rent arrears & county court letter

brummylad_3

Last night I was clearing all my ex's stuff out my flat and found a load of letters from my Housing Association & 1 from HMCS about my rent arrears.

Problem is i had my gf sort out paying the rent as i was often away from home due to work.....i set up a standing order to her account so she could pay it at the PO for me and gave her the rent card.

Judging by the state of the arrears she has not been paying for it and now they have started court proceedings seeking possession and as mentioned before its next wednesday!!!

Will they take my place off me even though it is not my fault. I will seek to get the money back off my ex but that will obviously be a long process as the arrears are over £1k.

Can somebody please advise me on what to do.

Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

If the tenancy is in your name then you are responsible for the arrears even though you delegated someone else to make the payments on your behalf.

I believe a court will not award possession to your landlord if the arrears are less than eight weeks' worth when you attend court, so if at all possible in your position I would arrange for a bank loan or an overdraft facility to get those arrears down immediately. In the circs I'd even consider paying the arrears with a credit-card in order not to lose the property.

brummylad_3

i dont have any credit cards, no overdraft and have too poor a credit rating to get a loan. i have asked a few friends to borrow some money but because its just after christmas every1 is skint.

simpywimpy

I would also take statements showing the arrangement with your ex too as proof of your story. It won't get you off the hook but may get you extra time to pay

could you offer to pay the existing rent as normal plus an extra to clear the arrears? They may acept a realistic amount

clutton_2

whether you have made arrangments or not you MUST go to court next wednesday, if you dont turn up you will be evicted....

squinty

Hi,

You need to speak to the Housing Association as soon as possible and explain the situation. It would, of course, be helpful if you could make some payment up front and set up a direct debit to pay the charge and to reduce the arrears.

In any of the letters does it mention which ground the association is using in court? It will probably be Grounds 10 and/or 11 that there are arrears on the account. However it could be ground 8 owing at least 2 months rent. (this assumes you are have an assured shorthold tenancy - other rules apply to diferent types of tenancies)

This is an important difference - grounds 10 and 11 are discretionary grounds - ground 8 is mandatory, and the ocurt must award possession if proven. Most associations do not use Ground 8 but you need to be sure, and seek immediate help from the CAB, or Shelter.

If you speak to the HA and make an agrement they will probably agree to seek a postponed possession rather than outright. This means that as long as you keep to any agreement you will be OK. However, try to arrange all this before the Court date. If this is not possible you MUST attend court and make your case. Get any agreement confirmed in writing.

The HA will probably seek court costs from you regardless.

If you make an agreement be realistic. You are better to make an agreement to pay the rent plus £10 per week and have the ability to make some addtional payments, rather than promising to pay rent plus £20 and missing some. Remember you are, in effect, making a promise to the court to pay this - they are not usually sympathetic if you let them down !

brummylad_3

Thanks Squinty....It says on the letter posession is being sought under ground 10 of schedule 2.

I will be calling them today as soon as i have a bit more understanding of all this.

Its quite annoying as i thought i was on the the edge of being debt free this year.

Fire_Fox

By all means phone, but follow up any arrangements made in writing by recorded delivery and check with the court that any action has been cancelled: if not you must attend.

brummylad_3

im no use at writing formal letters......are there any examples/templates on the site i could use?

princeofpounds

Some of the advice here relates to AST tenancies, but I know that Housing Associations might provide other types of tenancy. Can you confirm what type you have?

You are very unlikely to be evicted if you pay up in full before the court date. Even at the court date you have a fighting chance to get some time if you can demonstrate that you weren't aware of the situation and can realistically pay arrears quickly. Judges take depriving people of their homes very seriously and generally prefer not to do so if they can.

If you need to and you can, consider a loan to pay it off quickly.

You will need to sue your ex for the money and that might be hard without a written contract. She sound like a piece of work!

princeofpounds

im no use at writing formal letters......are there any examples/templates on the site i could use?

address
date
'dear....'
heading in bold or underlined as a reference and to summarise the issue
... following my phone call on x/y/z....
...have only just discovered rental arrears notices...
... due to prolonged absences for work had arranged for partner to pay...
... partner retained money, did not deliver you the letters and left...
... want to clear the arrears as quickly as possible and avoid a repossession...
... yours faithfully...

might need a bit of work post phone call but that's more or less it. formal letters don't need to be in any special language, just clear, well laid out and most importantly to the point. this isn't a poetry class or a love letter but a business factual letter.