Rent Arrears/Notice of Posession

Glitterkitty_2

My landlord has been round today to serve notice for rent arrears which is he claiming go back to November last year. When I moved into the property in 2009 it was through a letting agent and all the rent was paid on time no arrears. He changed letting agents I'm led to believe in December 2010 I had no confirmation from new letting agents but had been told by old ones. I arranged for rent to be paid and believed there had been no problems. Still no correspondence from new letting agents on anything despite contacting them over the year regards problems with flooding from upstairs neighbour etc. Finally got a response in June this year when I had a flood again and they claimed landlord was handed back property in November 2011. I had no contact from them and he has claimed he didn't know either. He is now claiming rent arrears from November until present. I have had no contact for him until June/ July of this year and only received a Section 48 notice this month although he has signed it 16 July 2012. Can he claim for the arrears he states prior to this date or can he only claim from July onwards. He is now wanting to take me to court because of the arrears but without having any contact how could I have paid any rent. I know it is my word against the letting agents and they will claim they have contacted but beyond one single confirmation letter in 2011 there has been no contact from them. I am planning to go to the council and C.A.B for advice but does anyone know if I have a case for only paying the arrears from July rather than November as that is when the Section 48 is dated. Also he has only served this notice today but it states that court proceedings may begin from 17 October but that is not 2 months from date of serving the notice surely he cannot begin end of November at the earliest.

anselld

Confused!
Have you paid rent up-to-date? Who to?
Assuming you are indeed up to date with payments then show the LL proof that you have paid and tell him to sort the matter out with his agent(s).
If you have been withholding rent due to not having S48 notice then you shouldn't have spent the money as it still becomes due once S48 notice is given.

Glitterkitty_2

Rent had been getting paid to the landlord via the agent as far as I was aware it had been continuing to be paid to him via them. They claim however they gave the property back to him in November 2011 and he claims he has not been paid since then. I was not informed that I was no longer with the letting agent and the landlord did not provide any details for contact until I received the Section 48 this month.

I was not withholding rent because I didn't have contact. I get housing benefit and my mum had set up a direct debit from her account to pay the rent as I had been the victim of fraud on mine as far as we were aware rent was being paid. When she died earlier this year I tried to get contact with letting agents to change direct debit. I had no response and it was only following a flood that they claimed they had nothing to do with it and the landlord had been responsible since November. As far as I was aware payments were being made. It is only now that it is clear there has been a problem. My query is not about not paying arrears but when I should be paying them from as I was not informed the letting agents were not taking the rent and the landlord did not provide details until recently. I am more than willing to pay the arrears which I know will have accrued from July as I only get half housing benefit for the rent I have to pay and am trying to sell my mums house which would pay off the rest but need to know where I stand as to the amount owed. Which to me seems to be more than I owe as it works out to over 13 months he claims yet its only the end of September and he claims it is from November 2011.

anselld

I think you are making this too complicated.
You just need to pay for any unpaid periods of rental.
Anything which has already been paid to an agent, show evidence of this and tell the LL he needs to get the money from the agent.
Collect evidence of what has been paid, when, and who to, in case you need to defend the S8 notice in court. You do not need to resolve the issues between LL and agent, just show that YOU have paid in line with the rental agreement.

G_M

Yes, too complex and vague. However, the liability is:

1) you must pay rent due. Have you? And have you got receipts or bank statements to prove this?

2) you must pay to the correct person. That means either direct to the landlord, OR to his designated agent. If you have been paying some other agent, on the say-so of someone who is not the landlord (as appears to be the case), then you may have simply been paying Uncle Tom Cobbly, and therefore running up rent arrears.

Did you ever receive proper Notice, in writing, to start paying agent number 2? If not, then you've been paying UTC!

3) it is your responsibility, under contract law, to ensure your rent is paid properly. Paying UTC and then claiming to be out of pocket and thus not liable to pay the landlord is no excuse.

Fire_Fox

Sorry but can you try to use paragraphs and punctuation and limit use of vague words like 'them' and 'him'? It's impossible to understand a wall of text and your personal circumstances are irrelevant. A bullet pointed chronological order of events would be helpful.

What is relevant is what rent you have paid to either the landlord or one of his agents and when. If you were told in writing to pay a particular agent and can prove you have done so it is up to the landlord to recover that rent from his agent.

How many weeks do YOU believe you have not paid? Pay that as a matter of urgency. Communicate with the landlord and his agent in writing from now on, keep copies of your letters, copies of the proof or posting and/ or proof of delivery.

G_M

Fire_Fox wrote: »

..... If you were told in writing to pay a particular agent and can prove you have done so it is up to the landlord to recover that rent from his agent.

Depends WHO told the OP in writing:

but beyond one single confirmation letter in 2011 there has been no contact from them.

Not clear.

dodger1

You should be paying the arrears from the time payments stopped. If you paid the rent to the agent (still unclear) then the agent owes the money to the LL.