Please help scared for my girlfriend =(

debrag

How long have you been together, are you in student accommodation? I only ask as if you had your own place couldn't she move in with you.

dannib898

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

By what method does she pay her rent?

Did she pay a deposit and did the landlord register it with one of the approved schemes?

Hi She payed a £500 bond The top up of £75 a month is payed directly to her landlord in cash

I think the best route is to transfer the 150 into there bank so we have proof of it in case they deny it , do you agree?

dannib898

debrag wrote: »

How long have you been together, are you in student accommodation? I only ask as if you had your own place couldn't she move in with you.

I live with my dad im at college at the moment doing my last year. Me my dad,sister,brother and his girlfriend live here so its not really possible to house her and her child we have limited room as it is =(

dannib898

RAS wrote: »

And has she got a copy of the current gas safety certificate? When does that run out?

I dont think she has ever had one i will ring her and ask , why?

dannib898

BigAunty wrote: »

Well, before she didn't want to pay it because she wasn't happy with the notice she's been served. Now she doesn't want to pay it because she thinks the landlord will pretend she hasn't paid it? Why doesn't she just pay what she should, even though the landlord is terrible.

Does he have a history of pretending not to receive the rent? How has she proved she has paid this top-up between the rent and the HB she receives to date? Does she pay it in cash and get a receipt for this? Does she pay it directly to his bank account so there is evidence in her bank statements? Does she write a cheque?

Yes, it could take a long time to formally evict her with rent arrears but there is an accelerated procedure for those with significant rent arrears (I think this requires the tenant to owe the equivalent of two months rent at the time of serving the notice and at the time of the court case if the rental period is monthly, for example).

To understand the difference, if you are in England, research the difference between an S8 and S21 notice.

Does she anticipate asking the council for assistance with housing when the landlord regains possession of the property? Generally, they aren't impressed when a tenant owes rent that they could have paid but did not though I'm not sure whether this could affect her priority status for housing under the homelessness process. You'd have to verify this with Shelter as I don't know.

Are you in England, Scotland, Wales or NI, for example? This would help the posters here be more accurate with advice.

Great advice thanks sorry im stressing and worried i didnt make myself clear , her landlord said he posted it twice and there was nothing there so she refused to give the rent until she got the notice by hand "I understand this is rather childish but it sounds like they are trying to pull a fast one by saying they have posted it" I understand now that the rent will be payed straight away to stop more problems occurring

RAS

dannib898 wrote: »

I dont think she has ever had one i will ring her and ask , why?

Assuming that she is living in England or Wales, it is a legal requirement.

RAS

dannib898 wrote: »

Hi She payed a £500 bond The top up of £75 a month is payed directly to her landlord in cash

I think the best route is to transfer the 150 into there bank so we have proof of it in case they deny it , do you agree?

Does she get receipts for the payments?

RAS

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Did she pay a deposit and did the landlord register it with one of the approved schemes?

Can you answer B&T's question?

It matters as in England and Wales

1. It is a legal requirement
2. Unless is has been done and she has been given the prescribed information within the required time, the notice to leave is invalid.
3. She can sue for the return of the deposit and upto 3 times the value (any time in the next 6 years).

[Deleted User]

Does your girl friend know if her deposit is protected (she should have been sent information telling which deposit scheme it was held in)? If the landlord hasn't done this, the courts will not issue a S21 notice..., until the deposit has been repaid to her. They usually won't accept the deposit being protected late.

If he hasn't protected her notice, this could give her more time.., and end up with her getting her deposit back.

It doesn't sound like the landlord has issued her with a court issued S21 yet, so as has been said, she has a little time to play with right now.

I hope that she has been paying rent and getting receipts or via a bank so there is a record of the payments being made. She does need to get up to date with the top up though. And get a receipt or pay it through a bank account if possible so she can prove its been paid.

I think, but I am not certain (because I had a similiar problem) if she is paying by cash she HAS to be given a rent book by the landlord.., but I will wait for someone more certain to confirm that.

If the landlord does manage to get a S21 notice issued, she can then approach the council and see if they will help with social housing because she is being evicted. This could mean a time in B&B accommodation though and quite often they won't take any action until the bailiffs are at the door so it would be quite stressful. At no time (if she wants to go the social housing route) should she stop paying rent though.., this will affect how her housing application is viewed.

dancingfairy

Your girlfriend could get seriously cause problems for her 'landlord' if she wanted to.
The list of apparent breaches so far include:
1) potentially lack of gas safety certificate - can report this (not sure who to).HSE?
2) deposit potentially not registered - can sue for 3 deposit.
3) environmental health due to state of place (already done).
4) tax man as I bet he isn't declaring his rental income
5) mortgage provider as I would also bet he's not declared he's renting his property out.

I suggest:
1) she changes the barrel of the locks to stop the landlord getting in. Apparently it is dead simple to do and there are loads of videos on youtube on how to do this. Barrels are about 5 pounds from BandQ or similar.

Her landlord can't evict her without going to court. It sounds like the notice is invalid for many reasons (lack of notice, incorrect dates and non protection of deposit). He can't just take her stuff or break in. In case the idiot really does think he can break in, is there anywhere safe she can store key documents, passports, etc?
Obviously if she gets any threats she should report them to the police.
She needs to speak to Shelter and find out what help is available for her. Normally I'd suggest making sure she gives the correct notice and gets the hell out of there but if she will need to rely n the council to rehouse her then she may have to wait to be evicted rather than leave of her own accord.
I hope this gets sorted soon.
df