House repossessions

[Onionpickle]

Would someone mind explaining how house repossessions work? We’re next door to a buy to let where landlord defaulted on a couple of mortgage repayments.

There have been 2 repossession orders and bailiff etc have come both times and gone away when owner and occupants politely refused to go. All quiet currently but it took quite a few months between the repossession hearings last time so assume it may be the same?

What happens in these situations? Assumably there is a limit to the number of times the bailiff will stand down and leave or is there?

Once the repossession order is granted does the lender get buildings insurance for the property or do they only do that once they actually have possession?

We were thinking of selling but holding off until this is sorted so trying to get an idea of what to expect as it has been going on for months. Any info anyone can give would be greatly appreciated, many thanks.

If it’s already reached bailiffs stage then it would appear that the lender has successfully had a court grant an outright possession order. But with a tenanted property, several things can happen. If the owner has a buy to let mortgage and the tenants have an assured short hold tenancy, then this is considered a binding tenancy and the lender would take possession of the property, but the tenants would become tenants of the lender who now owns the property. The lender takes on responsibility for things like repairs and protecting the deposit. The tenants must continue to pay rent to whoever the lender has told them they should, and the lender must advise them if they are selling the property with the tenants in situ. The lender would have to take separate legal action if it wants the tenants to leave.

Alternatively, the owner may have been successful in appealing the repossession and / or having the outright possession order converted into a suspended possession order by proving to the court that they can pay both the monthly mortgage payment and some money each month towards the arrears. They remain the owner of the property and further action would only be taken against them if they stop paying again.

I wouldn’t hold off marketing your own property if you want to sell. If the lender does have possession and decides to sell the property it will almost certainly be by auction, which won’t necessarily give you an indication of the sale price you’d likely achieve by a traditional sale in the open market ( if that’s what you were hoping to ascertain.)

The tenants had to pay their rent to the receiver and vacate by a certain date which they did . The bailiffs then came for eviction attempt 1 but went away when faced by a number of people.

The owner tried to appeal but hadn’t paid the fee so the appeal was rejected. It went quiet so they moved one of the tenants back in then the second repossession appeared but again the bailiffs went away. Owner was talking of moving more people back in. I’d really like the owners to be able to keep but they haven’t got conventional legal advice and I think are sadly shooting themselves in the foot.

Others have sold recently so I have an idea of value. It’s more we’d like to make a decision on whether we stay or not when we know what is happening as there are a fair few pros and cons about moving v staying and I would like to make a fully informed decision.

I had rather naively assumed that If an outright possession order was issued which it has been twice now then not leaving wasn’t an option! It has been a bit of an eye opener..