Urgent advice needed - In Court tomorrow for a possession hearing

AdrianC

You've already had excellent advice on the possession hearing, and the work issues are separate - and probably better suited for the employment forum than here, but there's one thing that glares out from what you've said.

Keyser666777 wrote: »

- in January this year I started a new role, it was not a permanent role employed directly by the company, I was effectively a contractor and the contract was for 6 months, ending the first week of July
...
- The email was notification that my contract had been terminated and not to return to work the following day. The reason given for the termination was as per one of the contract terms they can terminate the contract without reason, giving one weeks notice, I was devastated.
...
- They didn’t respond to any emails I sent them after that, so I lodged a ET claim

Keyser666777 wrote: »

Sorry I should have said when the DWP contacted my employer when I claimed for UC they said I was on gardening leave when I wasn’t so got paid 0.00 for 4 months in my online portal because the DWP insisted I was still employed and in payment. They asked for payslips to prove my earnings from them which of course I didn’t have.

As said earlier the employers refused to reply to my calls or emails until mid July I sent them proof of a ET claim. I am still owes 4 months money in UC which I have an appeal pending still

Are they actually your employer...?

Either you were an employee on a fixed-term contract, or you were a contractor and so self-employed.

It's a very important detail if you do end up following a tribunal route.

Good luck. Their actions were despicable, and they should be held to account.

Skiddaw1

Absolutely.... will be thinking of you OP.


Is there no chance that you could beg or borrow sufficient cash to reduce the arrears to less than 8 weeks rent?



Good luck

[Deleted User]

I hope you are ok.

Doozergirl

deannatrois wrote: »

I hope you are ok.

Me too. This isn't something I know about, but reading this at 5am really pulled on my heart and I hope that today wasn't too hard on you, OP. There was good advice here, we have some special people on this board. I hope you got it just in time.

carrotland

It sounds like you've had a really rough trot, I'm sorry

On the flipside, not every landlord is wealthy and not paying could also be causing them to have a really rough trot, so it is understandable that it comes to a point where someone should be granted a possession order to get it back.

Comms69

carrotland wrote: »

It sounds like you've had a really rough trot, I'm sorry

On the flipside, not every landlord is wealthy and not paying could also be causing them to have a really rough trot, so it is understandable that it comes to a point where someone should be granted a possession order to get it back.

Did you read the post, this is a housing association...

Night.s

I know I've missed the boat here, but FYI social landlords do not use Ground 8 99% of the time. I'm a Housing Officer specialising in rent collection. Most landlords use grounds 10 & 11 combined for rent arrears cases. As Ground 8 has no discretion generally these are only used for extreme circumstances. Of course I cannot speak for all Housing Associations and maybe some do use Ground 8 more freely than others, but it is not typical.

Anyway, if it was grounds 10/11 there is a very very high chance this would have been awarded as a Suspended Possession Order at most. Judges are massively in favour of tenants at the moment and if you can demonstrate a realistic payment plan you will more than likely be allowed another chance to try and pay it off. It's also very likely that the landlord would actually agree a payment plan with you too in this circumstance. £1300 is not a large debt for a HA tenant and would not usually result in an eviction for that alone. I have seen evictions suspended when the balance is approaching £5/6000, although you are living very very dangerously at that point. There is nothing good that comes from owing any kind of rent, so don't take that as strategy advice!

Reading between the lines of this post it seems like OP has not had a clear dialogue with their landlord. That is the number one best way to end up in court. If you are uncertain what is happening, speak to your landlord urgently. They should explain everything clearly. If you are in the dark you have no power to take action.

My advice for anyone in this situation is to speak to your landlord if you are in doubt. Give them clarity about what is happening, why you aren't paying and what your plan is for making payments in future. If you can evidence all of this there is a fair chance you can avoid court altogether. Remember that it costs £325 for a landlord to get a court hearing and then a further £121 to get a bailiff to evict you. Add on the lost rent for when your property is empty and the fact that it can take 6-8 weeks for this whole process means they do not want to go down this route!

