Tenant on Housing Benefit

clutton_2

If you are in contact with the police officers who arrested her you might want to ask them to questioin her with obtaining a tenancy through fraudulent deception.... i have had this done recently to my ex tenant from hell. It is a criminal offence.

HappyMJ

clutton wrote: »

"If the children are still living in the property you will then need to start possession proceedings against them which may take a further few months so you may not get possession until next year."

when a court awards possession of a property to the landlord ALL occupants must leave when the bailiffs arrive, so i'm sorry this is just no true in England and Wales anyway.

Yes that's right when the bailiffs arrive. So she has to instruct the bailiffs to remove them. That isn't on the expiry date of the notice. She has to wait until the expiry of the 2 months notice if they haven't left then instruct bailiffs. Courts can be lenient when children are involved with nowhere to go. I'm just saying worst case scenario.

I have asked several times for the rent to be paid direct, but the LA tell me she has to give permission for them to do it. AS IF, there goes her ciggy money, and she does smoke, despite it being in the contract as a non smoking.

I doubt she will be in remand - not with all the children involved. The tenancy was for 12 months, so hopefully she will have to be out anyway when the date is up, even if the HB could be paid for 52 weeks.
Have I any right to refuse to allow another adult to take over, especially if they hadn't been reference checked (mind you, what good did that do last time?)

Landlords when advised correctly will issue a section 21 on taking out a fixed term tenancy. Have you actually got a section 21 against the tenant to leave on the expiry of the fixed term? She has the right to stay on if she wants. If she has been arrested and charged she will at least held on remand in prison or remanded on bail. One of those bail conditions might be to live in the property. If she has just been arrested and no charges laid against her then there isn't any difference she is innocent until proven guilty of an offence.

theartfullodger

Just because a tenant is arrested does not mean there are necessarily extra grounds for any possession order: Tenant is simply arrested, may be released without charge or remanded prior to trial for some time.. Indeed as case..

Amoah v Barking and Dagenham LBC
2001,
Prisoner serving long sentence had not ceased to reside

held (he'd been banged up for 12 years..) his tenancy continued, was still valid.

In this country someone is innocent until proven guilty (Well, Rebekkah Brooks excepted..)

Cheers!

clutton_2

missile wrote: »

I would ask to see this "glowing report". Why did your agency not verify the reference? No wonder agency are being "cagey"

i suspect it is the solicitors who are being cagey about the outcome in court.... you can never tell what a judge will say, especially where there are children involved

skintsue

So, if she is on a 12 month tenancy, and then gets 'banged up' for however many years (which I doubt), do I still have to let her stay over the 12 months:(?
Will the Housing Benefit still be paid during, and after that time even if she isn't there? I can't see the Council wanting to be handing over Housing Benefit for a person who isn't even there, and how can I sell, or re-rent it if she is still legally allowed to claim it as her home?

She has a number of family in the area where the children might be able to stay - which would certainly be preferable for their wellbeing rather than palmed off by Social Services in all different directions if she is in custody.

Oh Dear - Me and my Bleeding Heart, falling for every hard luck story! That's why I used a professional:o letting agent to filter out the scam artists, sob stories and chancers, because I knew I'd be taken in by any one with a tale of woe, and the violin playing sadly in the background.

HappyMJ

The council are just following rules. If and when she is convicted the council will either pay her rent for up to 26 weeks. If the sentence is longer than a year (prisoners always get out at half way) then they won't pay anything, she'll have to give it up. She can stay for up to 12 months. You can't issue a Section 21 for any date before the end of the 12 month tenancy but if she is more than 2 months in arrears then issue a Section 8 against her. She'll then get 2 weeks notice to pay or leave. She'll find herself intentionally homeless by not paying the rent on time so she'll find it difficult finding somewhere....unless they use your same agent with those glowing references.

theartfullodger

skintsue wrote: »

............

Oh Dear - Me and my Bleeding Heart, falling for every hard luck story! That's why I used a professional:o letting agent to filter out the scam artists, sob stories and chancers, because I knew I'd be taken in by any one with a tale of woe, and the violin playing sadly in the background.

!!!!!!, there's children involved, and surely should be the priority??. Sometimes as a landlord you make a loss: sometimes an agent does not do what they promised: Sometimes tenants do not behave as the property owner would: sh*t happens. If any of that comes as a surprise I'd 'umbly suggest you find another business.. As a landlord you need the emotional & financial reserves to cope with the "tenant from hell", if you ain't got them do't do it!!

Cheers!

Artful (Landlord since 2000)

clutton_2

artful - once again you are being un-necessarily unplesant .. Sue has done every she could to ensure a professoinal tenancy, and has been conned by a very clever scheming tenant, and has been shafted by a poor agent.

""there's children involved, and surely should be the priority"" - yes they should be the priority of the parents - please stop trying to guilt trip the LL here....

Sue came here for advice and help - not abuse.

Artful - whats it like to be perfect ? the rest of us would love to know

heathcote123

theartfullodger wrote: »

!!!!!!, there's children involved, and surely should be the priority??. Sometimes as a landlord you make a loss: sometimes an agent does not do what they promised: Sometimes tenants do not behave as the property owner would: sh*t happens. If any of that comes as a surprise I'd 'umbly suggest you find another business.. As a landlord you need the emotional & financial reserves to cope with the "tenant from hell", if you ain't got them do't do it!!

Cheers!

Artful (Landlord since 2000)

I tend to agree (unusually) with the artfullodger - ll'ing (in particular with dss tenants) is not something to be doing if you rely on every months payment turning up on the hour, or get stresed out over the whole affair. You'd be better off with passive investments & take the hit on the income.

skintsue

Hi Artful. Thanks for your comments, but I respectfully point out that at the beginning of the thread I posted that I HAD to move out for certain reasons. I was looking for a short term way of keeping the house secure and hoping to cover the mortgage until I was in a position to sell. Nothing more. I was not trying to become a business, or going into BTL.

I had 1 viewer for the house in the whole time it was on the market, despite listing it as £10 less than valued by the Estate agents, and then reducing it by another £25, then 3 more in the area put theirs up for sale at the same time. I'm not asking for sympathy, just explaining why I rented - too few buyers for too many houses.

The reason I chose the rental route was many of the people round here were selling their houses for whatever they could get, and then renting until they found one they liked.
They also assumed that the housing market was going belly up, and they could go in as a cash buyer when people were desperate to sell, and make a killing by making a daft offer.
I wasn't, and am still not in the position to be able to do that, so I thought it would be best to let things settle, see how things were in the 12 months (not just the housing market) and not be forced into making rash decisions.