Our landlords not supposed to be renting his house out

[hairykrishna]

Got home yesterday to discover a letter from Woolwich addressed to the 'Occupier'. Informed us that our landlord is breaching his terms and conditions of mortgage, they don't recognise our right to occupy and they reserve the right to take action.

What normally happens next? What's the time line? I'm guessing the normal action is for them to stick him on an inflated buy to let rate rather than immediately demanding full repayment.

We're not super stressed, as we've had an offer accepted on a house and are just waiting for searches etc. We had planned to cross over the tenancy with our new place for a month or two but it's not the end of the world if we can't. Where do we stand in terms of rental contracts and deposits? We rent through an agent and our deposit's in a scheme.

[hairykrishna]

ATG said:

They don't recognise your right to occupancy? Did they actually say that??? Your landlord may have breached the terms of his mortgage, but how on earth do they conclude that that has any effect on the tenancy agreement he signed with you?

As I understand it, because the mortgage he has doesn't allow letting the lender isn't bound by the tenancy agreement he has with us. So they could, in theory, repossess the house and chuck us out with very little notice. I was just wondering if anyone knew how likely this is and how long it would take.

I'm mostly pissed off with the letting agency. Super keen on poking around our stuff every few months but not so hot on checking their clients are legally allowed to let properties.

[hairykrishna]

superlightr said:

FFS lets blame the agents. How about blame the owner ? he is at fault.

The agents terms and conditions will almost certainly get the owner to confirm that they have got permission to let. It will be the owner who has failed in getting this permission.

As other posters have said the Mortgage co will want the owner to pay a fee and or increase the rate they pay. No big shakes. If they want to recover the property then they will issues a s8 notice which generally will require 2 weeks to 2 months notice and a court to agree. Nothing quick will happen and I would guess nothing will happen to affect you. If it does they will write to you.

When we previously let out a house we owned the agent we used wanted proof that we had the right to let it rather than taking our word for it. I had assumed this was standard procedure.

Thanks for the information on times.

[hairykrishna]

Rude-boy said:

Would suggest that you keep powder dry and push on on your purchase. If there are issues with that then you may have to deal with further but if none then focus on that and keep an eye out for any further paperwork.

That is essentially our plan.

Good to hear from people that nothing is likely to happen quickly!

[hairykrishna]

Rangeroverover said:

did you respond to the occupier letter

We phoned up Woolwich but they basically wouldn't talk to us as we're not the customer.

[hairykrishna]

Update to this is that the letting agent has finally spoken to the landlord. He apparently had 'forgotten' to tell his mortgage provider that he was renting the house out. He told them (the agent) that he'll phone up and sort it out. The letting agent still seems genuinely bemused that we'd think that the situation was any kind of a problem.