When can they throw me out?

wernroe

I'm about 3 months behind on my rent and I've resigned myself to leaving anyway.

I can't find my tennancy agreement so I'm not sure on the exact date I moved in but the rent is due on the 3rd of each month.

I have a private landlord and I'm waiting for him to take action to remove me, but I was wondering when he can do this fromand what the procedure is. I understand he needs to apply to a court to do this and someone told me if he gives me notice then the earliest I have to be out is 4 weeks from when my rent is next due.

Basically I need to extend the amount of time I have here for as long as possible to find somewhere else. My landlord isn't the understanding sort who will give me a bit more time, he'll try and get me out at the earliest opportunity.

So what's the score?

rosysparkle

How long have you been in the property? How long was your agreement for and has it been extended, either on a further fixed term or onto a periodic (month by month) tenancy?

Why are you not paying rent, even a small amount?

wernroe

I've been there since march 2007, it was originally for 6 months but just continued on past that.

The reasons for the arreas are complicated and would be better off in a thread of their own.

prudryden

You may find it difficult to find somewhere else, if you wait for court action. You could end up with a CCJ, very bad references, very bad credit report, and on the landlord's national black list.

silvercar

Once you are 2 months in arrears the landlord can start legal action to get you out. some notice will be served on you (either section 21 or section 8) and you will be taken to court. you will have the opportunity to plead with the judge not to evict. there generally has to be a reasonable prospect of you having the money to pay the rent imminently (eg housing benefit claim in the pipeline or similar). Assuming the judge finds for the landlord, which is all the more likely if you are paying no rent and have made no attempt to pay something, you will be given 28 (I think) days to leave. If you don't go the landlord can go back to court and a baliff will be instructed to physically remove you and your belongings.

Not passing an opinion, just giving you the facts you asked for. Most of that info I've picked up from other forums so don't take it as gospel.

If you provided a guarantor when you took the property the landlord can ask him to pay up. Does the landlord have a deposit? that could be lost if your arrears are high.

Alleycat

If there is more than 8 weeks rent owing the landlord can give you an eviction notice at any month during your tenancy. They can go for accelerated possession which basically means that rather than the usual 8 weeks notice, they can servce with only 14 days. You do not have to be out at the end of this time and the landlord will apply to the courts for possession. As they have grounds for evicting you, it would be highly likely that the possession order would be granted and then minimal notice before the possession order expires unless you can demonstrate to the judge that there would be exceptional hardship if you were not given a longer amount of time to move out.

If you are struggling with paying your rent, you really do need to seek advice. If you don't feel you are able to post it here, you can go to CAB or similar advice agency local to you. You can also visit your local Homeless Advice Unit who may be able to offer you some constructive advice on dealing with the issues. You don't state if you have a family with you. If you do and there is an issue of affordability you may be entitled to priority for rehousing but you need to show that even on a strict budget you cannot pay the rent. Not paying anything at all for the past three months isn't good. Even a token payment would be better than nothing. Rent is a priority payment along with council tax and utilities as they are pretty much essential. If you have debts that you are struggling with, I would suggest just making the token payments to these and use the rest of what you can to pay your priority payments.

As prudryden has said, the result of ending up with a CCJ, bad refs, eviction will not help you at all in finding alternative rehousing, so you need to deal with this asap.

wernroe

silvercar wrote:

Once you are 2 months in arrears the landlord can start legal action to get you out. some notice will be served on you (either section 21 or section 8) and you will be taken to court. you will have the opportunity to plead with the judge not to evict. there generally has to be a reasonable prospect of you having the money to pay the rent imminently (eg housing benefit claim in the pipeline or similar). Assuming the judge finds for the landlord, which is all the more likely if you are paying no rent and have made no attempt to pay something, you will be given 28 (I think) days to leave. If you don't go the landlord can go back to court and a baliff will be instructed to physically remove you and your belongings.

Not passing an opinion, just giving you the facts you asked for. Most of that info I've picked up from other forums so don't take it as gospel.

If you provided a guarantor when you took the property the landlord can ask him to pay up. Does the landlord have a deposit? that could be lost if your arrears are high.

Many thanks for the clarity. There is a deposit but that is only about a third of what I owe.

What I'm looking for is space of about 6 weeks which will give me enough time to pay off a sizeable chunk of the arrears and get sort out a new place.

Alleycat

It sounds like you are on a periodic tenancy. This means that once it gets to the stage of going before a judge, he/she can award possession after only 14 days.

rosysparkle

We haven't got to March 2007 yet do you mean 2006? it appears you are on a periodic tenancy. Your landlord can serve you with a section 8 and give you 14 days notice and can go to court for possession after the two weeks if you don't leave.

Your landlord can take you to court for the unpaid rent and you may get a CCJ. You may find it difficult to rent anywhere else because your landlord won't give you a reference.

If you start making some payment towards the rent, you may be able to persuade your landlord to hold off from getting a possession order. Rent should be a priority debt.

wernroe

rosysparkle wrote:

We haven't got to March 2007 yet do you mean 2006? it appears you are on a periodic tenancy. Your landlord can serve you with a section 8 and give you 14 days notice and can go to court for possession after the two weeks if you don't leave.

If he goes to court for possession and is awarded it, how long after that do people normally get before they have to leave?

rosysparkle wrote:

If you start making some payment towards the rent, you may be able to persuade your landlord to hold off from getting a possession order. Rent should be a priority debt.

It's unlikely he will hold off any action unless I make a payment over and above what I can currently afford.

Alan_M_2

Have you discussed any of this with your landlord?

I've always found people to be a little more understanding if you're straight with them rather than saying nothing. If He thinks He may get a chunk of what He's owed in 6 weeks time He might be willing to be more understanding of your circumstances.

If you haven't spoken to him or kept him up to date with information He probably suspects He has a bad tenant that has no intention of making any payment whatsoever.

Sometimes people can be understanding, but you need to give the opportunity to start with.