Advice on paying overdue rent.

Pigletto

I don't know of any Council that still carries out door to door rent collection and I have worked in Council housing for nearly 10 years. I would be very, very wary of this man.

They will often visit a tenant if there is rent arrears but they should not be threatening (the idea is to talk about the problem and come to some sort of arrangement) and if the visit is unannounced and it's not convenient then they should accept this and make an arrangement to speak/visit on another day.

If you have a Court order saying that you should pay your current rent plus £x amount a week and you have stuck to this you don't need to clear the full amount in any other timescale than set out by the Court.

If you have a shortfall in your payments due to your husband not working for awhile and the benefit problems then you will have to make up this amount or the Council can apply for an eviction warrant. However, the officer should be helping you with the housing benefit problems or explaining where you can get help.

My advice would be to send a letter to his manager (not him) stating that you have paid x and details of how you will pay the rest and request an answer of whether this is acceptable in writing. If paying this money would put you in hardship I would again contact his manager and ask them if there was anyway that you could be given longer.

I don't trust this guy at all. I don't know what procedures they have for rent arrears but what he is doing is nothing like the procedures for rent arrears they have where I work.

Engelbert

DONT pay at the Post Office though, unless you are SURE that the payment will come through in time to stop the eviction. Most councils have some facilities to take cash to stop an eviction. Ring the office and ask. Our council takes up to a week sometimes to receive payments made at the PO.

I'll read the rest of the thread now but that jumped out at me!

Engelbert

Ok some more advice. You need to ask in writing, and send a letter to his manager if you get no response

- Is there a court order in force? If so how much was it for and are you in line with making your payments? If you are behind and get back in line then they won't be able to apply for a warrant. If you are in line then they won't be able to apply for a warrant.

Ask for a written response to your proposals saying if they are acceptable or not (TBH a good HO should do this anyway)

You only have a problem if they have applied for a warrant already, in which case you need to either clear all your arrears and court costs in full, apply for a stay, or if you can, get them to withdraw the warrant citing the confusion you have posted here

If your court order is (say) for rent plus £3 per week it will take a LONG time to clear the average arrear so it's worth paying more if you can, but this is up to you and they can't force you but a good HO should encourage you to do this.

squinty

poppysarah wrote: »

HO do not collect rent nor should they door to door.

That depends on where you live. In some areas, especially rural areas, it is quite common.

OP,

If you are worried ring the office and take your payment to them . If they have options of paying by the post office or swipe card at shops etc be aware that it can take a day or two for this information to get to the Housing Officer. Its much safer to take the payment to their cash office and make sure you get a reciept.

You say in the original post that you 'set up an arrangment through the court' this makes me think that the council has a postponed (or suspended) possession order. This is much more serious than you describe - in essence the council have a court order aginst you that is supended - but only if you keep to the arrangements of that order. If you have fallen behind on this you need to make these missed payments as soon as possible. As long as you keep to the agreement your tenancy should be safe.

If there has been a change in circumstances since the court order was made you can apply to the court to have this varied. This can be a bit daunting, and if you are considering this I urge you to seek specialist advice.