Go to Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter and they can help with all of this. Many courts also have a free homeless prevention service that will give you an individual case worker who will do all the leg work for you.

Keyser if you need any further advice feel free to PM me.

Keyser666777

Night.s said:

I know I've missed the boat here, but FYI social landlords do not use Ground 8 99% of the time. I'm a Housing Officer specialising in rent collection. Most landlords use grounds 10 & 11 combined for rent arrears cases. As Ground 8 has no discretion generally these are only used for extreme circumstances. Of course I cannot speak for all Housing Associations and maybe some do use Ground 8 more freely than others, but it is not typical.

Anyway, if it was grounds 10/11 there is a very very high chance this would have been awarded as a Suspended Possession Order at most. Judges are massively in favour of tenants at the moment and if you can demonstrate a realistic payment plan you will more than likely be allowed another chance to try and pay it off. It's also very likely that the landlord would actually agree a payment plan with you too in this circumstance. £1300 is not a large debt for a HA tenant and would not usually result in an eviction for that alone. I have seen evictions suspended when the balance is approaching £5/6000, although you are living very very dangerously at that point. There is nothing good that comes from owing any kind of rent, so don't take that as strategy advice!

Reading between the lines of this post it seems like OP has not had a clear dialogue with their landlord. That is the number one best way to end up in court. If you are uncertain what is happening, speak to your landlord urgently. They should explain everything clearly. If you are in the dark you have no power to take action.

My advice for anyone in this situation is to speak to your landlord if you are in doubt. Give them clarity about what is happening, why you aren't paying and what your plan is for making payments in future. If you can evidence all of this there is a fair chance you can avoid court altogether. Remember that it costs £325 for a landlord to get a court hearing and then a further £121 to get a bailiff to evict you. Add on the lost rent for when your property is empty and the fact that it can take 6-8 weeks for this whole process means they do not want to go down this route!

Go to Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter and they can help with all of this. Many courts also have a free homeless prevention service that will give you an individual case worker who will do all the leg work for you.

Keyser if you need any further advice feel free to PM me.

Hi Night.s see my response below, due to the urgency of my post and the hearing the following day I didn’t see your post until now.

Keyser666777

As said in the OP this is a throwaway as I have a regular active forum account so I totally forgot to come back and update the thread with the outcome.

will update now incase others in the same/similar circs find this thread in the future.

basically due to my state of mind after everything I had been through plus the added pressure of this case I made a massive error.  In my search quest for information on my situation and most, if not all results being in reference to section 8 arrears I created my thread here on that basis.

it wasn’t until I called shelter for advice the early morning the following day hours before my case that the shelter representative asked me to read out the particulars of claim.  It was then that they said possession was being sought under Sections 10 & 11 And not section 8 as I had convinced myself.  

This meant possession wouldn’t be awarded under the mandatory grounds section 8 directs but that I came under discretionary grounds. (Hat tip to @Night.s post above as my landlord is a HA). 

I agreed a payment plan plan with my HA that the judge ratified.  He understood my circs leading up to this and found I could maintain the agreed repayment amount and suspended the order.

i must add. as I feel this is important. My HA weren’t aware of all I had  been through (as advised by other members I gave a short version of events in court) They we’re supportive, offered support in terms of bereavement, employment law support regarding outstanding pay etc etc.  The key thing they said was to keep a line of comms open, otherwise they assume rent is not being paid intentionally.

anyway two weeks after the suspended possession order with additional repayment conditions my friend gave me the money to Pay off the arrears in full as well as putting me 4 weeks in credit as per the terms of my tenancy agreement.  He done this (which cleaned him out) as I had at that point an email offer from the employer concerned offering full and final payment of what was owed as long as I signed a agreement with them, they paid this to me the following week.  

So so moral of the story is to read the paperwork again and again and if your head is not in the game get someone else to do it for you 

thanks again for all the replies and support x

Doozergirl

That's great news. 

As soon as the title popped up I knew what this was.  I'm glad it's all working out better for you. 
Thanks for updating, no matter how late.  x