the surrender of tenancies or leases Bring possession proceedings unless it is in relation to rent Market or sell the property Although under s109(3) mortgagee may delegate powers to the receiver(s), on my reading, the mortgagee can only delegate its own powers to the receivers and cannot delegate the powers of the mortgagees and this would make the receiver the agent of the mortgagee. So unless the receiver(s) powers have been extended by the terms of the mortgage the extent of the receiver’s powers as the agent of the mortgagor are limited to those stipulated in the LPA 1925 s.109(3) – (8). If the receiver(s) exercise any power that is delegated by the mortgagee, then the receiver becomes the agent of the mortgagee, and the mortgagee becomes a mortgagee in possession.

Hi All, My property has been handed to an LPA reciever and I am a bit confused as I keep getting conflicting information from the lender and the reciever. They 'took it' last Wed. I still haven't had a written notice from either receiver or lender. The first I knew, I was contacted by my tenant who said someone had been round. The lender said that I had to pay all arears (£725) and 3 months in advance (£645) and fees (£1200) and ALL the charges ever placed on the mortgage (£3k+). They also kindly gave me 5 days to do so or the fees were going up another £800. They originally said that if I paid that, they would take it back. They have since said that if I pay that amount they will 'consider' taking it back. On Friday they said that I didn't need to pay it all in one go but the fees would go up. Today they have said it needs to be a lump sum. I can't pay it. They want 5K by tomorrow or goes up to 6K. They wont accept installments, just a lump sum. I have tried Stepchange, CAB, CLA and one more I can't remeber the name of! None of them have been able to help. I had to explain what an LPA reciever was to Stepchange. I am at a bit of a loss. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks K

Morning All, A few days ago i received a letter from a company claiming to be the LPA receivers of a property i am currently renting. They enclosed a deed of appointment from August last year and instructions not to pay my landlord but instead make rent payments to them directly as well as sending them a copy of my tenancy agreement. I've had no instruction from my landlord whatsoever. Any advice on how i can validate their claim or how to correspond with them in general, all seems very dubious to me. Thanks Mike

Hi, hope admin don't mind but I am looking for others like myself who have been screwed over by Natwest/RBS. I moved some of my properties to them and took out a 5 year loan facility with them in 2007 on the understanding that they would renew the loan as long as I was a good customer & paid my dues. I did pay my dues & never missed a payment but after the banking crisis they decided they didn't want to have "buy to let properties" on their books any more & demanded all the money back, including the further loans that I had taken out over a 15 year term. As banks weren't lending at that time I was unable to repay the money so Natwest appointed LPA receivers. This never went to court as they use "the law of property act 1925" a very interesting read if you have time. I have been battling with Natwest ever since & have spent a small fortune on solicitors & barristers. Please see my other posts for the early part of my story. Unfortunately I cant post the rest of my story at the moment but I will as soon as I can. The main thing I need to do is find others like myself so please contact me, we may be able to help each other. Thanks in advance.

Hi having just found the forum we are very grateful for any help or advice regarding our position. Having been with Allied Irish bank for the mortgage on our property they simply wouldn't allow us to go on an intrest only mortgage for any length of time and wanted capital and repayment this resulted in arrears. The property was rented out unofficially with the banks knowledge of course but they didn't have a buy to let product available so would not change the mortgage. Anyway the property is now in arrears and probably in around 200k of negative equity and we spoke on the phone with the bank who kindly suggested they appoint an lpa receiver!!!! he has since lost the tenants , changed the locks on the house and tried to sell the property leaving an outstanding balance of 200k without our consent . He is demanding that we remove all belongings from the property for insurance purposes if we don't comply he will remove them and place in storage for us. The kitchen is very expensive gagenau etc and when i emailed regarding removal of the appliances he demanded we seek legal advice as we weren't to touch anything bar furniture etc however we believe that we can take washing machine, dryer, wine fridge , steam oven regular size and dishwasher drawers (not built in) but must leave the appliances that have wooden kitchen matching doors (built in) hob , hot cold filter tap (cut into granite) and expensive light fittings?? having told him of our intention he wants a copy of our legal advice to pass onto his solicitor however i got the advice in conversation with a solicitor and citizens advice and have no copies to give him !! please any advice would be really helpful no matter how small!!

