Landlord not paying mortgage

[Coffeecoffeecoffee12]

Hi all,

I have been renting my home for 7 years and have looked after it well, and never fallen behind on rent. I spent thousands of pounds renovating when I moved in, the house needed alot of work but it was a nice area for my kids.

Today, I received a letter from a company called Templeton LPA, stating that my landlord had not been paying the mortgage and the loan company had appointed them to act as receivers and claim possession of the property. I didn't receive any information about this from my housing agency. The letter was very threatening and they advised for a copy of my tenancy agreement, and informed me that I must make all future rent payments to them and if I did not comply I would be evicted.

After reading the many 1 star reviews for this company, I am expecting to shortly receive an 8 week eviction notice.

I am feeling abit overwhelmed and cannot think straight, I have a 2 year old and a teenager. I have been looking at houses and they are really poor quality for the prices and in bad areas.

I was just hoping someone could advise me on next steps I need to take. I am wondering if there is anyway I can extend the notice? As I doubt I will find somewhere in 8 weeks. I read on citizens advice website, if they acknowledge that you are renting the property then you have a right to stay and can apply to courts to extend the notice?

Thanks!

sorry to read this has happened. first and foremost, it might be a scam. so, you should call your housing agency and landlord first. and make sure to clarify this with them. i wouldn't send my rent or any money to anyone I wasn't sure about because it could be a scam. if it turns out not to be a scam, find out from the company what they intend to do. repossesions usually lead to a sale to recover the costs. you could consider calling Shelter as none of this is your fault and maybe there is a possibility you can sue or claim compensation from the housing agency if they were collecting the rent on your landlord's behalf etc, or sue the landlord. I would also contact your local council asap because you have children and they maybe able to help. i would also contact your local MP as they may know more about what you can do by way of housing and compensation too. if this is not a scam, your landlord is irresponsible and should not get away with it. keep a paper/email trail of everyone you correspond with. good luck

Thank you. I don't have my landlords number, but I spoke to my housing agency and they said they weren't aware of this and would contact me again shortly. I would like to hope it is a scam, but after doing some digging it seems the company is legit. They also sent copies of the letters they received from the loan company's legal department. Thank you for the advice. I did read it may be possible to sue the landlord. Yes, its really frustrating as there is very little housing in my area. The only house I have come across are in really bad areas with high crime rates (putting it politely)

By loan company do you mean mortgage provider or is it a loan secured against the property? If it’s a mortgage provider, I imagine if it’s got this far, it must have been going on for a very long time.

I would absolutely await further instruction from your letting agent before sending the rent else where. I assume you pay by bank transfer or DD so will have proof you have paid the rent.

I feel for you and your family. I imagine it will take considerably longer than 8 weeks though as I presume they will actually have to go to court to get the house back. Might give you more time to find somewhere if you do need to.

Whatever you do don’t send a copy of your rental agreement or your rent payments to them! This company (currently) has nothing to do with you. They need to talk to the property owner, not you.

The copy of the letter the loan company sent to Templeton LPA is from UCB Home Loans, the top of the address says 'Secured LPA Department'. So, I am guessing it Is a loan secured against the property? It says 'With immediate effect, I hereby confer you the powers to take possession and sell the property if and as you consider necessary.' So, if it is a secured loan they can reclaim the house immediately?

Oh I didn't realise this. I haven't sent anything yet

Oh and you can “extend” the notice by months simply by ignoring it. It will take months to get a court order to evict you. Whatever you do don’t make yourself intentionally homeless.

Don’t do anything until you hear back from your housing agency.

I don’t know but I can’t see why they can claim it immediately? Surely if you refuse to leave they would need to appoint bailiffs and that would mean going to court. I would advise talking to shelter or someone as I’m basing a lot of my info from TV programmes……

I appreciate you might not want to take it that far though.

When you say ‘housing agency’, do you mean the letting agent who you found the house through, or a housing association?

Are you in the UK? England?

Does your local council run a debt advice service? Google your council name and dent advice service and see.

If they do, get onto them 2m.

Definitely don't send this company any rent payments - your contract is with the landlord I assume? Obviously you'll need clarity from them but don't move out or make yourself homeless whatever this company say as otherwise the council might refuse to help you.

Id call shelter and ask for advice. It takes a long time to evict a tenant so dont worry too much, but its probably worth starting to look for a place to move to. Is your deposit with the tenancy deposit scheme - check. If not, make sure you retain enough rent to cover it before you leave or you wont get it back.

@Coffeecoffeecoffee12 I would definitely wait for the housing agency to confirm with you, and get it all in email/writing. A scam can happen using a legit company's name. For example, someone could pretend to be the company and make it look like they are, but provide some different bank details to which you send money to. Get confirmation first.

I agree with this. Use the system against them.

Sorry yes I meant letting agency. I am in the uk

My contract is with my letting agency. They were not aware the landlord had breached his mortgage contract.

As a sitting tenant you have a lot of rights. Stay put and don't worry about moving out - if it gets to the point of there being a court date for an eviction hearing start hunting then. Until then you just need to pay the rent in accordance with your rental agreement. If you recieve independent confirmation that the rent should go into a different account then do so.

If this is a genuine situation and not a scam the most likely outcome is that the property will be sold as-is with sitting tenant in (you) in place, to a larger-scale BTL landlord. You won't have to move.

It could be a scam letter. The fact they are asking you to pay them directly, sounds like it could be. So wait until you hear from the letting agency before doing anything @Coffeecoffeecoffee12

Leave the letting agents to deal with it.

This sounds extremely fishy .. With immediate effect, I hereby confer you the powers to take possession and sell the property if and as you consider necessary.

The only entity that can 'confer powers' (of possession) are Judges with a court order. This is not a court order and I would bet it isn't from a court or signed by a judge.

DO NOT send them money. Do NOT engage with them. Continue to pay your rent in the normal way and DO NOT BUDGE. You need to be served an eviction notice and then be evicted . Or you will not be rehoused if you leave before as you would have made yourself 'voluntarily homeless'

To get you out you need to be served with the correct legal notices.
I would put money on this being a scam.

Company sends scary letter, tenant starts to send rent to them, Simple. Bang out 100 of these letters and 2 or 3 will believe it and they'll make 2-3k.and be completely untraceable. Money for old rope.

I wonder how they knew your name if the letter was addressed to you. How did the loan company know you're a tenant in the house?

Something is not right

Thank you for all the comments I will take on board what you have all said. Hopefully it won't get as far as bailiffs at my door and I will find somewhere to live.
@canttellyouwhereorwhatido I hope it is a scam! It does seem very odd but the letter also seems really legit. It says I should take the letter and get advice from citizens advice bureau. It also says if you are in receipt of housing benefit(I'm not) please instruct them to pay the money too them. It also says they will be contacting my letting agency. They also know the name of my landlord, and the letters are stamped. I'd like to think it's a scam but I'm not hopeful!

@chukwe the letter is addressed to the occupier

Found this which might be useful https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-a-home/repossession-by-your-landlord-s-mortgage-lender/

@TwoBlueFish thank you, that's fab!

Initially I thought it was a scam, but then when I googled the address of the company and phone number on the letter, it is a legit company confirmed on gov.uk website with awful reviews from people being evicted. So unfortunately I don't think it's a scam :( but hopefully will know more tomorrow