Section 8 Court Order Rent Arrears

patrick.madden

Hello
Need some help.I have fallen behind on my rent 3000 now and have a section 8 court order to attend on the 12th July 2013.I am able to start paying rent monthly again from 28th june 850 and able to pay off 100 in arrears each month.
I will not be able to bring the arrears down under 2 months so a mandatory action of posession will be granted i have been told as i am private renting.
Also i have been told that the judge could grant the posession but also suspend if i can mantain rent and pay arrears and mend my ways.Is this correct.Also does anyone have any template letters that i could have to help me write to the landload and put a plan in action.
Any help would be grateful.
Thank You
Patrick

G_M

If you owed 2months rent when the S8 was served, & still owe 2 months on the court date, the judge has no discretion. He must award possession (assuming it is S8 ground 8).

If you can reach an agreement with the LL to pay the arrears over time, he can, of course, withdraw his court action.

patrick.madden

Hello thank you for your reply and yes i understand the judge has no discretion and he must award possession but can he also grant a suspended possession order. This gives me time to mend my ways and comply with the terms of the suspension
in which case any possession order granted will not be enforceable.

dotdash79

If your rent is £850 a month and you owe £3000 and can only over pay by £100 per month it will take you 2 and half years to pay off the debt.

I think if you could cover it in 6 months then the landlord might listen, otherwise I'll be looking for somewhere else.

BitterAndTwisted

I fear you are grasping at straws. What do you think the term "no discretion" means in this context?

Any suspension of the S8 needs to done by negotiation with your landlord. Although I can't see any landlord agreeing to receive a mere £100 a month against THREE GRAND'S worth of arrears.

patrick.madden

Hello

The reason i am in this mess is due to my work and now i have sorted out my work and now have a new contract.The let was a long term as my LL lives in South Africa so it is manage by a letting agent now.
Also we do have damp in my sons room who is six and in most of the house and this has been mentioned to the LL a few times before we went onto the letting agency and also it was brought up with them when they done there inspection and said they would get back to us which never happened.

I am offering 100 as the lowest i can pay on a flat pay month but would increase when i do overtime.

patrick.madden

Regarding the Deposit.It was not protected for the first 10 months of my tenany with the LL but when we signed up with the agency it was then protected.

BitterAndTwisted

The non-protection of the deposit is a separate issue and will not have any affect on the S8, although it could be mentioned in passing as an implied threat against the LL if they choose to proceed with their S8

Your only hope is to contest the S8 on the grounds of disrepair as Artful has suggested. This could give you up to 7-8 months to get the arrears down to less than two rental-period's worth. Then the S8 will fail at court.

I sincerely hope that you have secured all of the correspondence with the LL/agent about this damp issue somewhere nice and safe.

patrick.madden

Hello no the problems were not reported in writing as i never thought i would be in this situation.I have sent a letter to the agent last week asking for a meeting to see if we can resolve this but yet no reply.All i can do is keep trying and start looking for somewhere else to live.
This link says at landlordzone .co.uk

Where tenants lose but are able to gain the sympathy of the judge, he or she may grant a

suspended possession order. This gives the tenant/s time to “mend their ways” and
comply with the terms of the suspension, in which case any possession order granted will

not be enforceable. so why say it on here if this is in-correct.

theartfullodger

patrick.madden wrote: »

...

....so why say it on here if this is in-correct.

regarding

Where tenants lose but are able to gain the sympathy of the judge, he or she may grant

Patrick:

A few points..
a) The Judge works off the law not what LLZ says (albeit a good site & reasonable stuff..)
b) Note the "sympathy of the judge" and "may": You are clutching at straws here sir..
c) In my (very..) limited experience this sometimes happens with Housing association possession cases but much more rarely with private landlords (but yes, can happen).

STRONGLY suggest you contact Shelter (have you??).
.
STRONGLY suggest you use the disrepair route (but expect s21 eviction as well..)
.
STRONGLY suggest you pay the rent owed..(but presumably his grounds 10 & 11 still stand,..even though G8 wouldn't any more..) but realise landlord will probably evict you anyway after what he's been through - either with S8 or S21.

Cheers!

patrick.madden

Ok thanks if i was to go down the route of disrepair do i need to put this down on the forms which i have to send back to the court which i got today and have 14 days to do this and shall i use photos of the damp and do i need to get someone to look at the damp or is this done after the court action.And do i inform the agent i am going this way or wait till i get to court.