chewits - the debtquake monster is coming

mrscmr

blimey and yuk!

good on ya!

kissjenn

Well given the storms up here not too surprising that somewhere sprung a leak. Builders were great though and got up on the roof to fix things today. Tenant happy which is always a good result.

Also had some good news at the OU. OH and I signed up for a course and he's getting his free because he's on DLA. They also put his mind at rest about exams as they've lots of clever little ways they can probe him :rotfl:

So all in all a good day and hopefully we get some dry time tomorrow.

kissjenn

Note to self - just because it's stopped raining doesn't mean it's dry!!

Took the wolf for a wander and came face to face with the mud. Usually it's my very limited dignity, this time my knee hurts like hell.

I'm getting old

Oh and to cap it all the wolf found some fresh horse poo. Usually its a daub behind the ears but today :eek: head first straight in. Smells like a field in here.

Gina_of_course!

Caught up with your diary... was led here by your very informative posts on mrscr's diary.

I used to support homeless people and fully understand the difficulties you have come up against with the stupid way HB is paid now.

mrscmr

hope ur knee is ok? nice pic!

kissjenn

Gina_of_course! wrote: »

Caught up with your diary... was led here by your very informative posts on mrscr's diary.

I used to support homeless people and fully understand the difficulties you have come up against with the stupid way HB is paid now.

Thanks Gina. Sometimes I think its just all in my head. People genuinely think there's no consequence to them keeping it and paying us when they feel like it.

mrscmr wrote: »

hope ur knee is ok? nice pic!

Cheers m'dear. Hope your weeks been getting better.

I've snaffled OH's walking stick...standing and moving are not to bad. Getting up from sitting and the stairs hurt like b*ggery. Hopefully it'll free up in a day or two - if I was a horse they'd have shot me by now.

mrscmr

hopefully not stopping you from creativeness?

Gina_of_course!

Do the homeless unit give you any details on any support workers the tenants have? Might be an idea to set up a meeting with the housing advice team and homeless unit manager to discuss how they can help you by linking the support worker in with you (obviously with the future tenants permission - no permission no tenancy would be my thinking) Let the support worker do the work, chase internally the HB (damn sight quicker than any landlord would be able to do it, especially if they think they are about to have rehouse the tenant via homelessness) I've seen initial HB paid within two weeks. Also a letter from a support worker/drug worker should I hope be enough to ensure direct payments.

I can imagine the last thing they want is to lose a landlord who will accept people with those issues.

Doing it any other way than direct payments is disabling the tenant in my books, though I have had to argue that with a lot of people about rights etc... Even doing CCG with tenants I have insisted on receipts to send back to DWP, even though they do not require this, especially if someone is linked in with the Drug Team, it shows that they are being responsible with the money. Being firm but fair works in most cases.

P.S. Am now on incap after having cancer 4 times. I do not have any debt (apart from mortgage) also have no savings now :S

kissjenn

mrscmr wrote: »

hopefully not stopping you from creativeness?

Nope...being creative. Lost half of today which was a pain...to do list shot to hell. Back on track tomoz tho, it'll take til then to get upstairs :eek:

kissjenn

Gina_of_course! wrote: »

Do the homeless unit give you any details on any support workers the tenants have? Might be an idea to set up a meeting with the housing advice team and homeless unit manager to discuss how they can help you by linking the support worker in with you (obviously with the future tenants permission - no permission no tenancy would be my thinking) Let the support worker do the work, chase internally the HB (damn sight quicker than any landlord would be able to do it, especially if they think they are about to have rehouse the tenant via homelessness) I've seen initial HB paid within two weeks. Also a letter from a support worker/drug worker should I hope be enough to ensure direct payments.

I can imagine the last thing they want is to lose a landlord who will accept people with those issues.

Doing it any other way than direct payments is disabling the tenant in my books, though I have had to argue that with a lot of people about rights etc... Even doing CCG with tenants I have insisted on receipts to send back to DWP, even though they do not require this, especially if someone is linked in with the Drug Team, it shows that they are being responsible with the money. Being firm but fair works in most cases.

P.S. Am now on incap after having cancer 4 times. I do not have any debt (apart from mortgage) also have no savings now :S

We involve the Homelessness Team, the LHA/HB Team and local councillor. I got a letter from the councillor telling me we're too soft. So now we play their game. We advise the minute they're in arrears. We send out Notice to Quit after 8 weeks and we keep the notice in place until it's sorted.

We have no faith in the Council at all. We tried playing nicely and they act like the school bully and stomp off with their ball any time it looks like they may have to do something useful. Best "laugh" is we used to leave flowers and bottle of Veuve for new tenants regardless of rental status because we passionately believed in if we were decent they would reciprocate. Now they get a lecture on what will happen at each stage if they ever think about not paying rent.

Councillor was right - I'm far too soft and hoped people would treat me with the respect I accorded to them. Having said some of them are great and have responded well to our approach so now I need to ruthlessly prune the dead wood.

C'est la vie...we'll keep being decent and hope we persuade some of the benefits of playing nice!