1 day late paying overdue rent/rent arrears, now had a letter promising taking action to repossess

G_M

There are 3 possible ways you can be evicted.

1) You have a periodic (rolling) tenancy. The LL/agent can serve a S21 Notice giving 2 months, then apply to court for possession. No reason is needed.

2) The LL can serve a S8 Ground 8 Notice for current rent arrears. The LL can apply to cout for possession after 2 weeks. There must be 2 months arrears both when the notice is served, and when court hears the case. The court has no discretion and must award the LL possession. However in this case you have no current arrears.

3) The LL can serve a S8 Ground 10 or 11 Notice. This is where there are some arrears (G10), or a history of late payment (G11), as here. The court has discretion, so you would have a chance to explain to the judge and he may or may not award the LL possession.

theartfullodger

A Landlord may serve a valid s8g10 if only 1p is underpaid for only 1 day.

They are sending you a message. Take the hint. Pay in full & on-time

Smodlet

I second the suggestion to post on the Debt Free Wannabe board, gemmajenkins0208. There are always savings you can make somewhere, it's a bit like mining; the harder you look and the deeper you dig, the more savings you find.

It has been said over and over already but I think your fundamental view of debt needs a serious overhaul. Rent is not your money, it is your landlord's; it does not belong to you. Council tax is not your money, it belongs to the council and so it is with every other outgoing we all have. The money I spend on food belongs to the supermarket as soon I get to the check out; I have food in exchange. You have a place to live in exchange for your rent. You can have one or the other; you cannot have both.

If your mother will take you in, by all means move back but please bear in mind even your mother will want you to pay your own way eventually. Unless she charges you the same rent, your UC will be affected if you move back in with her. If you fail to declare your change of circumstances to the DWP, which would be fraudulent, can you be certain your letting agent will not inform them anyway?

Only you can decide how you deal with your situation going forward. I hope you decide to take responsibility for your own finances and learn from your experience; few things feel so good as being in control of your own money. There is plenty of advice on here about every aspect of managing money. I also hope you know how many professional landlords have posted on your thread and given you excellent advice, for free.

Good luck; I think you can do this.

FreeBear

Smodlet wrote: »

If your mother will take you in, by all means move back but please bear in mind even your mother will want you to pay your own way eventually. Unless she charges you the same rent, your UC will be affected if you move back in with her.

The op wouldn't be able to claim the HB component of UC if she moved in with her mother. In the eyes of the DWP, parents are expected to pay for the upkeep of children regardless of age if they are living at home. It would also been seen as a "contrived rental agreement".

A_Lert

Keep in mind that under current law, your landlord can give you notice to leave for any or no reason. Getting behind on your rent will of course encourage a landlord to evict you, but even if you're the best tenant ever you can still be told to leave.


If the landlord issues a Section 21 notice, the notice period before you're supposed to move out is 2 months. If it's section 8 grounds 10, or 11 it's 2 weeks.


If you don't move out on the date demanded the landlord would have to take court action. For s21 the only defenses are that the landlord didn't follow all the proper procedures - your own conduct is irrelevant. For s8 g10/11 the court may decide not to grant possession.

Dineen33

Move back to your mothers and get your finances sorted.

45002

gemmajenkins0208 wrote:

I do apologise if I'm coming off as anything other than appreciative of all of your help.

I'll be honest, I wasn't prepared for this, but I know I needed to hear the cold, hard truth.

But I thank you all for all of your input on this.

Best start packing up to move back to me mums I guess...

Will she want you back. !

If mum lets you move back in, Lets hope you pay your house keeping money to your Mum on Time .....




;;;;

Smodlet

FreeBear wrote: »

The op wouldn't be able to claim the HB component of UC if she moved in with her mother. In the eyes of the DWP, parents are expected to pay for the upkeep of children regardless of age if they are living at home. It would also been seen as a "contrived rental agreement".

I did wonder about that, Freebear, but was not sure. Thank you.

A_Lert

Regarding benefits.


You cannot claim Housing Benefit or Universal Credit for rent you pay to close family members you live with.



If your mother claims HB, UC, or support for mortgage interest, she will nonetheless be subject to the "non-dependant deduction" on that on the basis you are living in her home. With legacy Housing Benefit the deduction is based on the non-dependant's income, but with Universal Credit the maximum deduction is made regardless of how much the non-dependant is actually earning.

[Deleted User]

I am on benefits with two children and had a difficult time with money at one stage. The only way I got through it was to cut everything back. Food didn't get bought til I had the money for the rent. There was one month in 4 years when my now ex didn't pay what he promised and said he had to me. Once I realised, I used whatever I had to pay that money off within days. Once in four years. Regardless of what I had coming in, rent always came first, like I said, even before food. I didn't want to give the LL reason to evict me. Can't cook food if you don't have a roof over your heads (well, I've never overly liked being dependant on a campfire).

I'm not having a go at you, just trying to say you need to prioritise rent over everything else LL's expect their money on time every month, not 2/3 of the time. You don't get a star chart for 'only' being behind 1/3 of the time.., you get evicted for having a reputation as a bad payer.

Well done for getting the arrears paid off. That must have taken a lot of effort. Now you need to reassure the LL that it won't happen again.

I have a calendar with my bill payments and money coming in showing on the days it happens so I know exactly where the stress points are and I can see in an instant where I am on any day of the month. Its helps me plan and only takes a couple of mins to write up a month. My phone diary also shows when money is coming in, if something gets paid in on a certain date or a bill needs paying, I get a reminder. Again it only takes a minute to set up a payment/money coming in and then put it on repeat (beware the difference between 4 weekly amounts and calendar month amounts).