Possession Notice received on a Local Authority Tenancy

Mrs_Optimist

A family member is in arrears with both rent and council tax on a council property. She received a posession Order yesterday giving her until end of Month to vacate as Bailiffs are turning up to take possession of the property. She will be homeless.

If her arrears were paid off in full by other family members would this overturn the Possession ?

We only found out about this yesterday and are worried. She is on JSA but has her adult son living with her which may have triggered the rent arrears accruing. She thought that JSA would also trigger housing benefit. But obviously not for her adult son who works.

I have no idea what to do to try and help them from becoming homeless.

AnotherJoe

If other family members paid off the arrears, what would be the plan going forward or would it just be postponing this situation reoccurring in a few months time ? Is the adult working son paying towards the rent ?

theartfullodger

She's lucky it wasn't worse: You can end up in jail over council tax.
https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-arrears

You can be sent to prison for up to 3 months if the court decides you don’t have a good reason to not pay your Council Tax and you refuse to do so.

Possession order? From the court?? If so she;s had loads of other paperwork earlier that you may not have heard about.

Re

Mrs_Optimist wrote: »

....She thought that JSA would also trigger housing benefit. But obviously not for her adult son who works. .....

Do you mean she though HB would automatically be paid to her or did she apply for HB. About a million working people get HB so son working is not in itself a reason for no HB, if HB really was applied for & they are eligible (his income low enough, no savings..).

It MAY be possible (depends on court and/or council) to get the order overturned or suspended if everything is paid: The general arrangement is that rent & council tax should be paid & if not the tenant is very likely to make themselves & rest of family homeless.

She should speak with council about what can be done, and pay her priority bills (rent, council tax) before everything else. Suspect you may not have been told all the facts.

Has she thought of getting a job? If on JSA she must have been assessed as capable of working, if only by herself. Just a thought.

pmlindyloo

From what you have said the rent arrears may have arisen because she was not paying the shortfall on her rent due to a non dependant deduction made to her housing benefit.

As already said she would have received court papers and it appears that she has not attended court to sort this out and offer a repayment plan.

If this is just an order of possession then the landlord may have to return to court to apply for a warrant of possession (bailiffs)if she doesn't leave by the date of the possession order.

However, you probably do not know all the facts so it is difficult to advise.

I would suggest that she takes all the paperwork to CAB (if the council won't help) and see if they can negotiate on her behalf.

Ditto with the council tax arrears.

This may be a much wider problem than yo are aware of.

Her son should be paying her board so that she can use that money for the 'top up' of her rent because of the non dependent deduction. Ditto with the council tax.

Apart from your family offering to help with the arrears it would seem very sensible for her to take the initiative and sort things out so this doesn't happen again if she is lucky enough to get the possession order suspended.

Mrs_Optimist

Posted a long reply then lost it,

It is a posession Order to evict, she has to vacate on that day. I have no doubt I am not aware of the full picture as she lies. I know she would have had a lot of paperwork to get to this stage. Problem is she has just told me now. I want to help but not to be in the same situation in 6 months time. Is it likely to get it overturned if arrears are paid off . It nay be too late to do anything now.

AnotherJoe

Mrs_Optimist wrote: »

Posted a long reply then lost it,

It is a possession Order to evict, she has to vacate on that day. I have no doubt I am not aware of the full picture as she lies. I know she would have had a lot of paperwork to get to this stage. Problem is she has just told me now. I want to help but not to be in the same situation in 6 months time. Is it likely to get it overturned if arrears are paid off . It nay be too late to do anything now.

These two sentences I highlighted are two different things entirely.

Seems as if you have possible control over the second "Is it likely to get it overturned if arrears are paid off" but not the first "I want to help but not to be in the same situation in 6 months time" short of paying her rent for her.

Since you say "she lies" there doesn't even seem any point trying to help her because you couldn't trust whatever she (and her son I assume, whats his role in this??) said she would do. To coin a phrase, "Lying liars lie".

theartfullodger

The possession order requires her to leave: If she doesn't landlord needs to get bailiffs in.

She should also be aware that as she is being evicted for rent arrears by council they won't find her a new place to rent: She just might be put in a homeless hostel or B&B whilst they assess her case: Then evict her from there.

As suggested, she should go to CaB - but only if she will be entirely truthful.. with ALL relevant paperwork.

What do you think she's been spending the cash on?

pmlindyloo

theartfullodger wrote: »

The possession order requires her to leave: If she doesn't landlord needs to get bailiffs in.

She should also be aware that as she is being evicted for rent arrears by council they won't find her a new place to rent: She just might be put in a homeless hostel or B&B whilst they assess her case: Then evict her from there.

As suggested, she should go to CaB - but only if she will be entirely truthful.. with ALL relevant paperwork.

What do you think she's been spending the cash on?

I have seen cases like this where the non dependent is entirely unaware that the council deduct a hefty sum from the HB because they are working and just does not give enough money to make up the shortfall.

I don't know the age of the non dependant but morally the household expenses should be halved between the tenant and the non dependent if they are earning a good wage.

If the non dependent 'rises' to their moral obligation then they should be making a hefty contribution to the rent and council tax arrears.

Of course this may not be the case but, as already said, this is a situation which needs addressing urgently to avoid future arrears.

G_M

If you really want to help, you need to know the full facts.

Since she lies, you will need all the paperwork so you can see/judge for yourself. Not just the court papers, but all her financial paperwork:
* council tax bills
* evidence of CT payments (if any) and arrears
* bank statements (to see where cash is going)
* any loans, credit cards etc
* all DWP letters and paperwork (to see what she s claiming, receiving, having deducted)
* rent statements
etc

You also need to establish what the son is/isn't contributing and what he could contribute. so you need his
* bank statements
* salary/wage slips
* any benefits

etc

Only when you can see the whole picture can you assess how much the debts are, how/why they arose and over what period, and whether either/both of them are acting irresponsibly or just got into an unavoidable debt spiral.

If it's the latter, then helping them out makes sense. if it's just irresponsibility, compounded by lying, then helping them now will just postpone the problem for 6 months as you say, plus cost you a lot yourself.

Mrs_Optimist

Thanks for all replies. I have visited both of them today, the son hd no idea about the eviction order. He was paying the arrears which seem to have accrued as his mother didn't or chose not to realise that her benefit covered her only. The money he gave her has been spent on other things.

There are mental health issues for both mother and son which have been self medicated by weed and alcohol. The council tax arrears need to be paid first as the mother has a court date. She had binned most paperwork and buried her head in the sand. I will pay the council tax arrears.

In terms of the posession Order it was dated by the court on 21 march but she only received it yesterday. Is there a minimum amount of notice she should have had ? She has kept the envelope proving it was only posted to her on 7th April.

Her son is seeking somewhere else to live, in fact I have offered him a room here with us if needs be. His mother may be able to downsize, depending on what the council say. I have asked her to make an appointment with them so I can accompany her and try and resolve this mess. One things for sure, they cant live together any longer.

AnotherJoe

Wow. Not just an optimist but a saint. Good luck ! (genuinely meant) I hope it works out OK.