halifax wont repossess house due to o.a.p living in it

[cozican]

my partner owns his house, but his father lives there, rent free. with out any tenancy agreement.the house is due to be repossessed, but the halifax wont take it back, because his father is still in the property. and they dont want bad press for evicting an o.a.p. who will be re houses by the council anyway.
my partner is disabled due to an accident at work, and will never work again, he cant afford to pay the mortgage, he cant sell it, due to his dad, weve tried, he cant rent it out, due to his dad, his dad wont pay rent, and is trying to claim occupancy rights. what can my partner do about it? if he cant rent the property, or sell it to pay the halifax, and they wont touch it, what other options does he have?

[emlett]

could your partner not move back in and then evict the father as an unwanted lodger? or is he a tenant? sounds a bit harsh but social services should house him as you say if he is an OAP?

- not sure if the father has any claim over the property - you say he lives rent free but does he pay any bills or had any work carried out on the place or put any money into it?

selling voluntarily would be much better than repossession in terms of any equity . you should probably see a solicitor about the best way to get him out and see if you can get a free 1/2 hour consultation.

[themas]

If your partner is not living in the house there will probably be difficulty getting his father out. He really needs a solicitor to advise on this.

Whatever happens, the father should be rehoused by the Local Authority when he has to leave, as he will not have voluntarily made himself homeless.

[cozican]

hi emlett, thanks for the reply. he cant move into the house, as his father lied to the police by telling them that my partner was harrassing him, we only went to the house twice, with a surveyor, to try to get the house valued, and now he isnt allowed in the house. his father pays utility bills only. we have tried to sell it to a buy to rent company, but the father wouldnt sign a tenancy agreement, even thou we said that we would pay the rent for him, from the equity in the house, so we cant move back in, we cant sell it. or rent it out. we have been to a solicitor, it cost us over �1200 for a lot of useless info, at first they said we could sell, by the end of it, they said that we couldnt. we have had 3 buyers, one who paid �500 to have a report by the court councel done, and that said that he probably couldnt sell the house, so all the buyers have fallen through. we dont know where to go from here.

[cozican]

hi themas, thanks for your reply, our problem is that the halifax bank doesnt want to evict him, and we cant, we know that he will be re housed, but he wont leave the property, and no one seems willing to get him out either, but we cant clear the mortgage unless he goes, we wondered where we go from here, surely the halifax will want their money back, but if they dont repossess the house, it will just go on until his father dies, sorry to be so blunt, but that could be years.

[Lindylou]

I would have thought that it's Halifax's problem, not yours. They want to repossess. So let 'em. Or not. Their decision. You just wash your hands of it all. If, and when, they finally do decide to repossess and sell the property, after a Court order get your Dad/father-in-law out, it will be for what is owed on it. They will probably want to 'chase' you for any excess, but if you haven't got it, i.e. you are renting your own home/are living on benefits etc etc., then they will have to claim on their insurance and stop chasing you. The insurance is the indemnity that you pay for when you originally take out your mortgage. It is possible your Council won't be able to rehouse your Dad - what with all the right to buy/immigrants etc etc. Don't any of you lose sleep over this, it will all work out. At the end of the day Halifax have a lot more money/profit than you obviously have. They can afford it Good Luck to you all. Including your Dad/Father-in-law.

[buildersmate]

Are you forgetting, Lindy, that the Halifax will charge all of their costs of eviction as well as ongoing interest against the equity in the property BEFORE returning any residue to the former owner.
It simply doesn't help you to just push Halifax into doing this.
You will have to take legal action through a solicitor yourself if you wish to remove this gent from the property. Then you can sell it on the open market.

[themas]

Well, I said it would probably be difficult to get him out, & it seems what you have already done demonstrates that! Still, I can't believe it is impossible but it is clear from what it has already cost you that it would be an expensive process - probably involving a barrister and specialist solicitor - & with no guarantee of success.

You could voluntarily surrender the house to Halifax but - as buildersmate points out - all the subsequent costs would be lumped onto your partner along with the mortgage so it doesn't solve the problem.

You could raise an official complaint with Halifax (you have to be given their complaints procedure if you ask for it) and end up going to the Ombudsman if not satisfied. However, this would be a most unusual type of complaint - in effect, I want my house repossessed and Halifax won't do it - & could well end up with them agreeing to repossess but leaving the father in possession, still with all the costs lumped on your partner. I suspect they will say it is your partner's job to get his father out, not theirs, and you'll end up getting nowhere.

It's a drastic remedy, but if your partner has substantial debts and goes bankrupt then the house goes to the OR, it becomes his problem & the debt to Halifax is included in the bankruptcy. However, any equity there may be in the house would get eaten up - wholly or in part - by the bankruptcy costs.

Is there anybody that the father gets on well with who could try to persuade him to leave? Would there be enough equity if he left and the house was sold for your partner to be able to offer him a reasonable sum as compensation?

[cozican]

hi themas, thank you, and everyone else, who has sent me a message, i think our hands are tied on this, his father wont communicate with my partner, and wont move out. he is old, and doent want to move, which is understandable, but doesnt help the situation. as you rightly said, we have got advice about evicting him, but the result was that the courts probably wouldnt let us do it. we still have about �100.000 equity in the house, if sold at market value, so giving the house back to the halifax seems the best idea, but as you also said, they will keep lumping costs on to the mortgage, if they dont evict him, it could take years, and we would lose all the equity in charges. maybe we need to look into bankruptcy, its not that we want the equity from the house, althou that would be nice, our main concern is that my partner is disabled after a nasty accident at work, and can not deal with the stress that this situation is causing, thats why we want the easiest solution to this house problem. i think we need to force halifax's hand some how, but dont know how to do it. as you said, maybe bankruptcy will make them take action.

[PhillipTapper]

hi cozican hope you are OK
My Name Is Philip Tapper from reading Berkshire uk
as i am new here and i am starting out in the property business
i have posted your problem on other forum and websites
and see what reply i get from them as i have friends and then post some answer here for u to read and to help and solve your dilemma