Admin if you have to merge my posts pease can this be the main one as it has a more relevant title to my problem. LPA Receivers have taken over my properties with no court order & no agreement from me. 2 of the properties are empty & the receivers are doing nothing about it, how would I stand if I were to go ahead & let the properties with full knowlege of the problem to the tennants?

Hello Caggers, I'm trying to help a friend who has asked me for advice but I'm completely stumped. In fact I'm not even sure I'm posting this in the correct section. Friend has/had a bridging loan with Lancashire on a commercial property which was let out as an art shop. The intention was to switch to another lender but then there was the crash and she stayed with Lancashire longer than she thought. A year or so later the Tenant becomes unreliable with rent and in the end Lancashire appoint a LPA Receiver. LPA Receiver seems really friendly and states he is working for her and will take the rent and manage the property until the arrears are cleared (the rent is about 33% in excess of the monthly payment), Friend is reassured and doesn't question it. Then last week she receives a letter stating that the property has been sold! That's it. No notice of sale. No letters or calls stating their intentions. There is some money due to her but I feel she will have been gouged by 1001 people for surveys, commissions and charges. She's waiting to see how much she will get and hopefully a breakdown of charges. Any advice?

This is my first but I have followed and read others post with interest. Please forgive me if I have posted in the wrong place as there seem to be many different forums that would be suitable. I am desparate for some advice from anyone who has similar experiences. I will try and keep it as brief as I can. In 2010 we bought a small retail business. We took at a secured loan for £145K to buy the business and the business premises. Lloyds put the first charge on the business premises, but as there was a shortfall, there was a second charge on our residential home. The business did not perform as well as the previous owners suggested - but that's another story! Then the recession really hit us, a supermarket opened nearby etc etc. We therefore decided to close the business in November 2012. We have been in contact with our Lloyds business manager throughout and were told that a different department would be in touch. We were told that we could not rent out the premises or sell until we heard back from Lloyds therefore the property has stood empty. The letter from Lloyds says they will consider a repayment plan, a lump sum or will consider any plans we put forward. If we do not respond in 14 days they will seek to sell the business premises and our home. We really don't know what to do or how to handle it. Things aren't helped by the fact that the letter is dated 18 February and didn't arrive here until 25th - so when do our 14 days begin. Also we have tried contacting the person who is handling it and left messages - they don't ring back ! Naturally we are desparate to hang on to our home as we have three small children. Please don't anyone think that we do not accept our responsibility for paying back what we borrowed - we absolutely do but we just don't know what approach to take with the bank. We think we are going to ask if we can try and sell the business premises ourselves which should pay off £80-£100K of the debt - are they likely to let us do that. Also there will naturally by a short fall of around £65-45K - will they make us sell our home. We have around £90K equity in the house. Oh, and naturally they are charging us a ridiculous amount of interest each month which is crippling us. In the early stages of the business decline our business manager indicated that we may be able to go on a payment plan to cover the shortfall however, we are already on a debt management plan to pay off a few suppliers that we owed, we have no savings, my husband is working but we have very little left to live on. Does anyone think that they would consider deferring any action against our home as long as we made a token payment each month until things improve. Any help or opinions would be welcome. We are, like so many others out there, are absolutely desperate. The whole thing is having a terrible effect on our family. I have spoken to Business Debt Helpline who had some good points to make, tried CAB but can't get an appointment and can't get through on the phone. A side to this, while we had the business we incurred ridiculous bank charges due to bounced DD's/Cheques etc. I have read on here that these charges may be reclaimable. Last trading year our charges were over £4K should we persue Lloyds for getting some of these charges back or will that just create an even worse situation as we owe them so much. Sorry this is so very long, thanks to anyone who has read and thanks to anyone who responds.

