8th
Sep 2017
A tenant has been awarded by a court that he can keep on paying cheap rent for as long as he wants and he described his landlords as being greedy by taking him to court to increase his rent.
The tenant, Mr. Colin Gregory, had originally sold his three bedroomed bungalow to his friends and neighbours in 2001 for £143,000.
The couple bought the home using a buy-to-let mortgage allowing Mr. Gregory to stay in the property as a tenant and pay a monthly rent of £800.
The ex-neighbours told the court that Mr. Gregory was finding it extremely difficult to maintain the mortgage and said that they bought his home to "help out".
In 2002 the couple sold their own home and moved abroad.
Three years ago they decided to try to sell the other property, first offering it back to Mr Gregory, who declined and refused to leave.
Sixty eight year old retiree, Mr Gregory, said: “David is trying to say they tried to help out by buying the house in the first place but I had already made plans to sell it to another person and had to let them down.
He disputes the claim that he was finding it hard to pay his mortgage and said: “We had a paper agreement stating that I could stay in the house for as long as I want for £800 a month, with a mortgage payment included in the rent.
“He said we didn’t have that agreement when we went to court. Why would they have left it all this time to put the rent up if we didn’t have an agreement?
“I think they did it out of greed.”
The landlords did tell Mr. Gregory that he could take a year to find the money to buy back the three bedroomed bungalow, which he refused to do.
The couple told him that there was an interested buyer who had made an offer of £240,000 for the property and would be willing to keep Mr. Gregory as a tenant. However the prospective buyer said that Mr. Gregory would have to pay a monthly rent of £1,200, which he flatly refused to do so as it was £400 more than he was paying.
In March 2016, the case was held in Brighton County Court, Mr. Gregory told the court that the only reason he had sold the bungalow to his neighbours, at a reduced price, was so he could rent the property for as long as he wanted to.
The couple attempted to be given possession of the £310,000 bungalow but were stopped in their tracks by a virtually unknown law; consequently the judge ordered them to give Mr. Gregory the cheap rent for 'life'.
Mr Gregory’s solicitor used two laws passed in 1925 and 1948 and under the 1925 Property Act he has the legal right to continue paying the monthly rent for the next ninety years.
He was awarded costs of £11,000 and the couple were told that there was only the one condition to be able to sell the home that the buyer would keep Mr. Gregory as a tenant and continue paying the £800 monthly rent.
Mr Gregory said: “I have spent over £5,000 on repairing stuff around the house that I have never got back.
“I also still haven’t been paid any of the court costs they have been ordered to pay.”
When contacted the local paper spoke to one of the couple, he said: “What Colin is saying is not true and we have tried to get access to the property through Fox and Sons in Peacehaven, with letters of notice and messages.
“The very last message was sent to him on May 30, 2016, and still no response.”
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