Eviction if you are disabled

Milliewilly

If the house is in her name why isn't she keeping a tighter rein on the rent being paid?

kt33uk

They are a really weird household. SIL gets DLA but since some of it is taken to pay for her mobility scooter I am sure there is not enough left to pay a months rent.

Son is a lazy git. He doesn't work - JSA - he gives her about £30 a fortnight from his money but you can be guaranteed that he get it back plus more when 'borrowing' from her.

Her partner is really bad at getting advances on his wages so often by the end of the month there really isn't that much of a wage left. I know a couple of months ago he got just over £200 as a monthly wage. I am sure he has a gambling problem.

I have told SIL god knows how many times to chuck him out but she won't.

Jowo_2

Oh, well, if she's happy being exploited and subsidising other people who are lazy or can't manage their budget and are happy to sponge off a vulnerable person, then there's little you can do.

I find it odd and discouraging that the Local Housing Officer have virtually given her assurance that they'll tolerate her rent arrears as there's such pressure on social housing and such limited budgets for social housing landlords, that they usually have quite a firm stance against non payment of rent.

Marcheline

Then she'll have to learn from her mistakes when she's thrown out. Sorry to be harsh, but if she won't help herself....

kt33uk

Marcheline wrote: »

Then she'll have to learn from her mistakes when she's thrown out. Sorry to be harsh, but if she won't help herself....

It's not harsh Marcheline. It's nothing I haven't said to her myself. I am going to speak to her again tomorrow and find out exactly what the housing officer said.

I am hoping it doesn't get to the stage of her being thrown out but the way they are going I can see it ending up back at court.

Jowo_2

Slightly off topic, I know, but a publication in Glasgow used to print the summary of some housing cases.

In one instance, a woman with a handful of adult children in the property had hundreds of pounds worth of arrears. The judge was completely baffled that she took either no or peppercorn housekeeping off them. The judge stayed the eviction to give her one last opportunity to encourage them to contribute towards the rent and prevent the loss of their family home.

In another instance, the lady being evicted said her arrears had built up because her housing benefit had been cut-off. The judge said that this was because she won tens of thousands of pounds at bingo so why hadn't she paid her rent? Response: 'Because the social stopped my benefits..'.

Running_Horse

I know someone who deals with council arrears for a living, and there is almost no chance of your SIL being evicted...if she plays the game and offers to clear the arrears. In fact even if she didn't she just has to keep applying for stay hearings and make new offers, and you would be amazed how much arrears they will allow to build up. The vast majority of eviction orders never go through in social housing. The system is bent for those who know how to play it.

squinty

clutton wrote: »

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

This does not apply to council tenants

I think you are referring to Ground 8 which is a mandatory ground for possession. This applies when there is to months rent owing on the date the notice is served and on the date of the hearing. This does not mean that the court cannot evict under this level (unless the Notice says ground 8 only) merely that this is discretionary.

There are no mandatory grounds for evicting council tenants.

OP, you say your SIL has been taken to court before for rent arrears. You need to understand the outcome of this. If the court awarded the council a suspended or postponed possession order (depending on when this was) this would have allowed her to stay as long as she complied witht he terms of the order. However, if no rent has been paid for 4 months it may well be that she has not only broken the terms of her tenancy, but the terms of a court order. (Judges often feel that by breaking a court order is the tenant is letting them down personally and can be very unsympathetic)

If this is the case, she could very easily lose her home. The court may have more sympathy due to the disability, but have no doubt - they will evict her unless she takes steps to put this right and to keep to any court order against her.

squinty

Running_Horse wrote: »

I know someone who deals with council arrears for a living, and there is almost no chance of your SIL being evicted...if she plays the game and offers to clear the arrears. In fact even if she didn't she just has to keep applying for stay hearings and make new offers, and you would be amazed how much arrears they will allow to build up. The vast majority of eviction orders never go through in social housing. The system is bent for those who know how to play it.

Sorry, but this is just not true in the vast majority of local authorities.

This is very poor, even dangerous, advice. I hope no-one follows this.

Running_Horse

squinty wrote: »

I hope no-one follows this.

If only they didn't, but they do, and get away with it. They have even nicknamed judges "one last chance". Social housing works very differently to private, and if you know how to play the system you can get away with murder.