House being sold to investors only by receivers!! I would appreciate any advise.

CD10182

Hi Id appreciate any advise you could give me. My friend is currently living in a house with her small chid who the house went into recievership from the previous owner. She has been there 3 years to date and it has been a very messy situation for her dealing with estate agents and recievers. The house has been sale agreed twice with the last time falling through. It is being sold as "investors only". My friend has not been paying rent but has never refused to pay rent and asked the recivers/estate agents on many occasions to sign HAP papers for her so she could pay rent with assistance. Every time she was refused this. The house has had 1 successful break in attempt last Christmas, and another failed attempt before this. There have been rats, broken household appliances, back door window smashed from robbery and not fixed, front porch smashed and off the hinges and not fixed, moldy windows (she and her daughter have both been ill as a result), a hole in the attic roof etc and no landlord to help with such things and the banks will not take responsibility either . She has had to fix what she can herself out of her own pocket. The house is freezing in winter time and she pays an awful lot on heating. She has always been accommodating to any viewings and was told she would never be lied to and that they would always be honest with her and help her secure her tenancy with the new owners. She feels this has changed latley and since the house is nearly sold the estate agents seem to have washed their hands, her original lease with the previous landlord was 1 year paying €1200 pm but he verbally told her she could stay 5 years. Receivers and estate agents all keep asking her for any copy of original lease as I presume previous landlord gave nothing after house was taken by banks. It is all a very stressful situation for her with a small child and not knowing what will happen and if she will be homeless due to the current housing crisis. The house is very much close to being sold second time around and the receivers rang her recently asking a lot of questions wanting to know had she found somewhere and that she should have been sorted by now as she was paying no rent (she never refused rent) and would refuse to give any intentions of the new owners which she took will not be a very good outcome for her. Where does she stand in all of this, does she have any rights? Because the property is sold as investors only because of a sitting tenant are they under any obligation to keep her there for a while with new lease or can they evict her? Are cases like this common and what usually is the outcome? No one seems to be able to give her advise, Threshold said she should have been paying rent but she never refused too, the receivers would not sign Hap papers and the council would not pay uless they did so with a new lease. Id appreciate any advise you could give. Thanks

splinter65

She’s in arrears of rent so the receivers will give her 14 days to pay the rent arrears and then she will get 28 days notice to get out.
She’s a very lucky person to have been living rent free for years and she should have a fair amount of money saved as a result to put a deposit and rent in advance on a new place.
If she’s known for at least 1 year that she’s going to have to get out then I can’t understand what her problem is to be honest.

CD10182

Hi thanks for reply, actually she wanted to pay rent she sent email after email requesting to pay rent she is entitle to HAP but of course the council would not sign off without a lease from recievers which the banks were obviously not willing to do. Yes I guess she has been lucy but she is a sigle mother not working and has no one to mind her child with that the property is falling to pieces so she has had to upkeep it herself and winters cost her a fortune on heating. I guess it's all irrelevant its still not a nice situation for anyone to be in, she has had no luck finding anywhere due to current housing issue and landlords not being too keen to accept HAP. It's looking like the property will be sold to the investors then it's up to them.