My landlord is being evicted and gave me a 4 days notice to leave as well

My landlord is being evicted and gave me a 4 days notice to leave as well

10:40 AM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago 12

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I have been sub-renting a bedroom since February 2013. The couple who is sub-renting me the room have received a court order to evacuate the property on the 29th of July 2014. However, they only told me this on 25th of July at 11pm.

I had a contract with them which was running for a month, but we didn’t renew it last year. I’ve been paying my rent on a monthly basis and gave them a 1 month deposit when I moved in.

It is very difficult for me to pack, look for a new bedroom and move out with a such a short notice. I also work from Mon-Fri and it’s too late for me to ask for a day off at my office.

Could you please tell me what are my options to postpone the eviction? I don’t even have the real landlord’s contact details.

What will happen if I’m still in the house after the 29th of July? I just need an extra week to be able to move out on the 2nd of August.

Thanks for your help.
Victoriaurgent


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Neil Patterson

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10:43 AM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Can any readers help please.

Percy Vere

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10:56 AM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Basically you have to move out. Delaying any Court/Bailiff action has long gone.
Your argument now lies with the people who sub let the room to you and I would suggest they probably had no legal right to do so in the first place which is why you don't even know who the landlord actually is.
The bailiff's will probably inform you that you have no legal right to be there anyway and if your very lucky they will give you 2 hours to clear your belongings.
I will assume at this point that the reason for possession is probably due to non payment of rent by your ( bogus) landords.

Adam Hosker

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11:16 AM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Legally; they are required by law to give you "reasonable notice". What that means in reality is unknown if they too are being evicted.

chris wright

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11:40 AM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Victoria - you can contact the local county court and give them details/names of the "couple" they then should be able to tell you who brought the court action against them. you can then contact them or speak with the county court bailiff office (its the high court if in London) and explain the situation, they can liase with the owners - it might get you some spare time but i wouldnt bank on it. If your stuff gets locked in then liase with the bailiff to gain access when you are ready to remove - they wont let your stuff get chucked or sold if you liase with them. If it was me i'd take an inventory of your items/possessions and lodge this with the bailiff office, insist that the owners get a copy and acknowledge you are the true owner and will remove at the earliest opportunity.

Percy Vere

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12:31 PM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Adam Hosker" at "28/07/2014 - 11:16":

My bet is that reasonable notice has been served by the Courts and the sub letting couple have probably ignored all letters and warnings and at the same time failed to inform Victoria of what is about to happen.

Adam Hosker

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12:37 PM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Percy Vere" at "28/07/2014 - 12:31":

The Lender (& Courts) provided reasonable notice to the Owners. The tenant is legally required to have "reasonable notice" which it does not sound like he received "they only told me this on 25th of July" - that "reasonable notice" seems to have been withheld from him.

I can presume; the courts will not think highly of the owners but should give the tenant a week or two... In theory anyway; I have no idea the strength of such "reasonable notice".

As Chris says; a letter to the lender outlining this and copied to the court may assist in delaying. But Victoria is on limited time either way.

Mandy Thomson

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12:56 PM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

As Adam has pointed out, you are legally entitled to "reasonable notice" - for what this means, google "lodger notice periods" but in most cases, as you state, a month's notice is the standard.

Your landlords must have been aware of their own pending eviction long before they informed you - they would therefore have been expected to put you on notice too as soon as they were aware.

Do you have a written rental agreement with these people? Did they serve notice on you in writing (even if only email or text)?

If the notice was verbal, can you get them to put it in writing - for example, you could email them asking them to clarify some of the details for you to move out, e.g. "you told me last Friday (25 July) that I must move out on 29 July - do you know what time the bailiffs are coming at?".

If you get a response, not denying any of this, you will have evidence to help you reclaim your deposit, your rent for the proper notice period, plus expenses (e.g. for temporary accommodation) from the Small Claims Court. However, although you should be entitled to this, it's likely the landlords will either "disappear" or you'll simply be waiting in line with their other creditors - try to get as many contact details (e.g. their family) for them as you can.

However, at the end of the day, you have a contract with these people and they have seriously breached it.

I hope you manage to find somewhere else to live and claim your money back. As for any belongings you're forced to leave behind, anyone taking possession of the house is legally responsible for these and must give you reasonable time to remove them - google "involuntary bailee".

Percy Vere

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15:00 PM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Aaah! OK. I may have possibly mis-interpreted the terminolgy of "sub-letting"
Is Victoria renting a room from a landlord / owner in residence or is she sub-letting from a tenant who is renting the whole property from the landlord?
Rent-a-room has a whole different set of rules and gudelines for occupation and strictly speaking you are not actually a tenant and your legal position of secure tenure is not strong either.

Perhaps Victoria would just clarify the position?

Mandy Thomson

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15:49 PM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Percy Vere" at "28/07/2014 - 15:00":

Hi Percy

I don't think it matters to Victoria's situation whether her landlords owned or rented the property. If they had informed their own landlord or mortgage provider of the room let, and they gave consent, on possession of the house they would become Victoria's landlord and would be obliged to honour her lodger agreement - it would mean they would have to give her the notice specified, unless they had a very good reason for giving shorter notice.

Judging from this couple's behaviour though, I wouldn't be surprised if the property owner or mortgage provider is completely unaware of Victoria's licence.

She can find out who owns the house if it isn't the couple, or who the mortgage is with if they are the owners, by requesting a copy of the register of the property from Land Registry https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/www/wps/portal/!ut/p/b1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfGjzOKNjSxMDA1NjDwsjM3MDTxN3dyNDUNMjQ1MjPWDU_P0C7IdFQG9k5Tz/ .

She needs to check the Proprietorship Register for the owner, and the Charges register for companies who have a mortgage (a charge) over the property - if there's more than one mortgage, approach the first one first.

Victoria M

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17:25 PM, 28th July 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi all,

I'm the person who created this discussion. I would like to thank you all for your precious help. I have been really down since Friday evening trying to sort out everything.
My main difficulty is that the couple who is sub-renting me the bedroom doesn't want to give me their landlord's contact details.

I tried to contact the council court of Southwark but I couldn't reach anyone and the only option I had was to book an appointment (which is now to late).
The bailiff will come tomorrow morning at 9.30am so by reading your messages I can assume that he will not let me appeal against the repossession of the house.

FYI the letter was sent on the 2nd of July but the couple told me that they only get the letter last week (they are obviously lying). Their landlord is reclaiming the house because of unpaid rents (I paid my rent for my bedroom every month so I don't know what they did with my money).

I will pack my belongings this evening and try to find an hostel for the week.

Thank you so much Chris, Percy, Mandy and Adam!

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