I have been privately renting a flat for around four years with the landlords live-in brother. The landlord lives abroad.

Wednesday afternoon i had a call from my flatmat (the landlords brother) that the mortgage company had come round and changed the locks and repossessed the flat due to the landlord not keeping up the mortgage.
We had received a letter back in November that there were mortgage arears and they they were threatening to repo. My flatmate called the landlord and said that is was all a misunedertanding and that i would be sorted straight away. Obviously not.

Anyway, the upshot is that all our possessions are in the flat and the mortgage company is being very reticent about letting me back in the flat to get anything. They have said that the bank/lender who has instructed them requires written consent form the borrower before letting me back in the flat. I can longer get hold of the landlord by any means at the mo. All my stuff is in the flat and i’m living on a mates floor.

Know i know i need to speak with the experts on this, but i thought i would see if any one on here had any experience of this sort of thing or advice?

Thanks

T

I should add that it does seem a bit suspect with the landlord/his brother but his brother is completely in the same position as me.

if it were me I’d be very tempted to rent a van, call a locksmith get my stuff and then have the argument about who was right or wrong afterwards.

Go to CAB, I don’t think you cam be evicted by the landlords mortgage company like that, they certainly have no right to hold your belongings.

be interested to know if the landlord had told the mortgage company he was letting. I suspect not.

As per MSP I think you can’t be evicted without ‘due process’ even if the property is repossesed.

I’d get some advice ASAP – you don;t want them suddenly goign in and stripping the place of all your possessions so they can put the house on the market.

Do you have any kind of contents insurance that could be used to get your stuff?

be interested to know if the landlord had told the mortgage company he was letting.

That’s what I was thinking

Rusty Mac. No contents insurance. I have been to CAB who sent me to SHELTER – this was regarding the actual repo. Apparently even though i have a contract its worth nothing if the lender didn’t know about it being let.

Sounds like a crappy situation to be in. I hope you manage to get it sorted ok. I’d be inclined to go the locksmith route and grab my stuff back, but that’s possibly just Internet talk 🙂

Shelter

Moneyfacts

if it were me I’d be very tempted to rent a van, call a locksmith get my stuff and then have the argument about who was right or wrong afterwards.

+1. What happens if the flat gets broken into and your stuff is stolen? You can guarantee everybody concerned would blame everybody else and you would end up seriously out of pocket.

Without due process, you still live there.

Play dumb, you’ve ONLY been locked out so break in and get your stuff.

NB: I am not a lawyer..

Play dumb, you’ve ONLY been locked out so break in and get your stuff.

Dont do this its illegal

You do however have a legal right to reclaim YOUR property and the lender IS acting illegally by not letting you do so, write to them giving a reasonable timescale (2weeks ish) to arrange for you to have access otherwise you will have no choice to sue for your losses.

The thing is a lot of pepple dont want to know that the house belongs to the mortgage comapny until its debt is paid off, no matter who lives there.

Just get the door open and take your stuff, or you could get in and squatt, either way the bailiffs will be round to empty it and then you need to prove tot hem youre the owner of the contents.

2weeks ish

all the blokes possessions, clothes everythign are in there. There’s no way 2 weeks is a ‘reasonable’ timescale.

If I went out to work one day, came home and couldn’t get in and someone said ‘come back in a fortnight, mate, and we’ll see what we can sort out then’ I wouldn’t be saying ‘Ok, fair enough, see you then’.

Thanks for the links Ashley, this looks interesting;

“If your landlord’s mortgage on the property was not a buy-to-let deal, or they didn’t have permission to rent it out by the lender, then you have fewer rights. The lender can take possession of the property and issue a Section 21 immediately, again giving you just two months before you must leave. “

As far as i know i vaen’t seen a Section 21 served to me.

@Hustler. The problem is i do not know who the lender is and the Estate Agent acting on their behalf will not tell me.

Thanks for all the replies by the way.

Just unbeleivable that in this day-and-age something like this can happen.

Also in the letteradvise if the property is cleared b4 you regain your possession you will consider this an act oof theft and appropriate actions will be taken

+1 for just getting in and getting your possesions (nine tenths of the law and all that). Not internet hardman talk, just common sense – perhaps even explain to the neighbours what’s going on so they don’t call the police? And yes, having a locksmith do it would be worth the cash so the place is left secure.

I vote for go around there and get your stuff back. You aren’t stealing it. The worse that can happen is breaking and entering, and you would have to get a very unsympathetic cop for that to go anywhere.

Chances are one of the windows got smashed in the high winds last week, and when you were passing you saw the open window so went in ??

As agents send the letter to the estate agent

Doesn’t sound a nice situation to be in!

+1 for locksmith + van.

I suggest you have a copy of your tenancy agreement to hand, in case a copper does turn up?

As far as i know i vaen’t seen a Section 21 served to me.

@Hustler. The problem is i do not know who the lender is and the Estate Agent acting on their behalf will not tell me.

Try the Landregistry, they hold records of all homes and land and who the mortgage lender is, there is a small fee to pay , buts a good and easy site to use.

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/wps/portal/Property_Search

oH AND BEST OF LUCK

The problem is i do not know who the lender is and the Estate Agent acting on their behalf will not tell me.

