Jan
07

Help on my NIGHTMARE tenancy agreement?

By admin
shop repossession

Here is a letter I’ve sent to my council but it may take some time for them to reply and I would be gratefull of any help!

April 1st 2009

To whom it may concern,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with some information on whether I have any rights to get out of my 12 month short hold tenancy agreement. I live in a student house with 3 others.Our letting agents are Charles Lawson Lettings and our landlord is Mr. Zulifqar Hussain.
Our term is 12 months and we are just coming up to out 6 month in the house and after a really terrible week we are now desperate to get out. About 3 weeks ago we received a letter to say that our house was being repossessed on the 31st of March as our landlord Mr Z Hussain had not being paying the mortgage. After consulting Charles Lawson’s they admitted that they new about this back in September before they had even let out the property to us. In fact Mr Z Hussain was already being taken to court! So Charles Lawson were continuing to tell us the house was not being repossessed and kept asking us to pay our rent and gave a sob story about Mr Z Hussain being made redundant and having no money. However after an internet search it turns out that Mr Hussain actually owns the Letting agents and from the article attactched has been involved with several failed businesses and has in the past gone into liquidation and then has been starting up new businesses under similar names. On the Friday before the proposed eviction date my father called the bank and solicitor who were in charge of the repossession and they told us that it was still going ahead as the arrears had not been paid. The bank told us also that we should not have been in the property to start with as the mortgage was not buy-to-let. We rushed to Charles Lawson’s who said they would sort this out but to come back in the afternoon (they also used the phrase ‘no comment’ any time we enquired about Mr Hussain owning the agency). My housemates went over to the letting agency to find that they had shut the shop. Finaly on Monday afternoon we got a fax to confirm that the landlord had paid his debt over the weekend.
Could you tell me whether there is any chance that we would be able to get out of this tenancy agreement we dont want to risk any more incidents klike this and the house in really crumby anyway? Thank you very much in advanced.

Best regards

Tilly Turbett

Attached: Oxford Mail Article about Mr Hussain, Emails between the bank and my father dated 27th of March 3 days before the proposed repossession

______________________________________…
From: Hayley Watts [mailto:Hayley_Watts@wragge.com]
Sent: 27 March 2009 11:36
To: ***********
Subject: FW: 9 Glanville Road, Oxford. (W&Co Ref: 1989816)
Dear Sir,

As my colleague advised you on the telephone the eviction is still scheduled to continue on 31.03.09. I understand the rental contract is a 12 month contract but the Mortgage company are not in breach of this and are within their rights to take possession of the property. Also the account is not a buy to let product so the tenants should not be in the property to start with.

Also to confirm the tenants will need to vacate the property before the scheduled eviction. Unfortunately as you are not party to the proceedings we are unable to confirm any account details to you I.e when the proceedings were commenced.

Regards
Hayley

James C Penny staff re-employed after liquidation
12:07pm Friday 27th February 2009
By Maggie Hartford »

OXFORD estate agent James C Penny has gone into liquidation with debts of more than £400,000.
The four staff were made redundant but were then almost immediately re-employed by a new company called James C Penny (Estate Agents) Ltd, according to the report from liquidator Bridge Business Recovery.
The new company is controlled by a former director, who had resigned from the original company on February 1.
Creditors were told the assets were estimated at £1,800, while the company owed £105,429 to HM Revenue and Customs from employees’ PAYE, National Insurance and Corporation Tax, plus £71,634 VAT.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Estate Agents said it was taking action over James C Penny’s claim on the company’s website that he is a member of the association. NAEA chief executive Peter Bolton King said: “We have already sent a letter out. James C Penny, according to our records, has not been a member for some years.”
The company was owned by Israr and Zulfiqar Hussain, of Bartlemas Road, Oxford, and by James C Penny, of Eynsham. According to the liquidator’s report, Istikhar and Israr Hussain held office and were helped in day-to-day management by other family members.
The main creditor is Istikhar Hussain, who is owed £299,875. He is the only director who remains on the register at Companies House. The other directors, Zulfiqar and Israr Hussein, resigned on February 1.
Zulfiqar Hussain, the former company secretary, whose
whose address at Companies House is given as 11 Granville Road, east Oxford, is involved in the two new companies which were set up on January 14.
On January 28, he became a director of Jame C Penny (Lettings) Ltd, and of James C Penny (Estate Agents) Ltd.
Zulfiqar Hussain is also a director of another Oxford estate agent, Charles Lawson and several other dissolved companies with the Charles Lawson name.
Robin Swailes, of North Oxford Property Services, said he had teamed up with residential agent Thomas Merrifield to bid for the James C Penny name from the liquidator, Danny Wright of Bridge Business Recovery.
Mr Swailes said: “If any other estate agents would like to help, they should call the liquidator.”
Asked for a comment, Istikhar Hussain said: “I’m no longer involved after the administration.” No one from James C Penny was available to comment.
David Murray, of law firm Morgan Cole, said the Insolvency Act was specifically designed to avoid the ‘phoenix effect’ where

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Categories : repossession

7 Comments

1

I think that you will find that as the Landlord does not have the right to rent out the property to you as he has not had permission from the mortgage lender, the contract between yourself and him may be void.

however, get some legal advice on it just to make sure
:)

2

It sounds like the original agreement was invalid. With the letter from the mortgage company you should be able to get out of the lease.

3
(¯`·._§yn_.·´¯)
January 9th, 2010 at 12:14 pm

My best suggestion would be to stay for the remainder of the time even though you’re landlord is a scamming slumlord type. In the event that it could possibly come out in his favor you would be screwed and get a bad rental reference. I do suggest that you be extremely careful while renting because hes probably the sort to charge for every nail hole in the wall. I was ruled in favor during a similar circumstance and the judge gave me a date to be moved by and have my keys turned in but when I went to deliver the managers were unfindable and neither was the maintenance man. We returned to court on the next week so we could finish up the paper work and got a new judge who changed the verdict in the owners favor because I got the keys to them that night and not at 9am. I now owe several thousand to the$#@%&$

4

As with any tenancy, there is nothing practical that the landlord can do to stop you leaving. He can keep your deposit, but if you stop paying rent early enough the deposit will simply cover your unpaid rent so you are not out of pocket.

In theory the landlord can sue you for the unpaid rent. But this won’t happen in practice. For one thing, he has a duty to “mitigate his loss”. This means that he must actively look for a new tenant, and can only claim against you for the period the property is empty. As well as this, it would probably cost the landlord more to sue you than he would get back, because he cannot claim for his costs in the small claims court.

In any case, you have clearly been told by the lender that you technically have no right to be in the property. I doubt very much that your landlord would win if he did take you to court.

Just walk away and find somewhere else.

5

What does your original lease say? does it give you “vacanct possession?” If so, your Landlord was in breach as he knew at the time that he did not have vacant possession because the bank had a prior claim. looks like you can claim that the Letting agreement/ lease was void ab initio - legal tern meaning that the contract couldn’t be performed so you can just leave without any obligation. Have a word with citizen’s advice or find a legal aid lawyer…in the meantime, hassle the council to respond to your letter.

6

Too long, too much Information. You need to put your problem/s on and not all the other stuff, most people would not even start to read all this.

7

Keep all your copies of these letters. And then don’t worry about it. The landlord is in so much hot water he doesn’t have a leg to stand on - the lease is null and void because the mortgage co. has a specific restraint on the property that it is not to be let - the landlord voided that - the mortgage co. owns the property until the mortgage is paid in full, so they have the say in what can be done with the property. You are fine. You can leave whenever you want.

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