Landlord is terminally ill and has given notice!

casper_g

Agreed it has to be worth a try getting the councillor, or perhaps the MP, to put in a word with the council and try to persuade them to be as flexible as they can.

On a point of fact though, the house the OP rents is not the landlord's home. It may once have been, and it may be a place he has an emotional attachment to. It is certainly somewhere he would like to be his home. At the moment though, it's the OP's home, and I hope the landlord would not wish the OP's toddler to be homeless, any more than the OP wishes to cause distress to the landlord at this difficult time.

roger196

Sorry to sound harsh but you need to step back and look at the situation unemotionally. I would suggest that your first priority is to yourself and your family.
I would first want to check whether the LL is genuinely ill. Have you any way of making tactful enquiries. Next how long is he likely to survive....two weeks, two months or two years. Has the LA any proposals to make your move easier. What is happening to the house where he is currently living.
LA has little idea of how to negotiate and even less of the legal requirements of a S21 notice. He should be making you an offer which tempts you to accept without going down the legal route of court orders etc. What will happen to your house when LL dies, could your AST be resurrected. Could you move out on a temporary basis for the LL's last few weeks.
Why cannot LL live with his family?

Wyndham

I'm sorry to sound harsh as well, but I can't see how your husband can earn more than £50K and you not have any money to spare at all. Have you looked at the DFW board and done everything that you can to reduce your outgoings?

beanymagoo

sorry to hear about your situation. I think your best bet is to get another property from the agency as I am sure they will want to sort this out for you as you are their customer who helps pay their wages. I would like to add that my dear dad is terminally ill and know that the last thing he would need would be any extra stress placed on his short life from tenants in a property. While this situation is very unfair on both parties I really understand this man's needs to be around his family for support. Just like the agency must support you! Good luck

stashingcash

Wow! Thanks so much for all the replies!!!

I did speak to the LA about maybe taking another property from them, but it seems we got a very good deal 2years ago and rent prices have gone up since then in our area, Bexley. They mainly deal in sales so only ever seem to have a handful of rentals, they said they do have one property on thier books which is comparable but its £150 a month more. I think I will go in there and talk to them about rent free last month and deposit back early.

To the poster regarding my husbands earnings, heres a quick breakdown of what we do with his £2970 take home wage, everybody I speak to seems to think we are rich, ha ha far from it!

Rent £850
Van finance (needs van for work) £350
Barclaycard minimum £330
Santander minimum £250
Egg loan £120
Council Tax £140
Water, gas, electric, two mobile phones, tv licence, home insurance £250
Shopping £300
Diesel £300 (husbands is a specialist contractor and works all over the country)

So you see? £50k isn't a lot to support a family on in London. Its us "middle class" who lose out all the time! We got tax credits last year but now thats gone too. If we both went and worked part time in a supermarket and claimed HB, CTB and TC's we'd actually have morespare cash!! Obviously as a self employed person he gets his van costs deducted from his tax bill at the end of each year, but we still have to find the money each month, and then then tax man wants 50% of next years bill on account! So, currently debts stand at...

HMRC £7000
Van £9000
Barclaycard £9000
Santander card £9000
Overdrdraft £4000
Egg loan £3000

In the last few months we have cancelled our gym fees, virgin media, given our two cats away and ebayed or bootsaled everything thats not nailed down! My credit rating is rock bottom and although his old credit limits are very good, cards and overdrafts are maxed out so lenders wont extend them and credit rating has been damaged to the extent he cant get any more cards at all. I cant go to work as i have no help from family so the cost of childcare would be more than my wages. I do some cleaning for cash on the side but its a far cry from my old life running a glamorous bridal boutique!

Life just seems so hard at the moment. Hopefully things will work out but I'm definately going to go into the agents on monday, they said theywill be posting the notice through my door but wanted to speak to me personally, so they seem quite nice. Also going to look at going down the MP or councillor route regarding some emergency accomodation if deposit can't be returned asap.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND KIND WORDS!!! Xxx

Southend1

I doubt a council would even consider you for housing given your husband's earnings! Though I may be wrong.... I guess you really need to make an appointment with them to discuss any possible options.

Is there a particular reason for the amount of debt you have? I'm wondering if you might get a more sympathetic hearing from the landlord/agent or council if for example the reason for your debt was that you had both been genuinely unable to work for a period of time for some reason.

leicesterfarthing

I have a great deal of sympathy, these debts are very easy to rack up when you have a young family, and I'm sure you will turn things around. You mentioned that childcare costs would outweigh any earnings, but its worth checking if that is truly the case. My OH went back to work when our children were quite small (18 months old) and we got help with nursery vouchers etc.... but my information is about 6 years out of date.

I run my own car for work do big miles and claim back, and have similar bills per month. It is all too easy to pop the fuel on a credit card and then not pay it off.... I wonder if that's how your debt has accumulated? It's easy to see it as a "business expense".... but as I know it soon snowballs into personal debt.

Hope you get things sorted, try and appeal to the LL for your deposit back in advance, you mention you do some cleaning, reassure him that you will leave it spotless and let him do an early inspection. Perhaps offer to leave a small sum to reinforce this.... £200 to be paid when you actually move out.

I don't want to make things worse for you, but the credit checks for renting can be quite worrying, perhaps, as already suggested, stick with your existing agent. Good Luck.

stashingcash

The debts stem from my pregnancy, before then we always had about £2000 on a credit card but that was all. I was signed off work from 11 wks pregnant with a back problem and had to give up my job as it involved heavy lifting and standing, i ended up on crutches from 6 months and a wheelchair towards the end. I was earning £27,000 per year. I know now that i should have gone sick for my entire pregnancy and got sick pay but I am always far too nice and gave up my job as I didn't want to be a burden on the company (worked alongside directors).

Southend1

stashingcash wrote: »

The debts stem from my pregnancy, before then we always had about £2000 on a credit card but that was all. I was signed off work from 11 wks pregnant with a back problem and had to give up my job as it involved heavy lifting and standing, i ended up on crutches from 6 months and a wheelchair towards the end. I was earning £27,000 per year. I know now that i should have gone sick for my entire pregnancy and got sick pay but I am always far too nice and gave up my job as I didn't want to be a burden on the company (worked alongside directors).

I can sympathise with that... I used to have a job involving heavy lifting and I injured my back.

Maybe if you explain the reason you are unable to save for another deposit then the LL will sympathise and return your deposit early. Especially if you show sympathy for his situation too- maybe offer to be flexible with the notice period if he returns the deposit early and you are able to find somewhere else quickly?

taffalumpdog

I would advise you to contact a debt charity asap as you cannot continue with the level of debt you have. In the short term my advice would be to contact your creditors and explain you can not afford your monthly payments as you can't - you will need to stop paying them to save up money for a deposit, 1st months rent, moving costs etc. At the end of the day your rent is your number one priority, above debt repayment. I hope you can sort something out - I've been where you are and do fully sympathise.