You can pay a (small) fee to the land registry to release the mortgage info. It will tell you who the lender is.

The correspondence you and your flatmate received may be the s21 notice. You need to find it/get a copy and get some more advice.

Oh, and don’t take no for an answer. However, just remember that breaking in *may* be a criminal act.

Mate, you need a solicitor pronto.

Stop pi55ing around, get in and get your stuff.

And then do the important thing, find somewhere to live.

Steve Austin on this forum is a shelter employee iirc. I know he’s offered advice to people in your situation before, so would be worth an email. Good luck mate, that’s a rubbish situation to be in. That sequence of events doesn’t seem right to me, hopefully you can get your two months grace sorted.

I’ve been in a similar situation but as a locksmith evicting people.

The mortgage lender has applied for a court order to take possession of the building AND contents to finance the debt. This means YOUR stuff too. It can be sorted out through proper channels but I would advise against the “get a locksmith and a van” comment’s as you’ll be breaking the law. Even if you get a sympathetic copper, he has a duty to arrest you for breaking into a property that the court deems belonging to the mortgage lender, not the landlord.
AFAIK your tenancy agreement means zip with regards to you entering the property without permission from either the courts, the mortgage lender or the estate agent which will be appointed to sell the property.

I know none of the comments get you stuff back but please don’t listen to the idiots that tell you to break in.

Steve Austin is your man in this situation.

Hope your sorted asap.

You need to contact the lender asap and arrange to collect your possessions. you have up to two weeks within which this can happen.

there are other things that could have been done, but as the property has now been reposessed its all a bit late for that. you may want to read the leaflet below fur future reference
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/mortgagerepossessionguidance
You can take a compensation claim out against your landlord, but you have to consider if you will be able to get any money from him. you will possibly want a solicitor for this. not urgent to do this.

I’m happy to answer any further questions, you’ll have to email me.

edit – steve has answered

Thanks once again for all your replies, especially Steve-Austin.

I have just been to meet the agents at the property and they have let me take a couple of bags of stuff but are not being very helpful re; getting in for half a day to fully move. They still refuse to pass on the lender’s details, but have said that they have passed on my details to the lender and they will contact me. But again, no promises or time scales.

I will chase up the land registry search in the interim and try that route. I have no idea how long it takes to get results and time is ticking away. It was last Wednesday evening they changed the locks.

To be honest the last few days have been a blur and very stressful.

Thanks for all the sympathy peoples.

T

If they wont disclose the lender, it seems to me there’s no proof it has been repossessed legally then.

Edit: and what has been offered to show the agent is acting for anyone other than themselves?

I will chase up the land registry search in the interim and try that route. I have no idea how long it takes to get results and time is ticking away. It was last Wednesday evening they changed the locks.

Its almost instant, you pay your 4 quid by card and they send a linky you cut and paste, and up pops the info.

Even i did it first time.

Wow, the land registry website is ‘almost’ a pleasure to use!

Well i found the lender on the property and it’s one that’s North of the Border and not blue blooded.

Any one had recourse to contact them before? Any contacts/colleagues/family inside?

T

“If they wont disclose the lender, it seems to me there’s no proof it has been repossessed legally then.

Edit: and what has been offered to show the agent is acting for anyone other than themselves?”

Fair point! I still have seen no documentation regarding the whole affair. When i was round earlier this afternoon a surveyor turned up! I thought “the cheek!”.

A small part of me would like to follow advice and change the locks and gut the place. Readymix down the plug and toilet, araldite the windows shut (ooh, how satisfying would that be, on triple glazing four floors up?), and wee on all the carpets. That sort of thing.

I’m not really like that tho…

I’d get in, do the minimum damage in the process and remove my stuff. I really wouldn’t trust the system to look out for you. As you’ve said you’ve had no official paperwork etc. How do you it isn’t someone playing a nasty trick on you (not for one minute saying it is).

As long as you don’t trash the place removing your stuff I can’t see it being in either the agents or the lenders intersts in pursuing you. In fact I would have thought the sooner you’re out the way the better for them, their reluctance to help you is probably more down to the slow moving nature of big companies than anything else.

Bottom line is how much do you have to lose if you possesions go vs the likelyhood of any criminal charges being pressed (which at worst is likely to be no more than minor amount of criminal damage).

“Bottom line is how much do you have to lose if you possesions go vs the likelyhood of any criminal charges being pressed (which at worst is likely to be no more than minor amount of criminal damage).”

I guess this is what it boils down to Stumpyjon. I have almost a life time of possesions to lose. 80% of a fair few clothes and shoes (inc. four pairs of spuds), cd’s, books, boxes full of bike bits and toolkits. Probably three thou. to replace but very difficult to replace.

At least i managed to get my Planet X roadie out today, my winter bike is still in the office! (my Mount Vision lives in the FoD before you start wondering what i’m doing on here!)

I’m going to try and get in contact with the lender tomorrow and go from there. I will keep you informed.

Anyway, on the flip-side i’m currently looking for a place to rent in London. Flat/house share whatever! Been in the Camberwell/Peckham area for a few years but work in Kensington & Chelsea so open to offers. Any info gratefully received. I’m house trained, a great cake-maker and trained bike mechanic and plumber.

Cheers.

T