can anyone help????????

ella05

hi everyone, a really kind lady has borrowed me some money to see me through so i have been able to feed the kids and they seem settled now, citizens advice are going to do an action plan with me so i can get everything back to normal but childbenefit have told me they need to confirm with their dad that i have the children. i dont understand how as i cant even get hold of him and i tryed non stop for days.
his employer today called me back and said he had left a week ago and not been in since so i dont know how i prove that i have care of the children, i have just spoken to the landlady of the house whos told me the contract ran out in march2010 and he didnt go in to sign a new one, she was really nice after i had told her what had happened and said she would she how she can go about getting my name on there. just hope it can be done without his permision.
thank you for all the advice and all the help everyones offered i felt so much better after just talking to you all about it so thankyou to everyone x

bestpud

ella05 wrote: »

hi everyone, a really kind lady has borrowed me some money to see me through so i have been able to feed the kids and they seem settled now, citizens advice are going to do an action plan with me so i can get everything back to normal but childbenefit have told me they need to confirm with their dad that i have the children. i dont understand how as i cant even get hold of him and i tryed non stop for days.
his employer today called me back and said he had left a week ago and not been in since so i dont know how i prove that i have care of the children, i have just spoken to the landlady of the house whos told me the contract ran out in march2010 and he didnt go in to sign a new one, she was really nice after i had told her what had happened and said she would she how she can go about getting my name on there. just hope it can be done without his permision.
thank you for all the advice and all the help everyones offered i felt so much better after just talking to you all about it so thankyou to everyone x

Glad things seem to be moving in the right direction for you.

I'm sure I don't need to say this but go steady with the money as it could still take some time to sort.

Best wishes :beer:

ella05

i will be doing i will get as much food as i can, im going to just get loads of pasta, potatos and rice and stuff like that i can use for meals and it will last longer, i'm going to try get as much support as i can to help get us through this mess and hopefully will be back on track soon thanks for all your support it helps being able to come on here and speak to you guys thank you

Classylady2010_2

This has to be one of the saddest things Ive ever read, thank goodnes for the folk on here,you have been given good advice and the children have been fed now, I wish I could help I cant bear to think of the children being hungry.
My thoughts are with you and if theres any justice in the world someone will look after you and your family
cl
x

Jowo_2

ella05 wrote: »

... i have just spoken to the landlady of the house whos told me the contract ran out in march2010 and he didnt go in to sign a new one, she was really nice after i had told her what had happened and said she would she how she can go about getting my name on there. just hope it can be done without his permision.

Did your ex pay the full rent out of his employment or did he receive some local housing allowance (housing benefit).

Check out the status of the tenancy with Shelter or CAB, how it can be ended, if you can apply for housing benefit despite the tenant absconding, and to generally understand your rights.

Even though the initial fixed term contract has expired, he is still the tenant and the tenancy has to be properly ended. If you are not a joint tenant, the tenancy still continues to be his and he is free to take up residency again until it is formally ended. It also means he is liable for the rent - his non-occupation doesn't make his obligation to pay rent go away.

When a fixed term contract expires in England, it automatically becomes a periodic tenancy which means it rolls on indefinately until either the tenant or landlord gives notice. If the rental period is monthly, then the tenant gives the landlord one month's notice or the landlord gives the tenant two month's notice, timed to expire with the end of the rental period. A periodic tenancy continues under the same terms and conditions as the original tenancy, meaning it is still in his name. The rent arrears or his absonding, or the expiry of the last tenancy agreement doesn't change a thing.

The Shelter website explains how to end a periodic tenancy.

I think your landlady will have to serve notice on him to end the tenancy and then set up a new sole tenancy with you when the 2 months notice has expired as I expect he has just vanished and hasn't given written notice himself. She can't simply issue a new one to you while the current tenancy is legally valid so I really can't see any other way around this than the landlord serving him an S21 notice requiring possession and then producing a new contract for you (AST, assured shorthold tenancy agreement), and/or an S8 notice when the 2nd month's rent is owing.

It doesn't matter that he's vanished - a landlord who serves the notice(s) correctly will also keep proof that they have served them on the tenant. They don't have to prove that the tenant has collected or read the notice. So unlike some of the benefit issues you experience because he's vanished, this won't affect the ending of the tenancy.

Tell your landlady that the Landlordzone website and forum is a good place for her to understand how she end a periodic tenancy when the tenant has absconded and owes rent and how to produce a new one for the remaining occupant. She needs to take advice as to whether she needs to follow up this notice with a court order, in case your ex returns and tries to live there and her responsibilities to store his belongings for a further 90 days. Some landlords end up being taken to court by tenants who disappear and then return, and can end up being prosecuted or paying large sums of compensation when they haven't gone through the right procedures. If he doesn't hand back the key, take his belongings with him or hand in written notice, this can be interpreted by the courts that he has the right to live there. Though we know your partner has walked out on you and the property, the reason why this housing law is in place which seems a bit long winded and complex, is that it protects tenants who go away on holiday, have short prison sentences or are admitted into hospital who then return to their rental properties and find all their belongings have been dumped and the lock has been changed.

