Oh goodness I've messed up...advice please!

alasia

I moved into my current property in December, it's managed by a letting agent. All was going well until the 2nd of this month when I missed a rent payment; I get LHA and it was paid into my bank but as I'm a single mum working from home taking calls for a catalogue company,I needed to get my children into nursery to enable me to work - up until this time I was barely making any money as I could only work when the kids were asleep during the day or at my parents' house.

I made the genius decision to use some of the LHA money to pay the nursery fees (it came to just over £300 in deposit, first fortnight's fees and registration fees for 2 children, and it would have taken me another couple of months to save up that much money); my reasoning for this was that once the children were in nursery I could work more hours, plus I would then get most of the nursery fees paid through working tax credits. I worked out then that after reducing the food bill and shuffling bill payments around, I'd be able to make up the arrears by March 14th.

I emailed the letting agent a week after the rent was due, explaining I was late paying the rent due to my children starting nursery - essential for me to work more hours - and said the arrears would be cleared by the 14th March.

I heard nothing back so assumed all was well, in the meantime I had notified tax credits of my change of circs, given them the nursery details - but a week after I phoned tax credits, I had to take the children out of the nursery they were in and the next day put them in a new one that was more suitable for them. The same day they started this new nursery, I phoned tax credits and notified them of my change of circumstances again - they said if I hadn't heard by the 28th to phone them again.

Anyway..yesterday I got a letter from TC saying they had refused to pay childcare as they had phoned the nursery (first one) who stated they only attended for one full, paid session (true, and this is what I told tc when I phoned them the 2nd time).
I'm not sure if this letter relates to the first change of circumstances claim I made, and if they might still be assessing my other, updated one for the new nursery; but as it stands at the moment, I won't be able to make any payments on the rent arrears anytime soon - without missing bills, anyway.

The thing is, on Tues I finally recieved a reply to my email from the letting agent; saying the landlord wasn't "willing to accept Feb's rent being paid in Mid March", despite me saying in my original email that it would be paid BY 14th March, not ON that date - and also March's rent would be paid as normal, in full, next week.

I replied, saying all this and that the first arrears repayment would be on monday (28th). I didnt state an amount, but as I thought the tax credits would be sorted by then, I would have had £90 'spare' to give to the LA. Now the tax credits aren't sorted out, I'll have to pay £60-£70 in nursery fees on Monday as well as other bills due that week, leaving me with just under £20 'spare' which will then, I think, have to go on a bit of food as I'm running out fast. Which means nothing to pay the LA for arrears, and no money spare at all for the next few weeks, if the tc never gets sorted.

In one of my emails to the LA, I asked how this situation would affect my deposit (held in a protection scheme) and refs; the reply was that one months' arrears would not affect it, provided it is paid by the agreed date (14th march). This gives me the impression they won't be hugely receptive to me offering a payment plan over a longer period...

So now I'm panicking, and clueless as to what to do next. My contract was signed 2nd Dec 2010 for 6 months so I think it's an AST; I believe this means they have to wait until the rent is 6 weeks in arrears (so, mid-march) until they can issue notice which has to be 2 months?

Going on this assumption, it would be mid-may I'd have to leave; but I'm currently 5 months pregnant (due July) and was struggling to save for baby things as it is - there's no way I'd be able to get together a deposit and months' rent on a new property, without withholding a couple of month's rent from my current LA.

So what do I do now? The housing benefit is due to be paid into my account late next week, if I give it to the LA they could still issue me my notice once they realise that the arrears weren't paid on the 14th March. Yet if I keep hold of it to go towards a deposit on a new place, it's unethical and technically, illegal. And I'd be in deep do-do. More than I am already, anyway.

Any advice is much appreciated, thanks.

PS - hope this post is clear enough to understand, sorry it's so long...

welshmoneylover

Surely paying the rent and keeping a roof over the childrens' heads is much more important than you shuffling them back and forth through different nurseries.

Paying the rent is your priority over everything else.

Doozergirl

If you continue to pay the rest of the rent on time then you won'tr be 8 weeks in arrears and they cannot issue you with the Section 8 notice to leave at any time before the initial 6 month term is up. You need to keep paying the rent and remember it is by far the most important bill you have to pay and must always, always come first even if other things slip.

I'd expect them to be serving you notice to leave at the end of 6 months though, so prepare for that; unless you manage to claw your way back into date and be very apologetic indeed.

alasia

As stated in my previous post; the intention was to get them into nursery (and have them stay there) so I could work more hours, therefore being able to provide a better standard of living for the children. My son has some possible special needs (currently being assessed) and was distressed at the first nursery as they left him needing the toilet amongst other things, so I made a decision I thought was in his best interests, to get him into a different setting.

As for the paying rent/nursery issue, I admit I made a mistake so not sure what point you are trying to make...I didn't expect the tax credits to refuse my change of circumstances, especially as I'd kept them informed of every change as it happened - I cannot afford the nursery fees without help, if the tax credits had been awarded as expected I would have been able to pay the rent on 14th march - albeit late, but not by much; and I am still paying March's rent on time and in full next week.

madeupname1

My understanding is that your landlord cannot start eviction proceedings until you are at least two full months in arrears. Even then it takes some time to go through eviction proceedings. You don't say when the rent was due and therefore how far in arrears you at the moment. My understanding is that as long as you are less than two full months in arrears, eviction proceedings will not be successful on the basis of rent arrears, so I would suggest trying to pay something.

