Letting Agent Mistake Trying To Make Me Pay - Help!

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angelfoxy wrote: »

At the time (just before Christmas) I remember thinking how relieved I was that they said I only owed that amount as it menat I had some money for christmas presents.

Would that be housing benifit money?

If your housing benifit just covers your rent, and you 'suddenly' have more than you thought, theres only two options - you have been paid to much LHA or you havent paid enough rent! Messy accounting isnt an excuse for either of you!

Dont wait for the LA to get on to it, sort it yourself.

BitterAndTwisted

Go to the Letting Agent's office, taking along your old statement and your receipt showing that you cleared all outstanding arrears at the time and ask them to produce a new, current statement and ask how and when these new arrears have occurred. It could just be that arrears are showing because your HB is paid in arrears, so you pay them in arrears but the rent is demanded in advance.

Engelbert

As it appears to have been their miscalculation, you could see if they will come to an arrangement with you. Get a statement from them in writing going back to the start of teh account and go through it with them. If there are arrears, could you pay at £10 or £20 /week rather than in one lump sum?

silvercar

I questioned this as I thought I was in arrears by more than that but the letting agent assured me I only owed £208.39.

So you thought you owed more.

On the 1st of December I went in to the office and payed the £208.39 and was also given a rent statement where they had written at the bottom "Arrears £208.39" and my reciept for payment was attached.

This confirms the amount you paid in arrears, it does not confirm that there are no more arrears.

I think they have made a mistake with their accounting back in December.

So you think you owe money.

What was I supposed to do... hold on to the money in my account just in case they were wrong?!

Yes.

Sounds like you thought you had got away with some rent arrears. Now it has caught up with you and you want to wriggle out of it.

Two reasons why you should pay:
a) you owe the money and you know it.
b) if you don't owe the money then you have claimed more in LHA than you are entitled to and have kept the difference.

I fully accept that it would be difficult to pay the money off in one go. As you have received the LHA/ HB it is only right that you do pay the rent arrears. As the mistake is the letting agent's, they should allow you to pay it off over a matter of months.

Seems to me you have been quite lucky in the letting agent allowing you to pay 4 weekly in arrears and to pay as and when when your benefit claim went wrong. To expect them to swallow the loss is asking too much IMHO.

angelfoxy

ok to set a few matters straight...

I don't pay in arrears... when i moved into the house i paid £350 upfront from my savings for my first months rent. The housing benefit was backdated to the date I moved in and I then used that to pay for the next months housing benefit.

For those of you who are of the opinion I have had this money and spent it and had a good old time then let me assure you this is not the case.

A bit of my background may help. I am on disability benefits and as a result of my illness I regularly take medication that some days leaves me on another planet. I moved into this house on my own after a relationship break down. Until I moved here I had never lived on my own or rented a property. I also have different levels of care requirements in any month so pay different amounts each month so some months I have more money than others.

I know being in a drug fueled haze (prescription drugs only) is not really an excuse for poor accounting but it genuinely is the reason in my case.

Also it's not as straight forward as I was paid the money and then pass it on to the letting agent. Before summer last year I had my bank card cloned and in the time it took to re-claim the money and sort things out my rent was all over the place as my rent money and some of my benefits were what was stolen from my account.

Add to that an almighty !!!! up with my benefits later in the year that meant my benefits were suspended including my rent and then it's easy to understand why I hadn't got a clue how much I owed and for what period I owed it.

I relied on my letting agent telling me what I owed and when. (I regret that now!)

At the end of November the agent contacted me about my arrears and presented me with a rent statement saying I owed £208.39. On the first of December I paid £208.39 and I have the reciept to prove that (one of the reciepts i've managed to find).

I have been into the agents today and the new man working there said that I apparently owe £963.17. Where on earth this figure has come from i've no idea! He gave me the rent statement that the other person that works there had been working on and it's completely bonkers! There is an account on my rent statement from December that states I paid £30 on 24th Feb 09 but on the new statement says I only paid £3. The receipt I have for 1st December 2009 when I paid £208.39 is only entered as 208.28. In May 2009 she has marked that the payment for that month was in full when the amount is £383.08 and my 4 weekly rent is £323.08. I have two receipts for two sepaprate payments for one month made on different days entered as a single payment for one date. And these are just the ones i've found after a quick look.

I'm no accountant or lawyer but how can they prove I owe that obscene amount when their accounts are such a mess?!

I have been through the statement and have worked out that when I paid £208.39 on 1st of December that didn't include Decembers payment so I am behind one months payment. I can and will pay that back.

My argument is that as both our accounts are such a mess how can it be proved either way what I paid and when and how much I owe?!

Therefore can the letting agent legally persue me for the money? I am 90% sure the landlord is unaware of these errors and that he has had his money as the agent pay the landlord each month for their properties minus the amount spent on running repairs. I think the short fall they are claiming is from the letting agents money.