Category: Property articles
In the present economic climate thousands if not millions people are in danger of losing their homes. It is therefore important to understand the steps you can take if you are facing repossession. Quick action is essential if you are to succeed and you must never simply give up and think that nothing can be done. Apart from losing your home you will seriously damage your credit rating making it extremely difficult to get credit to purchase another home in the future
From 6th April 2007 any landlords or their agents who take a deposit from a tenant must have that deposit protected under one of two schemes:
1. A custodial scheme - this is where the deposit is held in an approved scheme during the deposit and will continue to be held if any legal dispute arises between the landlord and the tenant.
2. An insurance based scheme - this is where the landlord keeps the deposit but the deposit is insured in case of any dispute.
It is for the landlord (not the tenant) to decide which scheme to choose.
If you face repossession, realistically assess whether you should keep your home.
If repossession looms because you’ve missed some payments, or you think you will soon, it’s time to face what’s probably the toughest question of the whole process: can you afford to keep your house?
Apart from the emotional considerations that surface whenever a foreclosure is threatened, there are economic factors you just can’t ignore. Before you can decide whether or not to try to keep your house, you need to take stock of your financial situation -- which has no doubt changed since you bought your house.
Question
We live in a low density area on a 1/2 acre plot. Our back neighbours have a
gate into our garden and use this to access on foot, the road servicing our
property (icehouse wood). They do this simply to save them time walking to
friends houses and the woods. They however have access to a separate public
highway (quarry road) via the front of their property. We have lived here for
10 years and when we moved in, they asked us if they could use the gate to
walk through our garden, as they had been doing this for years with the
A private landlord is any person (including a company) who rents out residential dwellings. A landlord who shares his living accommodation with a lodger is not classified as a private landlord.
Repairs to rented residential property.
The legal title to property in which more than one of person have an interest may be held by one person in his or her sole name or in joint names. There could be a number of reasons why a jointly owned property is held in just one name; these include an earlier acquisition of the property and a purchase of council property. If property is held jointly it can be held as joint tenants or as tenants, in common.
Property held in one name.
Disputes between neighbouring households are common. Where people live close together there is always scope for friction and disputes. Clashes of lifestyles where people are from different age groups, or come from different cultural backgrounds, or have different working or sleeping patterns can easily give rise to arguments.
A long lease is one which was originally granted for a fixed term of at least 21 years. That is the only requirement. It is irrelevant if less than 21 years is left to run, or if you are not the original leaseholder.
Applications to renew a long lease.
Both Landlords and Tenants have legal obligations to each other. These are contractual rights which can be enforced through the Courts. In addition to these, certain rights are provided by legislation. The Disability Discrimination Act, Sex Discrimination Act and Race Relations Act will all apply to anyone letting, selling or managing premises. In addition the various Housing Acts regulate the relationship and give additional rights to a tenant.
A tenant is anyone who has an exclusive right to use premises, for a particular length of time, in return for payment. The test of whether a person is a tenant is whether they have ‘exclusive possession’ of the premises. Therefore anyone living in a hostel or temporary accommodation is unlikely to be a tenant.
A public landlord will include local authorities, district councils and most housing associations.
A council tenant will be a person who takes a tenancy from any of these.
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