Ideas for desperate housewife re LLord ??

black-saturn

You should contact your local Environmental Health agent via your local council. They will send a representative round to access the work which needs doing and it they consider it to be a health hazard (which it sounds like it is) they will write to the agent and the owner on your behalf. They give them a length of time to do the work in (I'm not 100% sure but I think it's 6 weeks). If the work isn't done in that time they will be threatened with court action.

Another thing to think about is does your landlord perform once a year gas safety checks with a Corgi registered engineer? If not he is breaking the law.

Also if the agent is a member of ARLA (if they are it will have their logo on the correspondence) you can contact them who I'm sure would be glad to hear of whats going on. To be a member of ARLA they have to meet certain guidelines which it sounds like they are not.

Here's the ARLA website:

http://www.arla.co.uk/

deary65

The matters concerned an application for housing benefit on which I give an opinion on an instrument known as a pre-tenancy determination.

Rules and regulation are not plucked out of thin air, they come from somewhere and that somewhere is constitutional law commonly known as the law of the land.

Read my thread, unfortunately I think I might have gone over some people’s heads. But be prepared, for I’m being psychopathically attacked by one poster.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=336117&highlight=housing+benefit

chant1l

Any determination by a rent officer can only decide the part which the council will pay toward the rent as specified in the agreement, it does not form any part of the agreement for which the tenant remains liable for 100% of the rent. Your argument is incorrect and unhelpful here.

deary65

Let the courts decide! When I get a reply and confirmation that will be my opportunity to bust this deception wide open. But I know I never will.
My advice is to send the letter there is no law against asking a question, at least not yet.

clutton_2

Actually a PTD is nothing whatsoever to do with how much HB is granted to the applicant/tenant. The PTD determines the "Claim Related Rent" and is the MAXIMUM rent which will be used to work out the housing benefit of the applicant. The Rent office who deal with PTD's are NOT part of the council.

Once the PTD has been determined, the HB office then consider the applicants circumstances - those circumstances are crucial, and the HB office will award accordingly - they may award nothing, but they may not award a figure higher than the Rent Office recommendations.

As others have said, the Rent Contract is between tenant and landlord - where the tenant gets the money from to pay the rent is actually nothing to do with the landlord, unless the tenant wants the landlord to know and gives the landlord permission to chase up the HB application in writing.

deary65

My argument in court will be the benefit agency most use the contractual rent freely entered in to by the parties and no other. If the benefit agency restricts the rent based on the opinion of the rent officer not a party to the contract, then under constitutional law all parties are bond by the decision.That is the law.

rosysparkle

The benefit agency does not use the contractual rent. We have discussed this to the point of tedium, and another fruitless discussion will not help the OP.

Personally, mickeymumx, I would get your local council's environmental health/housing officer involved as they can force your landlord to repair the property. If he then evicts you, you can present yourself as homeless to the council and though you may only get offered temporary accomodation at first, you may get rehoused somewhere more suitable.

You could also contact your local council's Housing Aid service, I think most councils have this, they can help you with forcing your landlord to repair the property.

Does your son have a social worker who could help you present a case for rehousing to the council? Could your GP help if you can show that your current property is adversely affecting your health or that of your children?

The only other thing I can think of is to keep asking agents and private landlords if they will consider you. I work for an agent and officially we don't take tenants on DSS. But in practice we do have a couple of landlords who will consider it depending on circumstances, though they don't always agree. Because tenants' circumstances change we do have some tenants claiming benefit.

clutton_2

many councils have deposit-loan schemes, whereby benefit-aided tenants trying to get housing from private landlords can be given a loan for the deposit. I have just received a deposit cheque from a council. Its worth asking. I agree with Rosysparkle re getting more points on the council list.

deary65

The benefit agency does not use the contractual rent. We have discussed this to the point of tedium, and another fruitless discussion will not help the OP.

You may be confusing yourself and other posters but you are most certainly not confusing me.My advice is to send the letter i would be most interested in any replies you get if any.

scorpio_princess

I really don't know what your point is, mate! You seem to be on conspiracy theory overdrive. Nobody here is out to get you, it's just that you're not making much sense - least of all to the OP, whose thread you seem to have hijacked. You are repeating yourself slightly - like rosysparkle has said, more fruitless discussion will not help anyone.