Here are some helpful links for your landlady.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/legal/abandonment.htm
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/uncollected_goods.htm

Keep her onside and well informed. It is good that she does not hold you responsible for his rent arrears and is happy to negotiate a new tenancy with you. However, not many landlords (how ever evil people think they are) can manage to pay mortgages for months on end with no income coming in from the rental.

In the meantime, find out what the Local Housing Allowance rate is for the property on the LHA direct website, for the size of property you are entitled to, according to the age and sex of your children. How much is the maximum LHA payable for the rate you are entitled to get for the location and your household size and how much is the rent?

shellsuit

ella05 wrote: »

hi everyone, a really kind lady has borrowed me some money to see me through so i have been able to feed the kids and they seem settled now, citizens advice are going to do an action plan with me so i can get everything back to normal but childbenefit have told me they need to confirm with their dad that i have the children. i dont understand how as i cant even get hold of him and i tryed non stop for days.
his employer today called me back and said he had left a week ago and not been in since so i dont know how i prove that i have care of the children, i have just spoken to the landlady of the house whos told me the contract ran out in march2010 and he didnt go in to sign a new one, she was really nice after i had told her what had happened and said she would she how she can go about getting my name on there. just hope it can be done without his permision.
thank you for all the advice and all the help everyones offered i felt so much better after just talking to you all about it so thankyou to everyone x

Oh I'm so glad you have something sorted!

Thanks for coming back to let us know x

Jowo_2

Classylady2010 wrote: »

This has to be one of the saddest things Ive ever read, thank goodnes for the folk on here,

yes, this is a sad thread but similar to others where the bread earner has absconded or where the household income is deliberately sabotaged and causes a parent great hardship.

a few months ago there was a post by a woman and mother whose ex refused to pay any child support, despite receiving a huge redundancy payout, who also falsely reported her to the benefits office and tax authorities, and who had racked up debts in her name. she couldn't pay the rent and he didn't care that their child would become homeless, or that she'd paid the household bills for years while he studied.

a few weeks ago there was a post by a disabled woman who was tricked into signing a tenancy in her sole name for a new property at the other end of the country, expecting the whole family to move closer to her ailing mother. She then found out her husband had a mistress and intended to remain behind in the family home. He had secretly signed a new tenancy agreement in their current rental property in his sole name and came up with excuses why he couldn't co-sign the new tenancy agreement for the new property hundreds of miles away, then he told her that he wasn't moving with her.

To cap it all, he told her that he couldn't afford child support (he earned around 30k and the rent on the family home was very low) and told her she had to hand over half the child benefit and tax credits to pay for the children's travel to visit him. Again, there were household debts that were jointly in her name, including some relating to solely to a solicitor's bill for a legal case he had brought about.

DX2

ella05 wrote: »

hi everyone, a really kind lady has borrowed me some money to see me through so i have been able to feed the kids and they seem settled now, citizens advice are going to do an action plan with me so i can get everything back to normal but childbenefit have told me they need to confirm with their dad that i have the children. i dont understand how as i cant even get hold of him and i tryed non stop for days.

You do realise that this may take up to 12 weeks or more, if he was happy enough to leave you and his children in such dire straits I wonder how much he is prepared to make things more difficult for you all.

I know my posts appear pretty gloomy but you need to be prepared for what I expect to be a long battle.

ella05

i know its going to get harder now all i can do is take each day as it comes, i filled the taxcredit form in anyway and i will put a letter in to explain as it asked for child benefit number which i dont have and income for last year which i didnt have any income in my name he used to give me the money to get food ect but i know in the last couple of months he wasnt paying the bills from his account so half of them have been left unpaid, the landlady didnt mention if he had been paying the rent so i'm hopefull he was till he left.
if he has to confirm with childbenefit he nolonger supports us how are they going to contact him? i just hope they will take the income support claim and childtax credit claim without childbenefit numbers as 12 week is such a long time to wait. i didnt hear anything back from community care grants, but the man at citizens advice has said he will contact me tomorrow so we can arrange what actions i should take. i so confused with the benefit system one department says one thing then the next tell you something totally different
thanks for all your help and support

katiesmummy

DX2 is right about it taking time, maybe you need to speak to someone who specializes in benefit claims about what to do next- the child benefit won't be sorted anytime soon and I'm sure I read somewhere that you can't claim IS as a single parent unless you are getting CB.

Can you claim tax credits without child benefit does anyone know?

Definitely take others advice about going over to the OldStyle board- if you post on there what you do have in the way of food/essentials and how much money you have to shop with you will find people coming up with all sorts of suggestions on how to maximize the money that you have.

Good luck hun, I really hope you get this sorted soon.