Rent arrears advice needed

huggsy

Hi all, my brother lived in a housing association property 10 years ago and when he split with his wife they left the property owing rent arrears which have never been paid if he applies for social housing again in the future would this come to the surface again? He is living in private accomodation at the min and needs to find somewhere with a cheaper rent as he is really struggling.

FOURCANDLES_2

Most H/A ask in your application if you have been a HA tenant before, as it is over 10 years I would however doubt they still have any info was he evicted? or did he just leave.

huggsy

Thanks for the quick reply, he left after he came home from work one day and his wife had gone with the kids and everything out the house. He phoned the housing association and told them he was moving out and left the keys the following day with a relative, he did not provide a forwarding address. He knows that he handled this all wrong and we told him so at the time but, he has never heard anything from them at all since he left.

Culex

How might the HA contact him without any forwarding address - via messages on the BBC Home Service, or possibly at some sort of seance?

huggsy

housing associations have methods for tracing people and I would have thought they would have done this. They had our mothers address and he only moved a few miles away from the property.

Delree

He will have to apply via his local council and their own system of allocating social housing. I hope he isn't a single male with no dependent living with him by the way, he will wait a long time if so.
Upon nomination the council will check all his former landlords for rent arrears and anti social behavioural issues. He will get an even lower banding by the council (and he will be already low as explained above) because of his arrears. His best bet is to contact the HA he owes the money to and agree a payment plan (even £5 per week will help) and STICK TO IT. After about three months the council will look more favourably on him and it will become worth bidding at that point. Although the HA he gets a nomination with might still object but let's cross that bridge when we come to it.

huggsy

Thankyou for the reply I will pass this onto him