Got a letter from my landlord this morning...

clutton_2

i accept that she should have had an AST - but this does NOT excuse her from putting in a claim immediately for LHA for her rent..... a LL cannot claim on behalf of a tenant

somewhere in this thread she has said that she assumes that the LL is getting his rent... OP it is up to YOU to know what is happening with your rent - no one else.... it is possible to get LHA without an AST in some circumstances....

tbs624

N79 wrote: »

I'm sorry but this is just not true and gives false hope. It is perfectly possible (although harder) to evict tenants with arrears of less than 2 months or even tenants who have no arrears but had arrears in the past Section 8, G10 and G11). While this route has no guarantee of success for the LL in prolonged cases of T head in sand syndrome courts can and do award possession - especially if previous court orders have been ignored.

Your post also ignores the s21 eviction route, a real threat for this T.

Although agreeing with the general point N79 makes, in this case it sounds as though the LL may have been less than organised in his pursuit of the arrears. If you look back at the first post, you'll see that the arrears relate to a period when she was struggling to pay the rent whilst claiming benefits and her claim for LHA was made after the LL finally gave her a tenancy agreement in January.

The apparent reluctance to produce a formal TA, references to payments made in cash by the OP to this LL, and a slowness of the LL to formally pursue the arrears all suggest that maybe his own actions leave something to be desired.

The OP says the LL wishes to reoccupy the property himself , and it may be that he is currently letting the property with out consent from his lender and without declaring to HMRC.

In any event, if a LL has not provided assistance to an in-arrears T in the form of a regular Statement of Rent, and proper discussion about a potential ayment plan, he may not be looked on favourably by the courts if the T does manage to pay down some of the arrears.

N79

tbs624 wrote: »

Although agreeing with the general point N79 makes, in this case it sounds as though the LL may have been less than organised in his pursuit of the arrears. If you look back at the first post, you'll see that the arrears relate to a period when she was struggling to pay the rent whilst claiming benefits and her claim for LHA was made after the LL finally gave her a tenancy agreement in January.

The apparent reluctance to produce a formal TA, references to payments made in cash by the OP to this LL, and a slowness of the LL to formally pursue the arrears all suggest that maybe his own actions leave something to be desired.

The OP says the LL wishes to reoccupy the property himself , and it may be that he is currently letting the property with out consent from his lender and without declaring to HMRC.

In any event, if a LL has not provided assistance to an in-arrears T in the form of a regular Statement of Rent, and proper discussion about a potential ayment plan, he may not be looked on favourably by the courts if the T does manage to pay down some of the arrears.

My post was aimed at the false impression that a T was safe provided their arrears were less than 2 months - which is false.

I make no comment on the specifics of the case in this thread on the basis that I would not be able to follow the "be nice to all moneysavers" board rule.

alasia

Ok... first I would like to say that I am sick to the back teeth of people assuming that single mothers/benefit claimants are lazy, incompetent, scroungers or just plain dense.
I know you wont believe me,but I am NONE of the above!

I DIDNT have children to get a council house; I am 27 not a child, both children were planned with my long term partner.
We were living together, both working before I fell pregnant and the only reason I stopped working was the store I was working in closed down, I didnt want to be transferred to a store in Birmingham (30 miles from where I was living) as I didnt have a car or driving license.
I then found out I was pregnant a week later and couldnt get a job after that.
I TRIED; I had 14 interviews in the 2 months after losing my job and maybe the fact I told them at the interview that I was in early pregnancy put them off; but I felt being honest was the only option.
Then once I got to 5 months pregnant and was showing, no one wanted to even give me an interview as they knew I would only have 4 months work time at the most before I left for maternity leave.

I had my baby, then one day in feb last year he didnt come home after work one night, leaving me to pay the rent with just my benefits - which btw I had only just claimed, as I was so sure I would get a job previously that I hadnt wanted to claim. I was still going for job interviews at this point.

My ex leaving me in the lurch was the reason I had to take out the budgeting loan; to pay the rent and to get a deposit for this house - as I was living in my exs home town and being harassed by his family.

I dont see why I have to justify myseklf and give my whole life story, but as I said I have been working since I was 15 and had been taking a distance learning course so I could get on a degree course next year, become a midwife and better myself to provide a nicer life for my children. So how exabtly am I a vicky pollard type!?

Now for pauls questions:

1. Get a schedule/account from the landlord showing how much he claims you owe - and from what dates - asked him for one last night, not heard anything back yet.

2. Do you pay the housing benefit to the landlord? Or does he get it directly? - If he is getting it directly it may be partly a timing issue (that is he is actually just getting some rent a bit late) I used to pay it and he got it every month, but because they paid me on the 16th of every month he wasnt happy (he wanted it on the first).
So he asked them to pay him direct and he still gets it on the 16th - except they suspended the claim for 3 weeks first.

3. Did you pay a deposit? I paid £200 and a months rent.

4. Did you sign the tenancy agreement? Yes

5. On the benefit front - you say you are getting £40/week, you should be getting £65.45 as a lone parent over 18 - so are they deducting £25.45/week? If you are aged between 18 and 25 they may be paying you the lower rate of £51.85/week and deducting £11.85/week. You need to check this, it is very possible they are paying you the lower rate as one part of the system is not aware that you are a lone parent - especially if you started your claim initially when you had a partner. I am 26, not sure how much they are deducting tbh as I lost the letter (yes I know...stupid of me!)

