All, can anyone help to shed some light on my situation..?
Having read HPC on a daily basis, since the start of this year, I sold up and moved into rented a couple of months ago. I signed a tenancy agreement with the lady who owns the house I now rent and moved in.
A couple of days ago I was informed by the Insolvency Service that her husband (still the co owner of the house) has had a bankruptcy order served against him, 20 days before I signed the tennancy agreement. I ran a search on the land registry website and he is indeed still the co-owner.
The Insolvency chaps are telling me to stop paying the rent to the (useless) letting agent, and to pay them directly instead. I pointed out to the Insolvency guys that my contract was not with the chap who was in trouble, but, with his wife, they still said promptly in an email to pay them directly and no one else - A reciever is to be appointed middle of next month, until then I'm in limbo.
So, bullet points of the situation:
- Signed tenancy agreement (in the chaps wife's maiden name) end of August and moved in
- Paid deposit and 1st and 2nd months rent, no problem
- Took receipt of a letter from the insolvency guys telling me to stop paying rent to LA
- Spoke to letyting agent (useless), they tell me they sorted it with the Insolvency guys.
- Emailed Insolvency Agency guys myself (don't trust any LA's) they still inform me to pay them directly.
- Inform the IA guys that the contract is with the Mrs and not the (in the crap) Mr, they dont flinch
- LA tells me to keep paying rent or I'll get evicted
- I tell the LA that I will no doubt have a misrepresentation case against them, they blame the owner
- The rent is due at the end of the month, I'm at a loss as to what to do.
I'm not sure if the Insolvency guys will want to sell the house to pay off his debts, I'm not sure if I'm legally bound to pay his wife (in her maiden name) the monthly rent, and I've still not had an inventory to sign off and the dishwasher is STILL broken, the LA are now telling me they can't fix the dishwasher because the IA are involved, nothing they can do!
I have a mental image of hoardes of useless government types, eventually turning up in vans with blacked out windows to fix it, once they have discussed it for 2 years and filled in all the necessary paperwork. Clearly the IA will not be 'managing' the property, so, do I break out the management part and pay the LA that sum and forward the rest to the IA, and if I do this, will the lady (co owner) start legal proceedings against me?
I've run a search on the internet, CAB, Shelter et al, no joy.. Does anyone out there have a similar experience or can anyone shed light as to the legal position before I pay for legal counsel, (I'm of a mind to sent the legal bill to the LA)?
I fear that this situation is probably going to become a regular thing over the next few years, has anyone experienced anything of this nature before?
Yours in hope and despair, Leafy
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