Cannot afford the rent.

DawnW

bobothebear wrote: »

Where do these places exist where you can just pay your rent when you choose?
My Letting Agent enforced that we had a Standing Order setup on the day I got the keys. Its so much easier because I don't have to give it a second thought it just comes out as standard every month.

It may be simple to set up, and obviously works for this poster. However, in order for standing orders to be paid, the money has to be available in the account at the appropriate time each month. My tenants were unable to get it together to ensure this, even though it was originally set up (at my insistence, which counts for nothing if there is no money available to pay), and arrears (now cleared) built up. The OP may well be in this situation? I got around it by discussing it with them, which this LA obviously has not done. We came to an arrangement whereby they pay me in cash on the day the female partner is paid (I don't think her OH works very much :eek: ). It is a bit of a pain, as I have to issue receipts, and take the money to the bank myself every month, but is preferable to them not paying. I know I could issue S21, S8 etc but they are ok tenants in every other way, pleasant enough, and keep the place tidy, and in fairness they have stuck to this arrangement which they can manage, as opposed to the other one which they couldn't. I guess not all LLs / LAs would bother with this, but I think the LL/ tenant relationship is something that needs effort on both sides - I speak as one of those 'amateur' LLs (and a reluctant one at that) who gets reviled on some of these boards. However, I do think that this LA is being unreasonable. If the rent has not been paid, they should send out prompt reminders / invoices.

tbs624

You make some good points Dawn, and obviously make an effort to help your Ts meet their tenancy obligations. ( I have also made the point, in another thread, that the length of time someone has been a LL does not necessarily indicate whether they will be good at what they do )

We do of course only get to hear one side on here and if you look back at the OP, it's not just about failing on the LA's part but an apparent lack of communication between the OP and his partner:

RobOwen wrote: »

....Basicly, my last rent payment was in November, so i now owe Dec, Jan & Feb. During this time i had absolutely no corrospondance or phonecalls until 2 weeks ago, where the phone call was off the director of the company telling me to basicly "pay up NOW while im on the phone or i will take you to court"
This was out of the blue to me as i had presumed my partner had payed Dec + Jan, but as i said i've had NO letters at all from them.

When someone is aware of their own organisational difficulties then it's perhaps best not to make assumptions on what their own partner may or may not be doing? As I said before, the partner *may* be a joint T in which case s/he cannot use the OPs dyspraxia as a " reason" to avoid paying rent, or other bills, on time. Why didn't the OP's partner share the responsibility & remind him that the rent had not been paid?

RobOwen_2

Thought i'd update everyone on my progress.

Talked to the landlord and the letting agent, and also sent both identical e-mails as to my financial situation. I sent the e-mail saying that i can pay £750 until my debt to them is cleared and that i can be contacted via my e-mail or written corrospondance.

Within 2 days my landlord had responded saying that he was happy and would wait for the agents reply, he had also sent identical e-mails to both them and myself.
Well i waited and waited for them, and tried phoning them a couple of times only to be told that the manager was out and that she'd call me when she was available.

During this time, the !!!! hit the fan.

We were paid only £1050, also due to the Letting agents already taken £250 more than what we had agreed on last month, this came off my overdraft first, and to top it off i had £105 in bank charges due to the agents taking too much money in the first place and i incurred the maximum 3 charges in one day before my account was suspended.

For those trying to do the sums, that is £1050 - £355 = 695

Taking away my other commitments (council tax, gas, phone bill etc) i was left with £450, please note that at this point i still hadnt paid the rent.

Recieved a phone call 3 days ago (a week after i had been paid) from the agents demanding full payment of what i had said in the e-mail, i explained that i was waiting for them to contact me to which she said "Why would you expect that? You wouldn't expect to leave the supermarket without paying for your groceries first?"
This baffled me, but i didnt know what else to say, she wouldnt let me explain any of our financial situation and why i wouldnt be able to pay her what i had said in the e-mail.

She asked how much could i pay then, and i said £300 (thus giving me £150 to last me for 3 weeks, which i would expect people in here would say was a VERY basic amount for 2 people sharing!) Anyways, she agreed and we ended the calls with meaningless thankyous.

Today, £600 has been taken by them, meaning that my overdraft is £1467, my agreed overdraft being £1300, and i have incurred yet another bank charge after buying £9.45 of shopping believing that i still had £150 left over.

This is driving me insane, and i dont mean the funny kind that you can laugh about cos you left your packed lunch at home and you're already having a bad day in work. Im talking about serious health problems, waking up all through the night, unaware of doing things when tired, unusual shortness of breath, headaches and more.

And for the icing on the cake, i cant afford to go to the doctors as i dont have any money left to get medication, oh, and also my asthma inhalors are quite low so worried about them running out.

This might be my last responce before my internet is cancelled (my choice)

poppysarah

Use local library for internet. It's often free.
Go to the docs and get prescriptions - ask about reclaiming prescription charges etc (you can get discount by getting a voucher which you can backdate - but you need to get a proper receipt for your prescriptions)
You can I believe get a crisis loan if you're in employment - so you need to research that.

Zelie

Two points:

1) If you are on a low income you can get free prescriptions. I believe the amount is £14,000 but you'd need to check that. www.ppa.org.uk have the information.

2) If the EA are taking more than you authorise them to then they have broken the Direct Debit agreement. Contact your bank and let them know this and that you want to make an official complaint. Also inform your bank that you want no payments to be made to the EA unless you authorise it. (This does mean that you need to keep on top of payments for a while).

Phone the EA and get the bank account details you are to pay into. These may be on your tenancy agreement anyway. Then inform them that you have cancelled the Direct Debit and they may no longer draw on it. Inform them that you will be setting up a standing order instead. Don't let them argue.

This changes the balance of power. Instead of them taking money, you are giving it. You are then in control of how much leaves your account.

I'd recommend telling the bank to set up a standing order for the agreed monthly amount and have it leave on the day after payday. That way there's no time for you to get in trouble with the rent. You might have problems with other things but none of those are as important as keeping a roof over your head!

Finally, email the landlord again and let him know that you had problems this month due to the EA taking a sum you did not agree. Point out that their doing so has resulted in you having bank charges which reduces your ability to pay. Then tell him that as they have done it twice you are not convinced they won't do it again so you've cancelled the direct debit and set up a standing order. This means that if the EA go to the landlord stating you've cancelled the direct debit then he already knows and knows the reason why.

Decadent_Fool

I think he should get a new partner; the current one is clearly self-centred and thinks more about paying off her own mistakes than ensuring they have somewhere to live.

Good luck to the op

tbs624

Rob - if your partner is unable/unwilling to help you to sort all of this out then make an appointment asap to see someone at the local CAB - they have an "advocacy service", a worker who can talk to banks, LLs etc on your behalf and help you get things moving in the right direction.

Dinah93

As was previously suggested, this isn't just your mess, but your partner used this money paying off credit cards, and needs to pull their weight now. It's a horrible rate of interest, but better than all these bank charges by far to get her to reorder the cards chopped up and draw money off that to pay off the LL debt and get you back into the agreed level of overdraft. You can also call the CC company and arrange for a cash transfer to a current account off a CC. She is not supporting you and has made the situation significantly worse, yet also has the ability to help you get out of it too. If she won't you need someone who is going to be 'on your team' as she seems very selfish. You need to get back into the agreed overdraft, and finish paying off the LL. Cancel the direct debit to the agents while you're at it and set up a standing order so you control the money into and out of your account, you are perfectly within your rights to do this.