Collateral damage for residential tenants when a landlord defaults on a secured loan : the enforcement of heritable securities and the habitability of – and eviction from – a privately rented home

Combe, Malcolm M. (2024) Collateral damage for residential tenants when a landlord defaults on a secured loan : the enforcement of heritable securities and the habitability of – and eviction from – a privately rented home. Juridical Review. ISSN 0022-6785 (In Press)

[thumbnail of Combe-JR-2024-Collateral-damage-for-residential-tenants-when-a-landlord-defaults] Text. Filename: Combe-JR-2024-Collateral-damage-for-residential-tenants-when-a-landlord-defaults.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only until 1 January 2099.
Download (303kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Many residential properties in Scotland are used as security for loans. Many such properties are rented by the private owner to a residential tenant. It will often be the case that the interests of a heritable creditor with a security over a property and a residential tenant living there will not clash. Where there has been a default in relation to a secured loan, however, issues around enforcement of the security and the implications for any occupier of the security can arise. In the cases of Pepper UK Limited v Alvey and Pepper UK Limited v Rendle (which both flowed from the same debtor’s default), some of these issues came to a head. One point related to the habitability of the property, and in particular who was obliged to meet the statutory repairing standard for privately let property as the enforcement process was underway. A second matter was the eviction of the tenants from their home by the heritable creditor (to allow a sale with vacant possession). This article uses these cases as the basis for a discussion of what the law ought to do in such circumstances to best balance the apparently competing interests.

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)