Tenants of mortgage borrowers

This section deals with the situation where tenants of private landlords find their security of tenure threatened because the landlord has defaulted on mortgage payments to a lender.

In such a situation, the lender may seek to recover possession of the house from the borrower. This can result in a threat to the tenancy.

Strictly speaking, a mortgage is something a borrower grants to a lender, thus a mortgagor is a borrower and a mortgagee is a lender. However, the terms are often reversed in common usage. To avoid confusion this section refers to borrowers and lenders.

Mortgages and letting property

This section looks at what happens when a borrower takes out a mortgage, rents out the property without informing the lender and is unable to keep up the mortgage payments. 

Status of tenants

A tenant may be either an assured tenant, short assured tenant or a tenant at common law. 

Is the tenancy binding

This page gives information on how to check whether a tenancy is binding on the lender. 

Tenancy is not binding on the lender

The position of a tenant where the tenancy is not binding on the lender will depend on their tenancy status. 

Practical action by tenants

There is practical action that tenants can take when the tenancy is not binding on the lender and the lender does not have a decree to recover possession from the tenant.