Rent arrears advice

Newbie1983

Hi I wonder if someone can please help me...

I signed a 12 month tenancy agreement last June and due to various things happening and a change in circumstances have managed to accrue rent arrears of £866.14. Obviously I didn't expect to owe this money forever and so offered the landlord a repayment plan of £300 every 4 weeks (out of my disability benefit) with the first payment to reach him 3rd January 2017. Apparently this isn't good enough and he wants £250 next Friday 30th with the £300 on the 3rd and then £75 every Friday thereafter until the debt is cleared...

Please can anyone advise me 😞

Thanks in advance

pmlindyloo

Newbie1983 wrote: »

Hi I wonder if someone can please help me...

I signed a 12 month tenancy agreement last June and due to various things happening and a change in circumstances have managed to accrue rent arrears of £866.14. Obviously I didn't expect to owe this money forever and so offered the landlord a repayment plan of £300 every 4 weeks (out of my disability benefit) with the first payment to reach him 3rd January 2017. Apparently this isn't good enough and he wants £250 next Friday 30th with the £300 on the 3rd and then £75 every Friday thereafter until the debt is cleared...

Please can anyone advise me ��

Thanks in advance

Are you receiving housing benefit? If so, then apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment (form from the council)

Otherwise your options are:

Anything you can sell?
Borrow from family and friends and then pay them back.
Ask the bank for a short term overdraft.
Put on a credit card.
Pay what you can afford to the LL and hope he doesn't send you a Section 8 for possession of the property.

theartfullodger

As already advised to the same question elsewhere....


.......................
Is landlord a private landlord, council or Housing Association?

You presumably agree you owe the money: It was due when it should have 1st been paid, and remains due NOW. The landlord does not have to agree to any payment plan at all: He is due the money, in full, TODAY!

Landlord could (it might be in the post...) pursue you through small claims court for the rent owed (if not fully paid off within 28 days of judgement you get a CCJ making any credit deals or future rentals difficult)

-and/or...

Landlord could (it might be in the post) serve you with a "Section 8" notice for rent arrears then take you to court (14 days later he can apply to court) then evict you: And he does not have to give you any reference. If evicted for rent arrears council would likely find you "intentionally homeless" and decline to advise you or rehouse you: It is cold & wet sleeping on a park bench. You can be evicted for rent arrears well before June 2017

So try & negotiate but, if you wish to keep your home & the ability to rent in future perhaps spend less on immediate items (Christmas?) and more on what Citizens Advice describe as "priority debts" - rent, council tax.

If you need further help try local Citizens Advice or Shelter 0808 800 4444. But contact them soon before the huge rush of calls in early January when people who've had their head in the sand finally panic about money they owe:

What other debts do you have? If you have a debt problem (let's be frank, you do - rent) call National Debtline charity
https://www.nationaldebtline.org

Sorry to be blunt, but that's the legal reality of where you are.


................. and good point from lindyloo about DHP: Look at YOUR council website to see if you are eligible.. Different councils have different schemes

I'd go further, check what benefits you might be entitled to by spending some time here...
https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

Bossypants

Beg or borrow the money from anywhere you can and pay the landlord in accordance with their terms. As someone said above, the last thing you want is to be evicted.

G_M

What can I add?

* negotiate on the payment plan, or
* hope LL does not evict and/or sue, or
* get evicted and/or sued, or
* beg, borrow (I won't suggest steal) the money and pay LL

csgohan4

Watching Can't Pay we take it away, those tenants are evicted for rent arrears, but they can still get housing from the council, albeit emergency. Will they be able to find normal council housing after this?

theartfullodger

csgohan4 wrote: »

Watching Can't Pay we take it away, those tenants are evicted for rent arrears, but they can still get housing from the council, albeit emergency. Will they be able to find normal council housing after this?

Usually they have children: The formal position is usually that council provide temporary, emergency, accommodation** "whilst their case is investigated". If they are later found "intentionally homeless" then they may be swiftly evicted.

** Emergency, temporary, accommodation: Likely to to be somewhere you & I wouldn't want to stay - a homeless hostel or homeless B&B. On a license, not tenancy, probably "excluded occupiers" - see
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/social_housing/about_council_housing/rights_in_temporary_council_accommodation
- so can be evicted pretty much within a day, no court order needed.

It's a hard world out there..If you can't pay your rent (or mortgage..) it can get very, very, unpleasant.

csgohan4

It is a hard world, but it is harder if you want it to be. Always save for a rainy day and don't spend what you don't have

Cakeguts

Rent arrears are much more serious than people seem to think they are. When you rent a property you are buying space to live in. You pay the rent each month to buy a space to live in. If you don't pay your rent then you are trying to buy something without paying for it. By offering a payment plan you are trying to get interest free credit from the landlord. Why should someone give you interest free credit so that you don't have to pay when the money is due? Some people I am not saying that this is what you have done buy Christmas presents with rent money. It is more pleasant to live in a house without Christmas presents than to sleep on a park bench with lots of Christmas presents.

The landlord is not obliged to give you interest free credit to pay off your arrears as this is not the contract that you signed. You have bought something and not paid for it why should the person who you owe money to give you interest free credit to pay for it? What you need to do is to find a way to pay all the money you owe now. You might need a loan from a company that is regulated give loans rather than expect to get credit from your landlord.

mchale

Make the payments you suggested, if poss try to make 1st payment a bit earlier than the 03.01, If LL see's you are try to clear arrears he'd be a fool to start eviction proceedings.

Delree

I work in this field and think your offer of £300 every 4 weeks (assuming that's all off the arrears) is a good one and you should go ahead and make those payments whatever the landlord says. At the end of the day you can't pay what you haven't got. It's impossible.

If it's a private tenancy you run the risk of being asked to leave if you defy your landlord and pay what you say rather than what they say but you are where you are.

Lastly I would look back on what caused these arrears and make sure it doesn't happen again. There is no reason why you have to rack up arrears like this as there are measures out there to help.

Look at entitledto.co.uk to see if you're claiming all the benefits you can and maximise your income.

Hope this helps.