Essex Landlord, Robert Crowe was given a suspended possession order of one of the flats in his £700,000 property by a civil court judge in Southend, Essex.
By Joshua Dare-
Bank of Ireland sued Crowe for his property over a £1,724 Mortgage arrears and wanted to take his property from him. They had originally charged him £7,200 in an earlier court hearing in March, but were declined the opportunity to present extra charges associated with the leaseholder as part of the original arrears.
It was eventually agreed that the extra charges be resolved at the end of the Mortgage period in November this year via a re-mortgage or sale of the property.
Crowe, who accommodates a bunch of rent defaulters, was represented by Citizens advice bureau personnel because he could not afford to hire a lawyer. His tenants were mainly homeless people on the streets, and many of them are alcoholics and suspected drug addicts. Solicitors for the Bank of Ireland argued that Mr.Crowe had not paid his mortgage payments due on the 30th of every month, since his last court case in March when he promised to make some payments.
Crowe told the courts that former tenants had let him down on payments and that he had evicted them and replaced them with new more reliable tenants. The vocal landlord added that Southend Council had victimised him by not paying the housing benefit of the flat in question for up to a year. He added that the DWP had also been slow to pay rent money to him for some of his tenants. He said ”the situation has now changed, and I can now pay some money towards the arrears”.
The judge had asked Mr.Crowe to explain why he had not paid a penny of the arrears since his last court hearing on March 21, last month.
Crowe proposed paying his £1,724 arrears in three instalments over five months, but his lenders, bank of England, turned down his offer by insisting to possess the whole flat worth £160,000.They argued that Mr.Crowe had shown no evidence of affordability and urged the judge to grant them a possession order.
However, the judge accepted a recommendation from Crowe’s representative that the 69-year-old landlord pays £345 over the remaining 7 months left on his mortgage. The judge told Mr.Crowe that if he fails to pay, he will lose his property. He has two weeks to make his first payment.
