Shelter victory in sale and rent back case

Housing charity Shelter are jubilant after succeeding in saving the home of Paul Amanda Jackson of Shrewsbury, where they had lived for over 20 years.

According to the BBC report, Mr and Mrs Jackson entered a sale and rent back deal with a company, Repossessions Stopped, in 2005 after getting into mortgage arrears. However two years later they faced repossession from Repossessions Stopped's mortgage company after they fell into arrears with their mortgage payments. Apparently Repossessions Stopped (described by the Judge in this case as 'dishonest'), had paid only £63,000 for the property, despite it having a market value of £100,000, and had assured Mr and Mrs Jackson that they could live in it for the rest of their lives.

Thankfully for them, Shelter stepped in to assist and a judge at Birmingham County Court has ruled they can stay there and pay rent. The Shelter report states that His Honour Judge Worster has ruled that the family can either revert to being owner-occupiers, or rent the property for the rest of their lives, with their daughter inheriting the tenancy.

The news reports I have seen just state the order made and not the legal reasons for them, so it will be interesting to read the report of the Judgement when it comes out.

PS There is now an excellent analysis of the legal points on the Nearly Legal web-site here.