Hi Firstly, really sorry as I have posted this elsewhere but I think I may have not posted in the right place. We are desperate for some help and could do with some advice urgently. There are a few points. We had a loan for approx. £150K with Lloyds. This was to buy a business and business premises. The business failed and Lloyds have now appointed an LPA to sell the premises (they did give us 3 months to sell/rent ourselves but we had no interest at all). We had a letter from the LPA on 9th August. It said nothing really, no introduction as to who they were or what their role was. All they wanted was the keys to the premises. We contacted them and told them to stop any action as we were seeking legal advice. We also wanted to make sure that our loan agreement actually stated that Lloyds could could appoint an LPA (we had intended getting a SAR for all the loan agreement documents). We have since had a letter saying that they were changing the locks and going in to drain the boiler etc and do a survey. This, if the letter is correct, will by now have been done. How can they do this ?? I have read other Caggers saying that you shouldn't communicate with LPA's but we just don't know what our rights and what we should or shouldn't do. It would seem now though it may be too late and that they have changed the locks - how can they do that! Another thing, more importantly is this, the property is a downstairs retail outlet and an upstairs self contained residential flat. Both premises have their own address. The loan security was a first charge on the business premises and a second charge on our home. On looking at the loan agreement documents we have noticed that the first charge is named as the flat address and the shop address isn't mentioned in the agreement at all. I have this morning been trying to get an appointment with a solicitor to see if this is something we could use to stop the LPA but I can't find anyone locally that deals with this sort of thing. We really don't know what to do. A colleague has said we should contact the bank immediately and tell them to put a stop on the LPA's actions as there are errors in the loan agreement, but is that the right thing to do ?? We are sick of feeling so helpless against these people who seem to just rail road over people like us. Any advice would really be appreciated.

Hi could someone please explain the difference between LPA & Fixed Charge Receivers? Have recieved a letter from the LPA receivers solicitor refering to the fixed charge receivers. Have ust read that LPA receivers are incorrectly refered to as fixed charge receivers but it doesnt explain the difference. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

Hello I have just joined this website and would be very grateful of some assistance and advice please. I have 2 properties with mortgages with NRAM, they have notified me they are going to "help me" by appointing an LPA receiver. I have read previously on this site that it is possible to apply for a court order to prevent this using N244. Does anyone have any experience of this please? Any ideas on success rates. I have communicated constantly with NRAM and find there seems to be a change of strategy and they want the mortgages off their books at any cost to either party even though there is substantial equity in one of the properties. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Hi, I went bankrupt just over 12 months ago and at the time had 15 buy to let properties. I have recently been discharged from bankruptcy and have been approached by the local council regarding council tax for the 12 remaining properties which haven’t been sold and are still in the hands of the mortgage lenders LPA receivers. I have spoken with The Insolvency Service who was appointed trustees who say the properties were placed in the hands of the lenders LPA receivers prior to going bankrupt and that The Insolvency Service has no authority over them. This means that the LPA receivers can continue to rent the properties out for as long as they like and when a void occurs I still have to pick up the tab. Can you clarify if this is correct as my view is that if a court has ruled that The Insolvency Service has the authority to dispose of all my assets and liabilities, then these 12 properties should have also been included?

Hi My LL's lender has had LPA R appointed. I believe I understand most of how this works but have 2 specific questions I can't find an answer for. Does the LPA R have the legal right to chase me for a small amount of rent arrears dating from before they took over? It's less than a month, so fairly insignificant in the bigger picture. I would argue the debt resides with the LL but I'm not sure if it transfers to the LPA R. I would argue I only pay the LPA R rent as from the date they took over pro rata. Thoughts? My deposit is with the DPS and is protected but has the original LA as the "other half". Not had any dealings with the LA since the 1st fixed 6 month AST ran out, been dealing with the LL direct, but we never bothered to transfer it. The LPA R now want me to assign them as the other half now - they say they need my permission. Sounds all a bit hooky to me. Advice? Thanks

I am not sure if this has been covered on the forum before but I have been alerted to the prospect that although my disabled husband would want me to hold LPA for him the bank may not allow me to register and use due to the fact that I was bankrupt in the past and do not have a good credit history...mainly due to job loss. He trusts no one else and really wants me to do this, he has a number of conditions that are worsening so we would like to start acting on this asap.