Eviction if you are disabled

kt33uk

My SIL is disabled and lives in a council house with her partner and her 25 year old son. Her partner works full time and brings home a pretty good wage. The problem is that he is supposed to pay the rent every month and from what she has told me he hasn't paid the rent for over 4 months. She has been taken to court in the past for rent arrears and was threatened with eviction, but they managed to pay off the arrears. The house is in her name only so she is the one that gets all the calls about the arrears. Last week she had a visit from the local housing officer about her arrears. She said that the lady told her that they can't evict her from the house for rent arrears because she is disabled.

Can this be true?

Her arrears are currently sitting at over £800 and her partner is the type of person that would actually stop paying the rent if he thought he could.

ILW

Is she getting any sort of housing benefit?

clutton_2

As a LL i have never heard of this - the law on rent arrears is very clear, if a tenant is more than 8 weeks in arrears the LL can apply for possession, but if the tenant pays off some arrears and brings it down to less than 8 weeks on the day of the court h earing, the judge cannot evict.

re the disability-eviciton thing - i would call CAB or maybe Help The AGed

kt33uk

no she doesn't get any type of housing benefit. She receives DLA not sure at what rate.

olias

And advise your SIL to ditch this guy.....

Olias

suze_g

Being disabled doesn't mean a thing. The fact is the property is in her name. That means she is soley responsible for paying that rent. difficult when your partner is being an !!!! about it, but that's the way it is.

She would be intentionally homeless as well if they evicted her. The real issue is dealing with the partner. Does he want to be homeless, and see his disabled parter become homeless? because he is going the right way about it.

BitterAndTwisted

What kind of idiot partner earns a decent wage and won't ensure the roof over their head is paid for? Answer: the kind that needs to be kicked hard and then kicked out imo. I think the OP's SIL needs to think very seriously about using her DLA to pay the rent herself.

Jowo_2

Like the previous posters, I am not aware that disabled people have any protection from eviction through arrears. I thought that a certain level of arrears at the time of the court case means that the judge has no discretion whatsoever in his decision to award possession back to the landlord. Perhaps its just the policy of the council not to evict disabled tenants. Or perhaps this mandatory ground is not present in secure tenancies (found only in private lets) and the council finds that judges tend to side with vulnerable tenants?

http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/free_legal_information/public_housing/pubhf6.html

What does her contract or tenant handbook say about arrears?

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/council_tenancies/secure_council_tenancies

Since her partner's selfishness is impacting her, perhaps its best if she pays the rent directly to the council with cash that the partner gives her, in order to be certain that it's getting paid, plus she should speak to them to arrange a repayment schedule for the arrears to date and stick to the plan.

mrstinchcombe

Surely equal opportunties should apply to everything or nothing at all, shocking.

Jowo_2

What kind of housekeeping is the son paying? If she goes, he goes, so hopefully he is in the position to chip in?

Jowo_2

suze_g wrote: »

She would be intentionally homeless as well if they evicted her. The real issue is dealing with the partner. .

You are correct that failure to pay rent when in the position to do so can result in the council refusing to house the evicted tenant on the grounds that it was their behaviour that led to them losing their home.

But I've heard of successful defences whereby the tenant is able to demonstrate that they've not been aware that the rent hasn't been paid.

However, presumably the council sent her letters about the arrears and now have a record of discussing the non payment with her so she cannot use this defence in future.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/homelessness/help_from_the_council/what_the_council_will_check/intentional_homelessness

"If you became homeless because of rent arrears and you thought your partner was paying the rent, the council may consider your partner to be intentionally homeless, but not you. This only applies if you can show that you were unaware of the other person's actions, did not agree to their actions, or couldn't stop them."