Forgotten victims of repossession crisis - joint campaign launched
27 March 2009
Crisis has teamed up with three leading housing charities to win better protection for tenants who face homelessness when their landlord is repossessed.
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Shelter,
Citizens Advice, Crisis and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) are
raising the alarm over growing numbers of private tenants who face eviction
with little or no warning, and through no fault of their own, because their
landlord has defaulted on mortgage payments and the lender has taken possession
of the property.
The
organisations are calling for a change in the law which would mean courts would have the power
to defer the possession for up to 90 days to allow the tenant to find other
suitable accommodation.
As the law
stands, tenants whose landlords are repossessed have none of the legal rights
that usually protect tenants from losing their homes without notice. Advisers report
seeing cases where the first the tenant knows about the situation is when they
come home to find bailiffs in their home.
In some cases
their belongings have been put out on the street and the locks have been
changed. In other cases they have no or very limited access to their things,
including personal and valuable items. In one case a family with nowhere to go
had to sleep in a car before moving into overcrowded and temporary emergency
hostel accommodation a long distance from the children’s schools.
Shelter,
Citizens Advice, Crisis and CIH have today written to MPs urging them to sign
an Early Day Motion calling for changes to the law to tackle the problem. They estimate
that thousands of tenants in the private rented sector could be at risk of
losing their homes in this way and are warning that urgent government action is
needed to avoid a potential crisis.
Leslie Morphy, Chief
Executive of Crisis,
said: “At a time when many people are focused on homeowners, we risk forgetting
that tenants of private landlords are extremely vulnerable to the recession. It
is outrageous that the first time some people discover they are going to lose
their home is when the bailiffs ring the doorbell. Tenants need legal
protection to ensure that they at least have reasonable time to find somewhere
else to live. The alternative too often can be homelessness.”
Citizens Advice Chief Executive David Harker said: “The government has pledged to do all it can to prevent people
losing their homes as a result of the recession, yet we have these forgotten
victims of the repossessions crisis - tenants who have paid their rent and
abided by all the terms of their tenancy agreements being evicted without
warning because their landlord has been repossessed.
“Tenants at
risk of eviction in these circumstances need proper legal protection to ensure
they have reasonable time to find somewhere else to live and are notified
clearly and in good time that they are at risk, along with information on their
rights and sources of help.”
Shelter chief executive Adam
Sampson said: “Shelter
has seen a steep rise in the number of tenants who have kept their side of the
bargain by paying their rent but who are being thrown out onto the street
because their landlords have defaulted on the mortgage and the house has been
repossessed.
“With more and more landlords struggling with
mortgage arrears and tenants facing repossession, the Government must allow the
courts to defer possession dates by up to 90 days, so that tenants can find
other suitable accommodation.”
Sarah Webb, Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)
Chief Executive said:
“Much of the government’s focus so far during this recession has been on
supporting homeowners through a number of means. Whilst we welcome these initiatives,
we are concerned that tenants in the private rented sector are being left to
the mercy of market forces. With the worst of the recession yet to come it is
important that the 3 million households living in the sector are afforded basic
legal protection when their landlords become the latest victims of the
repossession crisis.”
Members of the
joint campaign are calling for the law to be changed to give courts the
discretion to take into account the circumstances of sitting tenants where an
outright possession order is granted, and defer possession for a limited period
of time.
They say more
also needs to be done to make tenants aware of possession proceedings by
ensuring that notices clearly marked to the tenant are sent to the property by
the courts, in addition to the notice currently sent to ‘The Occupier’ by the
mortgage lender. The campaigners say these notices should include information
for tenants about their rights and where they can go for further advice.
CASES SEEN
RECENTLY BY CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAUX AND SHELTER INCLUDE:
A Surrey CAB reported the case of a lone
parent with two children who had been renting a property for 10 months. She
came back from a holiday to find that the locks had been changed and there was
a notice announcing that a possession order had been made. After a two hour
wait, a representative from the lenders turned up and let her in under
supervision for ten minutes to collect a few necessary possessions, including
her son's GCSE work. The client and her children had been left very upset. She
had to make repeated visits to the lender asking for access and for information
about when she would be allowed to collect the rest of her possessions. They
proved unhelpful and told her they were 'unable to contact the necessary person'.
A single male pensioner called into a Shelter drop-in
session. He had had no rent arrears during the 4 years of his Assured Shorthold
Tenancy. The man was aware that the landlord had mortgage arrears problems and
had recently received a letter from the lender’s solicitor informing him of a
possession hearing in approximately 2 weeks time. He could not find any
alternative private rented properties and was considering a homelessness
application.
One Shelter Housing Aid Centre gave
advice to a couple with two teenage children. They had bought their house
through right-to-buy, but later found that they could not keep up with mortgage
repayments when the interest rates rose.
They subsequently sold the house to a sale and rent back operator, and
had been letting the property from this SRB landlord for about 2 years. The
couple had not seen their landlord in over a year and had no way of contacting
him. They were totally unaware of the possession proceedings until they opened
a letter informing them that the hearing date had been set for two weeks time.
A CAB client living in Staffordshire and
suffering from cancer first heard of his landlady’s repossession when he
received a Notice of Eviction from the Bailiffs. He was assured by his landlady not to worry
as it was all being sorted out. This was untrue as the bailiffs then came in,
evicted the client and changed the locks before he could remove his possessions
and essential medication.
WHAT
THE LAW SAYS: If a lender has started proceedings
against a tenant's landlord, the lender is required to send notice of the
possession hearing, addressed to ‘The Occupier’, at least 14 days prior to the
hearing. From 6 April 2009,
the lender must send a notice to the property within five days of receiving
notification of the date of the court hearing. However the notification letter will still be addressed
solely to ‘the Occupier’.
Tenants who moved in after the mortgage was taken out generally
have no rights to stay in the property once it has been repossessed. A lender
will be able to take action to have any occupier evicted as part of the action
to repossess the property.
ADVICE FOR TENANTS:
- Always open mail addressed 'To the Occupier'. This may include notice of
any possession hearings. - If you're thinking of moving into a new property, make sure the
landlord has permission from the lender to rent it out. Otherwise, the
lender does not have to recognise the tenancy at all. - If you were already living in the premises at the time when the
mortgage was taken out, the lender may take you on as a tenant and allow
you to pay rent to them directly. If you think you may be in this
position, contact a Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter. - Try to find out as much you can about your prospective landlord and
his/her mortgage status before taking up a tenancy - although in practice
this isn't always very easy.
ENDS
FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO REQUEST AN
INTERVIEW, PLEASE CONTACT:
Garry Lemon, Crisis Campaigns
Manager, on 020 7426 3863 or garry.lemon@crisis.org.uk
Moira Haynes, Citizens Advice Press
Office, 020 7833 7107 or 07790
019116
Shelter press office: 020 7505 2162
Jill Dwyer, CIH Press Office,
email: press@cih.org
or call 02476 851780 or 07786 716961
NOTES
TO EDITORS:
A private matter? Private
tenants: the forgotten victims of the repossessions crisis
Is available on request and online at www.crisis.org.uk ; www.citizensadvice.org.uk ; www.shelter.org.uk ; www.cih.org
Crisis is the national charity
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