Rent arrears

Laulauz89

I moved into a property in July with my partner. Unfortunately the relationship broke down and I am no longer able to afford the rent on my own. I was upfront and honest with my landlord/letting agent straight away. I emailed them at the end of September to inform them of the situation. They agreed to put the property back on the market for a fee and also agreed that this fee could be taken from my deposit. I was very happy that they had been so helpful. My rent comes out on 12th of every month and unfortunately I could not make the payment last month.
There are people interested in the flat and are waiting for the referencing to go through. I am hoping for this to be done by 12th of this month so that I can move out straight away and just organise some kind of payment plan for the month that I missed. I am just worried if it does not happen and I can not make the payment this month either. Any advice?

HampshireH

Speak to your 'LL again and explain the situation.

Are you paying anything towards the rent?

If you have a joint tenancy your ex is still liable.

Rambosmum

Pay what you can and organise a schedule to repay it (or have it taken out of the deposit if the check out inspection goes well).

Laulauz89

I haven't been able to pay anything. unfortunately the tenancy was just in my name.
I have been emailing the LL but they seem very vague as to what will be the next step in regards to me paying the money.

ACG

YOu can not pay anything? Not a single penny?
I would say keep your landlord in the loop and make payments towards the debt no matter how little. When I was a landlord, I would have taken that over going through court any day, unless you were literally paying pennies.

Laulauz89

I wasn't able to last month but will be able to pay £100 this month

Money_maker

Surely you have your share of the rent?

G_M

So you rented a property in your sole name, but have no income at all to pay any rent? You were totally dependent on your partner for the entire rent?

Did the landlord not credit vet you before granting you the tenancy?

As others have said, pay as much as you can, as soon as you can. If you have £100 available, don't wait for the next rent day, use it to reduce the arrears immediately (even if it means more arrears next rent day).

And speak to the LL.

It sounds like one of several things will happen:

* a new tenant will be found, your tenancy will end, arrears will be taken from your deposit, and you'll walk away

* a new tenant will be found, your tenancy will end, some arrears will be taken from your deposit, and you'll have to pay additional arrears in the coming months

* a new tenant will not be found, your arrears will increase, you'll be served a S8 Notice and evicted. Arrears and court costs will be taken from your deposit and /or taken over following months

* a new tenant will not be found, your arrears will increase,and your LL will allow you to stay with increasing arrears.

What was the agreement about rent with your ex? Did you move in together, or did you take on the tenancy, move in, and then later (s)he moved in? Was there an agreement between you about rent?

Cakeguts

I hope you realise the seriousness of this situation? If the landlord takes you to court for rent arrears and gets a CCJ against you it will show up on all financial checks for anywhere that you might want to rent in the future. This will make it very difficult for you to find anywhere else to rent. What you need to do is to pay the rent first before you spend any money on anything else. Rent is your most important bill.

FBaby

It sounds like the Landlord is happy for the rent to be taken out of the deposit however, that's assuming that there will be nothing else to deduct from it, and that the property is rented again by the time a 2nd month is due. That's why you are not getting anything back from them.

I would therefore concentrate on making sure the place is spotless when you move out, clean absolutely everything as it was when you moved in, replace anything that might be damaged etc... Speak to the LL and explain the above and that you will definitely be gone by the time they move in. If it's only a few days, they might decide not to bother chasing you for a 2nd month if the place is left in the same condition.

seashore22

How on earth did this situation arise?

The tenancy is in your name. The landlord/agency must have done an affordability check to see if you could pay the rent. Something else must have happened for you to go from being able to afford the rent on your own to not being able to pay any of it.