repossession - tenant's side

[Pimpernel]

Hello,

I have been renting a flat for over a year. The building previously consisted of offices, which had been/still are to be converted into small flats.
There were numerous problems from day 1: renovation work in the flat not completed when we moved in, and never fully finished; impossible to get landline phone and internet access, despite insurance to the contrary of the lettings agents (who did not want to have anything to do with us once we had moved in); no letter boxes for over a year; simplistic doorcode never changed; squatters moving in the unconverted parts of the building over 6 months ago etc.
None of the tenants could ever get in touch with the landlords (correspondence address = PO box; letters unanswered; mobile phone always on voicemail; messages unanswered), or with the site manager (phone calls only answered if we called from a hidden number, and then phone hung up on us when we introduced ourselves).
Last week we learnt that the landlords hadn't been paying the mortgage, and that the bank has seized the building. An administrator has been appointed to cash in the rents and maintain the building. According to them, they do not intend to turn us out right now, but I'm still worried (after all, 1 year ago, the lettings agents did assure us that the landlords were not behind with their mortgage, when this was already the case...). What is the minimum notice they have to give us? For example, if the bank sells the building at an auction, can the new owner turn out tenants who have 'overstayed' their initial 6-month contracts?
I'm also contacting the Dispute Service (well trying to, their website won't load): they are supposed to protect my deposit, but as the landlords didn't physically pay it into a protected account, I'm worried I might not get it back. I know for a fact that previous tenants who moved out didn't.

Thanks in advance.

Regards.

[jb190281]

I suggest you get in touch with Shelter

[bushbaby_de]

Pimpernel, you may want to repost this in law.

Briefly, you haven't 'overstayed' your contract - it will have moved on to become a periodic tenancy, therefore you are entitled to 2 months notice for the landlord to end the tenancy. You will only have to give one month's notice to leave, so I suggest you start looking for a new pad!

[Twenty20]

As said above, you should be looking to get out asap.

I would imagine the building would be sold with vacant possession as it would be worth more which means the bank, if they wished, would get you evicted first.

More worrying is the lack of deposit protection. Did you receive any notification of the deposit being protected when you took up the tenancy (I'm assuming this is an assured shorthold tenancy with rent under £25k per year)? If not, you can still check with the schemes by simply ringing them up - I think there's only three, the main one being the Deposit Protection Service (DPS). If the deposit isn't protected (and assuming that it should be) then issue a letter before action stating that you will be taking the landlord to court for 3x the deposit (this is the penalty for not protecting a deposit). For more advice on this try the Landlordzone website.