Landlord served notice

Tenant Discussion
1

Hello, first time user on here however have read many of the discussions, thanks for a wonderful site.

I am in a bit of a pickle. Sorry in advance for the long post.

Currently live in private rented accommodation with my husband and son. We have been served notice as landlord wants his flat back. We live down south and originally from the north of England. We are looking to move back up north to be closer to family.

We have been looking for private rented houses however due to me having a CCJ landlords are unable to rent to us as the CCJ will invalidate their insurance.
We are also registered with the local council up north and have been registered for a few years, however as everyone knows there are huge waiting lists for council properties. When I bid on properties this week I was position 10-20.

My husband and I both work full time and have some savings, and I am working hard to settle the active CCJ however currently paying this back in instalments. I am under no illusion that having an active ccj will put most landlords off renting to us, especially given that there are lots of people expressing interest with no CCJs.

We have good references from current landlord, work references and some savings.
Unfortunately we cannot get a home owner guarantor however we have been accepted with a guarantor company who would be willing to be our guarantor, however I’d imagine landlords may be wary of accepting this due to their terms and conditions.

Shelter have advised that even though we have been asked to leave that we should stay put until LL gets a court order. I don’t feel comfortable with this as this’ll mean we won’t be able to get a reference from him, and morally I don’t think it’s fair on him to have to go through the expense of this and stress, he’s a nice landlord and I’d feel awful.

My parents back up north have said we can live with them temporarily, however they have a 2 bed house and we would have to sleep in the living room. Our son is autistic and would really struggle with the overcrowded issue however at least we won’t be on the streets.
I have contacted our local council up north who said because we have only been out of town for under a year they can help, and we can still bid for council or HA properties due to our local connection. I have also managed to transfer to a different site with work up north.

The other issue is our current tenancy, the landlord has a shared ownership mortgage with their local housing association and I’m not certain however I’m sure he cannot rent his property out legally. When we moved in he said if there are any problems with the property of the communal areas then to contact him and not the apartment management company.
We received a tenancy agreement however no other documents such as info and where our deposit is being held and right to rent info.

Now I don’t want to make an issue of the above as we do want to return to our home town as soon as possible, and don’t want to prolong staying down south, however if we leave before LL takes court action then the council will see us making ourselves intentionally homeless and won’t help us if we end up living at my parents and being overcrowded.

Thanks for reading this long post.

2

Hi

I have just checked the deposit schemes and i cannot find my deposit in any of the 3 mentioned on this site. It asked me to provide details such as start date of tenancy, postcode and deposit amount.

3

Unfortunately you are in the same boat as many , a ccj is a big no no but if you show you are paying it back and proof of regular rent payments, that will go along way.
As a landlord I am always surprised how many tenants listen to shelter and can’t understand the effect it will have on them staying till the bailiffs arrive.
Just be honest with any landlords but landlords are risk adverse more than ever as we aren’t protected anymore

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Was ruled to be illegal when council advised tenant to wait for eviction: (can’t post link without approval)

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IMG_27251284×2778 249 KB

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Thanks for your reply , I totally understand that’s why I wrote in my original post that I’m under no illusion that the CCJ will make it difficult , especially in the current market where there is a shortage of rentals. I blame the government for driving decent landlords out.

Yes we definitely have good references and proof of paying rent on time or early for the last 15 years +.

7

Clicked reply too soon. I was going to say I find shelters advice terrible! Why put the LL and my family through this.

8

Thanks , that is good to know :slight_smile:

My main question is now about my current tenancy. My deposit doesn’t seem to have been protected and I think my LL may be subletting to us without authority. We have a tenancy agreement and receipt for the deposit, however I suppose none of this really matters as I don’t want to prolong our stay down south and want to move back home as soon as possible.

Would the fact that LL may have rented to us against the terms of the shared ownership mean we have less rights and can be effectively ‘kicked out’ tomorrow ?

9

Why not just have a proper conversation with your landlord and explain the scenario about your plan to move up north and that you just need some extra time.
Sometimes a simple conversation can go along way.
If you have been paying your rent on time and have caused no issues the landlord would be stupid to go down court route unless he has a specific reason to get property back.

2 Likes
10

You would need to deal with landlord and not the management company either way. Your contract is with LL, his with the management company or freeholder

11

I have already spoken to him and he says he really needs to be back by the date specified due to work commitments.
I was posting as I wanted advice on my rights if he is letting to us without authority from the housing association as he is shared ownership.

12

Yes I see that , so far we have had no complaints anyway and we have looked after the property very well .

If the deposit is not protected then isn’t this not legal ?
Also he is letting to us whilst he is shared ownership .

13

I think everyone is missing my point .

If I have a tenancy however he has no authority to sublet this out to me because he is shared ownership , would he still be able to take me to court? This is hypothetically speaking as I would never let it get that far .

My deposit isn’t protected either.

Yes I know I need to find somewhere fast , but I would be interested to know what rights have I got if I am renting a property that the LL shouldn’t be renting out without permission .

14

You keep saying “hypothetical” and you would never let it get that far but let’s be honest if push comes to shove you want to know if he has a leg to stand on in court.
From what you have said he doesn’t. If he hasn’t protected your deposit, or provided you things like gas certificate EPC and so on he won’t win. Also court process is long so even if he starts it can take months. So I think you should be ok for now.

15

[quote=“R6000, post:14, topic:49029”]
keep saying “hypothetical” and you would never let it get that far but let’s be honest if push comes to shove you want to know if he has a leg to stand on in court.
From what you have said he doesn’t. If he hasn’t protected your deposit, or provided you things like gas certificate EPC and so on he won’t win. Also court process is long so even if he starts it can take months. So I think you should be ok for now.
[/quote

Thanks . I said hypothetically because I really do not want to be down south for any longer than I have to be. Just thinking of options.

Thanks again

1 Like
16

No deposit is a fine = up to 3x times deposit amount , you can use smal claims court and be 100% certain he hasn’t.
The contract between the LL and shared ownership is nothing to do with you , in fact it could be more problems for you in the long run.
Ultimately if you do take the LL to court you won’t get a reference and if you wait to get he bailiffs arrive you could end up with court costs as eventually he will get possession and possibly a cjj against you
I would do my best to talk at this stage .

17

The landlord may or may not have consent to let. Either way it wouldnt be an impediment to eviction. He cant use s21 unless he corrects his errors - refund unprotected deposit, serve EPC, GSC, How to Rent. If there was no GSC before you moved in then its likely he can never serve a valid s21 notice.

If he wants the property for himself then he could serve you a s8 ground 1 if you tenancy agreement says this is an option.

Eventually this landlord will evict you. A historic CCJ which youre paying off is one thing. Forcing a landlord to take you to court could be the final nail in your reputation as a tenant. I suggest you speed up your search.

18

Thanks all , very informative . I have no intention of prolonging the stay here and I wouldn’t dream of making it difficult, not just because I want a reference, but because I wouldn’t like this to happen to me. Stress of court action is not nice .
He’s a nice LL and it’s not in my nature to be difficult … either way I’d have to look for somewhere else so it’s just prolonging it in the long run .

I’m definitely trying to search as much as I can .

19

Shelter tell you to stay until a court order? That will look good on a reference check I don t think …Shelter are idiots and part of the problem with that sort of advice ( just like the L A) I notice they never say anything on this site and yet they read some of the posts.

20

Exactly . I’m not that stupid to follow Shelters advice. It’s all well and good to follow their advice but then it leads to a multitude of problems and then your only hope is to ‘get the council to house you’ , and probably have a CCJ following this .

Crazy advice given by so called professional organisations.

21

Which city are you looking in or area?