Council housing eviction

DinkyLink_2

Posting for a friend.

Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

My friend has just been delivered notice on his flat, it says the council want the flat back in one month due to rent arrears.

He has received no other letters before this warning him about his arrears or offering him chance to pay. He has been signed off work for 2weeks due to medical but doesn't get sick pay.

Is this the way the council work??

jamie11

DinkyLink wrote: »

Posting for a friend.

Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

My friend has just been delivered notice on his flat, it says the council want the flat back in one month due to rent arrears.

He has received no other letters before this warning him about his arrears or offering him chance to pay. He has been signed off work for 2weeks due to medical but doesn't get sick pay.

Is this the way the council work??

More information please, how far behind is he with his rent?
Has he any major medical issues?

Torry_Quine

By sick pay do you mean he only gets SSP but not his normal wage?

DinkyLink_2

He missed 5 weeks because of being signed off. It's a chronic ailment that he is waiting for surgery for. He's just said he also missed 3 weeks at christmas. It's about 1000 in total.

t0rt0ise

The usual idea is that the council expects you to come up with an agreement with them to pay off the arrears. If this doesn't happen or the agreement is later broken, they will apply to the court for eviction. The tenant needs to act quickly in order to stave off proceedings.

DinkyLink_2

That's what I said, T0rt0ise - but they've not given any warnings, just one month eviction. Is one month even legal? I always thought it was 2, or is that just for private renting?

He needs to get down the council and make some kind of payment plan right?

bris

Sorry to be pesimistic, but councils don't work that way. They give plenty of notice and warnings before an eviction date, it would seem your friend has buried their head in the sand until its to late.

Tell them to contact CAB for help immediatly to see if it can be reversed.

DinkyLink_2

No, Bris, he didn't have any letters. This period of 5 weeks off, he claimed housing benefit but his work told the council he was off on full pay, which he wasn't, only ssp was going into his bank, so housing benefit was denied.

theartfullodger

Agree with Bris but try & see the council/court paperwork: He only has to leave if a court possession order has been granted & bailiffs carry him out...

Up till then often (but not always..) council may negotiate... but they need to know what is going on & if he offers to pay @ £xx/month then he MUST DO THAT consistently...

RAS

He needs to get urgent help appealing the decision to refuse Housing Benefit as well.

Does he also owe Council Tax?

looby75

bris wrote: »

Sorry to be pesimistic, but councils don't work that way. They give plenty of notice and warnings before an eviction date, it would seem your friend has buried their head in the sand until its to late.

Tell them to contact CAB for help immediatly to see if it can be reversed.

I've got to agree with this. I had to start claiming ESA as I'm not well at the moment and my benefit was stopped after I failed the ATOS medical, my GP says I'm not fit to work and advised me to appeal. While I was doing this my housing benefit was suspended for just over a month.

When I was about £300 in arrears I had a visit from a housing officer to find out why. He wasn't particularly helpful, just kept saying that even though I was appealing I still had to pay rent (with what I don't know, you can't get blood out of a stone) but put a note on my "file" explaining my circumstances. He did say that the next step would be the council going to court to get an eviction order but that would take a while and I would get to put my side over in-front of a judge, but that I would be liable for all costs if it got that far. He also advised me to speak to someone at CAB.

Luckily my benefits were restarted just a week later and my HB was reinstated and back dated so it never went that far.

There is no way your friend has had this letter totally out of the blue, councils just don't work that way, in fact I think there are strict guidelines about how they handle rent arrears.