rent arrears & taking out a loan to cover it.

Alleycat

Hi, I would suggest going into the Housing Benefit department with the notice that has been served and explaining that due to rent arrears you are being evicted. That is urgent that they either process your claim fast or set up interim payments. This is assuming you have already provided all the documents they require.

Also ask the person in the Housing Needs department to get in contact to chase up your claim. The council would prefer your claim to be set up asap so they can have more chance of successfuly negotiating with your landlord to prevent you being evicted. Ultimately it will be far more costly for the council to have to provide temporary accommodation and rehouse you if the arrears continue to accrue and the landlord pursues eviction.

Do you know what type of notice the landlord served i.e. Section 21 or Ground 8? Also, it may be the the notice is not valid. How long ago did you move in and has your deposit ever been protected in a recognised tenancy deposit scheme? These are important questions as it may be that the notice is not valid and if it is not, will give you much more time to get things sorted out and the landlord may then decide not to serve a new notice.

If you get no joy with the council, contact a local housing advice agency or Shelter who can take your case on and assist with your Housing Benefit claim and negotiations with your landlord. They will also be able to advise and support you in making a homeless application to the council if it is needed.

Regarding the owed money, has your husband told the person who isn't paying that he will be taking court action? If not, he should write to him giving him seven days notice to pay or he will be applying to the small claims court for a money judgement (this is called a letter before action). This might be enough to scare the non payer into coughing up. It will also be important if you need to make a homeless application as the council will have expected you to take all reasonable steps to get the money you are owed to pay your rent.

Lastly (sorry I'll shut up in a minute!), if you do end up needing to take out a loan have you checked to see whether there is a local credit union? They don't normally lend without first saving with them but it's certainly worth asking.

Alleycat

Sorry, I know I said that was all but just thought of a couple more things!! If all else fails it may be that you need to miss a couple of payments on non priority debts or payments such as sky or mobiles to pay the arrears as this is a priority debt and should be paid before anything else.

Re a second job. Try going round the local pubs. They are often looking for staff for random shifts and you may just get lucky. Plus a lot pay weekly so you wouldn't have to wait too long for some cash.

I still think it would be a good idea to post the SOA as there may be other suggestions to help get things back under control.