Landlord and Tenant Law Alert
Mortgage Repossessions
(Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010
08 | 10 | 10
The Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010,
which received Royal Assent back in April this year, will come into
force on 1st October 2010.
The new Act has been brought in to deal with
unauthorised tenancies entered into after the date of the mortgage
and the difficulties faced by tenants when their home is
repossessed by their landlord’s mortgage company and they are told
they are being evicted.
‘Unauthorised Tenancies’ include assured,
protected or statutory tenancies and where a mortgagee’s interest
is not subject to the tenancy in question.
Tenant support groups have welcomed the new
law because of the problems caused when a tenant is not aware of
repossession proceedings, which often result in the tenant being
left with very little time to find somewhere else to live.
The new Act grants the Court power to postpone
possession or to stay or suspend execution of possession orders for
a period of up to two months. It also requires lenders
seeking to execute a possession order to give notice to that effect
at the premises.
Those who are seeking to take possession
proceedings need to be aware of the provisions of the new Act and
take them into account in dealing with tenants.
For more information on the new Act or any
other landlord or tenant matter, please contact Neil Morgan,
Partner and Head of the Property Dispute Resolution Team at Hugh
James on neil.morgan@hughjames.com