Help With Rent Arrears

swstudent

Hi Everyone.

Writing this on behalf of my mother who I live with. We live in a 2 bed semi property, renting through an estate agents for £120. Have looked at other houses, either too small or too expensive! Moved here last year after living in a council house - mum and her ex partner (my father) split and he has stayed in the house (and has actually just brought it). So we moved, had basically no where to go so went for the house we currently live in.

Everything was going okay with the rent and other bills until my mums new partner went on statutory sick pay for 4 months and received £70 per week. Since this period of time mum and her partner have struggled to pay the rent. Arrears of currently £1010 including this current week. Last week we had a letter from the estate agents who are going to take us to court if we have not paid the arrears and the rest of the rent up to 22nd November.

We do not actually have a tenancy agreement (long story). However we cannot find anywhere cheaper to rent that is the same size as our house. My mum cannot get housing benefit but her and her partner have various loans to pay off. My mums loans are more than 2 weeks wages. Plus all the other bills which soon mount up. Once these are payed off there is no more money for rent. I've tried to help all I can - I'm a FT student living at home and have given as much money as I can at the moment.

Not expecting any sympathy as we know we are in the wrong! Just wondering if anyone had been in the same situation or has any advice.

Thank you

swstudent

P.s. Sorry about any grammar mistakes, I'm so tired!

Jowo_2

Assuming you pay monthly, if you hit 2 months worth of rent arrears, your landlord will probably serve you an S8 notice and if, at the time of the court case, 2 months worth of rent is still owing, possession will definately get awarded to the landlord since the judge has no discretion. It is a mandatory ground.

From the information, it is likely that you have a periodic tenancy agreement so the other notice you may receive as well or instead is an S21 which gives you 2 months notice to quit (timed to expire at the end of the rental period). This is known as a no fault notice - as long as correctly completed and served, judgement will be made in favour of the landlord. Sometimes this is served at the outset of the tenancy agreement.

The Shelter website provides information that details the eviction process and also the process for applying for homeless should you approach the council for assistance (who do not help households who they deem to have made themselves intentionally homeless by not paying rent when they could have).

Consider getting an appointment with your mum to the local Citizens Advice Bureau to help you understand the next steps and work out a repayment schedule which could possibly stave off eviction if the landlord agrees to it and if it is stuck to.

Was the deposit protected in a tenancy deposit scheme if the property is in England/Wales?

By the sounds of it, your mother could do with some help from CAB to help her with her credit problems. If the situation is getting on top of you, remember that your college may have a counselling or support service to help you.

Get your mum and partner to have a look at the Entitled to website or get CAB to check you are claiming everything your household is entitled to.

swstudent

Thanks Jowo. We have the telephone number to our local CAB written down so will ring them up as soon as possible to book an appointment. We pay our rent weekly and owe just under 2 months worth of rent. We were given a notice seeking possession letter last week - we had already received a letter with concerns about our arrears and after this managed to pay off £550 but our arrears are still high.

We were threatened with homelessness in May of this year. Our tenancy agreement (which was then shorthold November 2008 - May 2009) was almost up and our landlord claimed she wanted the house back so we got in touch with our local council and applied to get on the housing list. However at the last minute she said she didn't want the house back and the estate agents told the council we weren't being threatened with homelessness so we were placed at the bottom band of the council waiting list. We cannot bid for any of the houses from the council as we are in arrears. We haven't signed any sort of contract since May - we haven't spoken to our landlord for months. We have asked her several times over the months if she will come and speak to us but she never responds.

We have got in touch with the council and can't claim any sorts of benefits. We have been trying to work out over the weekend how we can cut other bills and have managed to do very little. It's frustrating and carries on getting on top of us.

Thanks for your help.

McKneff

Why not post (or get your mum to) post an SOA to enable us to help you properly, its amazing what fresh eyes can do.

~Beanie~

Rent is a priority and should be paid before any loans/debts. You can usually come to agreements with creditors to accept reduced payments etc but if you don't pay your rent you will eventually end up homeless!

I agree with the advice to visit the CAB to discuss the debt problems.

Emma1973

WHen you go to CAB, ask them about applying for a discretionary housing payment, they should be able to help you apply for one.

bandofbrothers

I agree.

The CAB will also advise you to pay outgoings such as rent as a priority.

Loan and credit card companies will in most cases accept reduced payments and in some cases reduce or stop interest. In the end you cannot lose your home or be imprisoned for failing to pay these outgoings as you pay rent the loans would not have been attached to your home.

shyam25

I completely agree to him

swstudent

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your advice. Will get in touch with the CAB as soon as possible and see if I can get any information off Shelter and Debt line! Also going to get in touch with the council and see if they have any housing advisors or any more information and with the bank to see if they can help somewhat with the loans! Thank you everyone for your help!

Pepzofio

swstudent wrote: »

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your advice. Will get in touch with the CAB as soon as possible and see if I can get any information off Shelter and Debt line! Also going to get in touch with the council and see if they have any housing advisors or any more information and with the bank to see if they can help somewhat with the loans! Thank you everyone for your help!

If you've kept up with the loan repayments to this point then the bank will more than likely either (a) refuse to help by reducing payments/offering a payment holiday or (b) offer you more credit. Rent, Council Tax and Utility arrears are all priority debts - bank loans are NOT.

If you can't afford to pay everyone then STOP PAYING THE BANK LOANS until your rent arrears are cleared, as if you are evicted for rent arrears then you are unlikely to be rehoused by the council (or get through referencing checks for another private rent). You will also be in a better position to bid on council properties if LL decides to serve a S21 anyway, thinking that you are 'risky' tenants.

By all means inform the bank that you're having problems, but be aware that if the loans are with the same bank as your current account, then they can just help themselves to funds to pay off any loan arrears. Your mum might want to consider opening a basic bank account elsewhere and getting all income paid into that one so that she has control over who is being paid what.