I am paying the landlord £100 tomorrow through bank transfer so I have a record of it, and possibly another £30 on Monday if I can afford it. Then I worked out I can pay him between £50 and £100 every 2 weeks; that leaves me with:

£50 a week for food, mobile phone credit, nappies, wipes, toiletries and cleaning stuff - I am working to reduce my shopping bill.

£50 a week for bills.

I also need to buy clothes for the children at some point, as obviously they are growing and the budget Ive done takes me right up until November.

So how much would you all recommend I leave myself for clothes every month/2months/whatever?

And dont say none,toddlers grow quickly

I do appreciate all the advice, everyone - and I do take notice; just sometimes too busy to get online and reply straight away.

alasia

Sorry I forgot to say; there is absolutely NO chance of me staying in this house after december, as the landlord wants to move back in.

I dont particularly want to move too close to christmas/new year so really I need to be out by the last week of November/first week of December.

So...I need to work out a way of paying back the landlord as much as possible (bearing in mind that the council are paying the landlord £460 a month,so every month the arrears are going up by £35) while also saving up for a deposit/months rent on a new property.

I am on the council list, but not in a high enough band to get anywhere soon.

This is what I am having trouble working out...so any more help would be appreciated.

N79

alasia wrote: »

Sorry I forgot to say; there is absolutely NO chance of me staying in this house after december, as the landlord wants to move back in.

I dont particularly want to move too close to christmas/new year so really I need to be out by the last week of November/first week of December.

So...I need to work out a way of paying back the landlord as much as possible (bearing in mind that the council are paying the landlord £460 a month,so every month the arrears are going up by £35) while also saving up for a deposit/months rent on a new property.

I am on the council list, but not in a high enough band to get anywhere soon.

This is what I am having trouble working out...so any more help would be appreciated.

I don't think that you have to justify yourself either but if you want to get out of your situation I guess you will need to be able to pick up the good advice given.

If you are serious about tackling your problems then I am sure that you will be able to delay an eviction until November provided that you play the system and your LL remains somewhat clueless. I know I could and since I guess that you will get a bad reference anyway this is not at stake.

There are numerous sources of advice that you can turn to but you will need to get your head out of the sand and work hard if you want to delay all action until the end of November.

I'm glad that you recognize your responsibilities and are now working towards addressing your arrears. I wish you good luck.

alasia

Me again

Ive said this in a previous post, but the last thing the landlord said to me on the phone the other day was to make plans to move out at the end of the year and in the meantime make payment to clear as much of the arrears as possible before I go.

I feel like I need to get this in writing so he cant go back on it and kick me out sooner than he said, so should I ask him to give me a proper notice letter giving me 6 months notice with an actual moving out date?

I did cheekily ak the ladnlord if I I paid all or most of the arrears off before I moved out, whether he would give me a satisfactory reference - not a glowing one obviously; but enough so I can kget a newplace, and he sort of agreed...said to see how it goes and how much of the rent is paid in a few months time.

I know I dont deserve a good reference, but it would really help me and thats why I want to clear the arrears as quickly as possible - so any help with the questions I asked in my previous post is appreciated.

sunshinetours

Can't help but wish you luck. You do seem to be addressing issues that I am sure you have not had to deal with before.

Some posts on here have clearly been helpful, some others down right rude. Your landlord sounds like an amateur landlord and i am sure if he was posting on here about the situation would be getting crucified by some of the same people who are choosing to judge you. Some are taking a strong stance ebut giving good advice others are just choosing to stick the boot in, and as one other poster said, there but for the grace etc etc

martindow

Alasia - have you checked out the figures in Paul's question no 5 regarding benefits? You need to find out what your loan repayments are to see if there is an error there.

tbs624

alasia wrote: »

3. Did you pay a deposit? I paid £200 and a months rent.

Do you have evidence that you paid your LL a deposit of £200? Has your LL registered the deposit with a tenancy deposit scheme and given you the "prescribed information" ?

If you don't know anything about this then you need to check with each of the three schemes for yourself,, to see if they have any record of your tenancy. See the links here:

If he does not comply with the law on tenancy deposits (E and Wales) he may be ordered to repay the deposit in full, plus pay you a penalty of 3 x the deposit amount plus any court costs.

That bit aside, as we don't yet know from you whether that is the case , rather than you just waiting to hear from your LL again you could be proactive & write to your LL yourself, perhaps saying something along the lines of " Thank you for your call/letter of (date) and our subsequent discussion on the rent arrears which have accrued. My understanding is that you need to repossess the property for your own occupancy at the end of the year, and that in the meantime I am to make firm progress with settling the outstanding amount.

Would you please let me have a proper written Statement of Rent for the whole of my tenancy, to include those amounts paid direct to you by the LHA office, so that I can organise this, and then agree with you the dates by which I can make the necessary payments.

You could also confirm that you will deal with the wallpaper damage and ensure that no other damage occurs for the remainder of your tenancy.