I note that you are only 3 months into a 6 month lease and already in arrears. You don't say when you will be able to make payments on the rent and you have the additional financial strain of a new baby due to arrive soon soon. To be honest, none of this bodes well for your ability to promptly make the rental payments on a regular basis, and the landlord may decide to promptly issue you with a section 21 notice requiring you to leave at the end of your 6 month AST. Even then, he will need a court order to actually evict, but in that case he will get it because he wont even need to show fault on your part. If you put him to all this, I don't see you getting a good reference on your next let.

The only solution I see is for you to sit down and figure out how you intend to make the rent payments and pay the arrears which suggests prioritising your rent payments for which you are receiving LHA. Once you have worked out a credible, speak to the landlord / LA with a view to agreeing a way forward.


EDIT: You have added a post and I now understand that you are planning to pay some rent on 14 March which is good news. I also see that Doozergirl basically beat me to it!

alasia

Ok I obviously didnt make myself clear in my first post.

I signed the tenancy on 2nd december, therefore rent is due on the 2nd of every month - so Feb's rent is currently 3 weeks overdue.

My housing benefit pays most of the rent anyway, leaving me with £90 per month to pay.

As I paid nursery fees in feb, assuming that the tax credits would cover the future fees - therefore leaving me roughly £50-£100 free after covering bills every weeks, I thought I would have enough to pay the arrears off my the 14th march.

However - tax credits have refused my claim, leaving me with NO money spare at all, after paying bills, food and nursery fees.

The £90 surplus rent I have to pay is covered in my bills payments; so March's rent and every other rent after that will be paid in full and on-time; but I'll never have enough to pay the arrears off, therefore I'll lose my deposit when my tenancy ends, best case scenario; worst case I'm imagining, is a S21 notice being served when I do not pay the arrears off as promised on 14th march.

Doozergirl

alasia wrote: »

The £90 surplus rent I have to pay is covered in my bills payments; so March's rent and every other rent after that will be paid in full and on-time; but I'll never have enough to pay the arrears off, therefore I'll lose my deposit when my tenancy ends, best case scenario; worst case I'm imagining, is a S21 notice being served when I do not pay the arrears off as promised on 14th march.

You know you're going to be given notice in May and you won't be able to find the arrears between now and then. You're expecting to be served notice and can't move. Well, they will issue you with the S21, you won't move out because you won't have anywhere to go. If you go to the council they don't have to rehouse you if you make yourself homeless so they will advise you to stay put. Your landlord will have to pay to take you to court, it could be a while before any hearing and subsequent bailiffs. At that point, the council may put you in to temporary accommodation. I would suggest that even during that period, you continue to pay the rent as it's only fair. Speak to Shelter for proper advice.

But rather than let that happen, you're far better to do everything you can to clear those arrears, even if it's slowly and build the bridge with your LL and keep your tenancy. Your LL will have to pay pretty much a month's rent to find a new tenant and foot the cost of any time the place is empty. Show that you're making the effort, work out how you are going to pay and when, and stick to it this time. Your rent is the most important thing and nothing must come in the way - not nursery fees, not anything! You can't just give up and say it's not going to get paid and just expect to get turfed out!

madeupname1

Thanks for the clarification. So it looks like you wont be more than one month in arrears at any time. You mentioned that the whole reason for getting the children in nursery was to earn extra cash. Could this not go to the rent arrears?

apples1

If your children are now in nursery then the extra money you have earnt on all the days they have been in care will surely now be able to pay back the missed rent. If they stay in nursery then surely you will have a net gain as you will be earning more going forward than you pay in nursery fees therefore giving you extra money to clear the back rent.

If your objective of putting the children into nursery was to earn more so they had a better standard of living then keeping a roof over their heads is surely top of any list.

If your work is doing phone calls for a catalogue company from home would they allow you an hour or two on some early evenings once children were in bed? If before you could only work whilst they slept in the day that must have been only a couple of hours a day. If you can now work the hours they are in nursery plus perhaps an hour or two from 7pm you should be up on wages a fair bit quite fast shouldn't you?

alasia

Yes, I'm talking about £50 a week I'll be earning from my job, but the problem is I now have to pay £60 a week nursery fees so that kind of cancels things out. My only other option is to pay off these arrears as quickly as I can, not buy anything for the baby and hope I can get things like a pushchair for free (hmm) then use all that money for a deposit. It'll be pushing it, but I might have enough.

However, I wont get a reference or my deposit back and I'll be moving house with a newborn..swings and roundabouts really.

ETA: just saw you'd edited your post above me; the problem with this job is it's paid for the amount of time you're on a call, and 70% of the time you're logged into the system, there are errors and system faults which you don't get paid for. It's complicated...I applied for a supermarket job last week so hopefully will get that, but it'll be a few weeks yet as the closing date isn't until next week.

apples1

So it costs you £60 a week in nursery fees so you can earn £50 or am
I reading that incorrectly?

Re the pushchair - if your little ones are at the age where they are still too young for a funded nursery place and still nap in the day I am guessing about 2 years would you possibly be able to use their pushchair for the new baby?