Repossession from landlord's lender

Hi,

I’ve gone back to my flat I’ve been renting privately through openrent and under the door it was served an eviction notice to the current landlord (I am not named) for just over a month’s time. It says “all other occupiers” and as far as I can tell I will still be evicted on this date even though I am not named as the bank are repossessing the property.

Seems to be the landlord has not been paying their mortgage - just pocketing my rent! Very annoying. I have paper trail for all rent payments and deposit is protected in the scheme.

My main concern is - how do I end the tenancy on the date of eviction (as it will no longer be valid) and initiate the return of my deposit? I’m worried the landlord is going to try and keep the deposit too - I have removed all my belongings from the property and left it in a cleaner condition than when I entered (with evidence to this) but how do I move forward with least resistance?

I just want to be rid of this property and remove my name from anything around it as soon as possible. I will pay rent (begrudgingly) up until the date of repossession.

Any advice welcome, rented for over 15 years of my life and never encountered this situation. Nobody will talk to me (courts, bank, etc.) as I am not named on the eviction notice quoting data protection and fed up of being sent round in circles.

Have you spoken to a solicitor?

I’ve spoken to two, who both said they can’t give advice as the repossession and court warrant is in the landlord’s name. The most I’ve got is that I can apply in court with the lender for a 2 month extension on the eviction as a third-party, but I don’t need this or want it.

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have you contacted the deposit scheme that your deposit is with for advice?

Your tenancy may not end when the property is re-possessed. Speak to Shelter for further advice.

Speaking to shelter it’s a complicated situation that depends on the type of mortgage, lender, state of the bailiffs warrant, etc.
The easiest solution is to try and negotiate an express surrender by deed with the landlord, to end the tenancy. This has to be signed and witnessed.
If there is a dispute, then a court has to decide if an implied surrender has taken place (tenant vacated, handed keys back, etc.)

Putting this here in case anyone else gets caught up in this as getting information on this situation was incredibly difficult.

Thanks for everyone that helped.

Some on here derided me for letting potential tenants know that we have no mortages on the properties we let. We do it to reassure people that they will never end up in a situation like @Lewis22 has found themselves in.

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Something I will definitely check in future, and recommend everyone else do too.

It’s a point I’ve made several times, tenants can easily check mortgage status of property.

As I said, ordinarily a lender repossessing does not end a tenancy on the property, but it sounds as though in this case there was a bit more history.

As an aside I do find this ridiculous, a tenant cannot stay in the property and is evicted based on a warrant from the court in favour of the lender, yet will still have to pay rent for that property they’ve been evicted from.

I’m very lucky I have somewhere to go otherwise I could foresee how someone could be in a lot of trouble, without a home and yet in rent arrears for somewhere they cannot live!

Why do you think you’ll have to pay rent for a property you’ve been evicted from?

“ordinarily a lender repossessing does not end a tenancy on the property”

I would be very surprised if the lender has a court order that can remove you, but your tenancy continues. Check again with Shelter.

Yes they can, as said previously, the order is an eviction for any occupiers in the property and the most you can do as a private tenant is apply in court for a 2 month extension on that eviction notice with the lender, but they don’t have to agree to that either.
It’s generally seen as a good thing and the lender is likely to agree to this if the tenant needs it, sometimes requesting the tenant pays the rent for those months directly to the lender.

Yes, but that will end your tenancy.

It does not, unfortunately. As shelter say, because you can apply for the extension, the tenancy is still valid. As you said above, sorry for misunderstanding - I thought this is what you were saying too.

Without seeing the notice, I can’t really comment on the veracity of your claim, but if you can apply for an extension, why don’t you?

I always suggest tenants check whether the property is mortgaged or not (Land Registry) as the landlord will behave very differently. There really should be a premium paid for properties that are not mortgaged as this kind of problem will never arise. If such a premium were to be agreed the quid pro quo would be that the property would never be mortgaged again during the tenancy.

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