Advice on statute barred PlZ - housing debt

nats78

Due to a relationship breakdown, my ex husband put in an application to be rehoused with our local council. After waiting 3/4 weeks there was still no word. So he rang them up and was informed that his application was on hold due to a damage repair debt of £600 from a tenancy they said he had in 1994!!!
Apparently they have on their records that although he never moved into the property, it got vandalised whilst empty.
He never held any tenancy in 1994 at the address they have given him.
All he could do was put an appeal in and wait!:(
So now he is still waiting for some resolution(4 weeks later:mad:)
Does the Limitations Act cover a housing debt?
Can it be statute barred?

sourcrates

DWP/Government debts in general, although they may in law be statute barred, it does not stop them from taking any money owed from future benefits, however, they can only do this for 20 years, after which a debt is not recoverable.

You state he never moved into the property, so on that basis, cant be held liable for the damage caused anyway, i think he will just have to follow the appeals process here.

rizla_king

Tell council you will be taking them to this if they dont stop trying to claim he is liable http://www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint/

fatbelly

Yes it would be statute barred, meaning that if they did not take court action on this before 2000 they are now too late to do so.

However, the debt still exists and it may be their policy not to offer council housing to those who owe them money!

If he is making an application under homeless law, their statutory duty to assist may overrule this but if he just wants to go on to the register he needs to deal with it - asking the LGO to rule on their final decision is a sensible move. He'll have it all in writing by that stage.

The last time I checked with my council, only a few tens of complaints were referred to LGO per year and the LGO ruled on NONE of them because the council sorted out the complaint in every case ahead of the LGO ruling.

Marktheshark

Send them a SAR and FOI demand for everything they hold in that name and see what they are concealing.
If they have a tenancy agreement it will be in there.

nats78

Thank you, you have all been really helpful. I hadn't heard of the LGO so he will definitely be looking at that.