Illegal Rentals

Hello there,

Can anyone confirm if it is legal to rent a property with loads of debts and court proceedings on the property.  There are certain Property Management agencies that just seem to put anyone in rented accommodation.  They don´t care if the property has loads of debts and especially when the tenant lives next door and has no respect whatsoever.

It would be interesting to see if there is any information available on this subject.

Regards,

Soul 2 Soul     

I don't see why having debts should stop someone letting a property.  And court proceedings certainly wouldn't - innocent until proven guilty and all that.  If the property was embargoed that would only affect a sale and not a rental.  So my guess is that it would be perfectly legal to do so.  But I'm not a lawyer.

Thanks for replying - I take your comments on board but  if we all stop paying our community fees like the large debtors then the community would be in a right old state wouldn´t it?

Anyway, just thought I would find out some information that was all.

Regards,

S2S

I understood the initial question to be about illegal letting of apartments....

If there is a registered charge against a property that will prevent a sale, but as far as I know the owner of the apartment may let it.

However, the gripe really seems to be with "undesirable" tenants, and secondly the fact that the landlord not only lets to undesirable tenants but owes service charges to the residents' association for the building/development.  A residents' association has, in keeping with its by-laws, powers to sue for recovery of debt and to institute proceedings against owners in arrears.   It seems this is the case in the building or development where you live. 

Some developments have better residents' associations than others.  "In-house" rules can be drawn up and voted upon in general meeting.  These can cover such issues as tenants who cause nuisance and annoyance to others.

Patricia

 Soul2Soul:

Initially there is no obstacle for this if this do not disturb the pacific enjoyment of the house, IF it does, you have rights to compensation.

Debts or charges against a property are totally irrelevant to letting. The only issue in that respect that MIGHT arise is if there is a mortgage that specifically prohibits such activities. Even if there is, in most cases, the owner would be able to obtain permission from the mortgage company to do so... same with insurance.

It is a problem and we thought of not letting owners who don't pay fees have a pool key, on the basis that they did not contribute to the considerable cost of the upkeep.  However, we then relented as it is really not the fault of the holiday maker / tenant that the owner hasn't paid - they have paid their rent so we felt it unfair to punish them.

I believe that we wouldn't have had a legal case to withhold the key, but felt that the owner in arrears would be unlikely to sue us before we sued them!!

We are pursuing British debtors using a UK collection agency and hope this is the fastest way to get them to pay up.