Rent Arrears

Lapras

Hello,

I'm already a member on here, however I'm absolutely mortified by the mess I've got myself into so had to sign up to post this anonymously.

Basically I've found myself in a real mess with rent arrears and could use some advice to find my way out. I wont make excuses for why it happened, I know why and I've put that right so that I won't end up further in this hole - just want to check where I stand currently, as the ground I'm on feels mighty shaky.

I had an AST starting last month for 6 months, £400 per month. No new AST has been offered or signed at any point after the 6 months were up.

My rent is all paid up to date until the payment due in January this year.

No rent has been paid since then, so I owe £400 from 1st Jan, £400 from 1st Feb and £400 from 1st March.

The rent has previously always been paid by standing order on 1st month. I wasn't aware that these payments hadn't gone through for the past 3 months and I have spent the rent money. Until today I wasn't aware the arrears existed.

The landlady apparently hadn't been looking at her bank statements and only discovered the missing payments today when she looked at the statements.

She contacted me and I went to see her this evening. To start with she said that she needed the money within 24 hours and I advised this was not possible.

She then said that I had to contact her tomorrow to update her on how I'm getting on raising the money and that the full arrears had to be in her account by the 28th of this month. She said that the landlords association had advised her of this and that they were "looking at 28th as a court date" if it wasn't. The next payment of £400 will fall due on 1st April.


There is no problem at all meeting the next payment on 1st April, and I envisage that I will be able to meet at least most if not all of the arrears by the 31st (not the 28th as requested), however I can't guarantee this - I may only be able to pay about half of it by then. Either way I will be able to pay some of the arrears definitely by the 28th - probably £300 or so is 100% definite.

At this point I have received no formal or written communication from the landlady of any kind.


Any advice you could give in dealing with this would be much appreciated. I don't need sympathy, and fully expect to be told off for getting into this mess - it's my fault and I've got to put it right. I don't want to avoid paying, and I really don't want to have to leave the house...


Thanks

Sublime_2

I'm sorry to hear about your predicament. You've admitted it was your fault, and are doing something about it, so no need to dwell on that. You'll know better next time. Rent/mortgage is always the priority.

Could you pay her your rent + 50% of your arrears next month, and do the same the following. It might help matters.

ceejaydee23

Lapras, if you werent aware the SO for the rent hadnt been taken for 3 months, surely something must have twigged if you were spending more money than you should be? But question is who cancelled the SO as it could only be yourself or the bank! And if it wasn't yourself (as you already said you werent aware the payments hadnt been paid) Then start questioning the bank why the SO was cancelled, OR do you have an idea why the SO was cancelled?

AnnaV

Be honest. Work out a budget that allows you to pay back as much as possible and show it to the LL, explaining the situation. Hopefully she will accept it. Good luck!

xangeleyes

I'm sorry that this has happened, but how could you not realise that the money was still in there?? You've got £400 left in your account.

My advice, is to go to the council or jobcentre. Even if you work, there is something that the jobcentre does called a crisis loan, and this is for things like rent arrears. I'm not sure if you could get the entire rent that you need, however you could get some.
You then start to pay it off each week interest free.

I think it's a crisis loan - there are a few that they do, so hopefully when you speak to someone, they'll direct you to where you need to go.

Start saving, just in case.
Surely your landlady can see that you are reliable and this was a mistake? Perhaps ask if you can pay her an extra £100 a month until you pay it off? You will need to budget.