Got a letter from my landlord this morning...

sooz

How do we know what you owe?

Ask your landlord for a full breakdown of all payments he has received from you, & from housing benefit, IN WRITING, up to & including today.

Armed with this piece of paper, go into the HB offices & ask to see a complete statement of what they have paid the LL, ask why your claim was suspended & see if you can get any backdated payments.

Whilst at the council, go & talk to the other dept that deals with your benefits, & loan, & check the figures, as already advised above.

terryw

It's usual for the HB people to send you letters giving the frequency and amounts of HB to be paid.
As well as asking your LL for an up to date statement of the rent situation, it is worthwhile asking the HB people for details of the HB paid to date, just in case the notification letters did not reach you or have been mislaid. It will then be easier to ascertain the exact present position.

Your LL is not being awkward about telling you nothing about the suspension of HB. He simply does not know! The HB people only inform that it has been suspended - they are not allowed to let him know your circumstances.

Great about the job.

clutton_2

""so if I were to move out on 31st May, the LL would get the final payment on the 1st"

NO ... the council are paying your rent somewhere in the middle of the month.. this is their payment cycle.... everyone gets paid on a regular cycle.... depending on when they first claimed.... but payments are always in a cycle - ever 4 weeks in arrears or 2 weeks in arrears... - you should know this stuff..

if you left at the end of November the council MAY be speedy enough to pay him for Novembers rent in the middle of December.. the odds are they will not do so until the middle of January

clutton_2

Congratulations are certainly in order for finding work, but i regret that this will make your HB EVEN more complex as your earnings will be part disregarded and you will then be entitled to even less HB and you will be responsible for paying yoru landlord directly for some of the rent

you REALLY need to find a budgeting advisor...

tbs624

alasia wrote: »

....So do I actually owe £981, or half of that? I apologise if I am missing a point somewhere, I see now where I got myself in such a mess by not writing down what I had paid the LL, as now I cant remember any of it.

Look back at the letter suggestion in post 119 - get the LL to confirm it to you *in writing* and keep a copy of your letters. Then ask the LHA officers to also confirm what has been paid Congrats on the job btw.

tbs624

Nothing whatsoever to do with the OP's situation - just wanted to say its good to see NeverDespairGirl back trawling the Board

alasia

No what I meant was paulthepainter said that HB was paid in arrears, so I thought that meant I only had to pay the equivalent of one months rent to the LL as opposed to the 2 I thought I owed...in other words I thought that if I paid the full £980 then moved out in November, the LL would then get another payment of rent - meaning that technically he would have owed me a months rent.

But I obviously misunderstood what paulthepainter wrote

Emmamumof2

Well done on the job!! Good on you....
Hope the kids have good birthdays!

clutton_2

""No what I meant was paulthepainter said that HB was paid in arrears, so I thought that meant I only had to pay the equivalent of one months rent to the LL as opposed to the 2 I thought I owed...in other words I thought that if I paid the full £980 then moved out in November, the LL would then get another payment of rent - meaning that technically he would have owed me a months rent.""

IF you had claimed LHA from day one of your agreement then this would be correct... but.. if i remember the claim was suspended and you lost entitlement for not having the correct paperwork..

so the above may or may not be true..

you have to go to the council and get a statement of exactly how much has been paid to you and how much to the landlord

if your landlord does not provide a statement do one for yourself... in columns -

date rent due, date rent paid, amount of rent due, amouint of rent paid, arrears.......

puddy

for the kids birthdays, as they are so young they really dont need presents as such, a nice cake and pretty card and lots of kisses and games with mummy (lets go to the park for a birthday picnic) will be more than enough and will be a great memory for them, feeding the ducks etc, im sure you already do this sort of things with them but this time is 'birthday feeding the ducks and birthday baking'. if you are absolutely determined to give something to unwrap then please make it something educational like a £3 book or something, childrne are never too young to be introduced to books and will love you reading to them over and over (Im sure you already do this but this will be a birthday book)