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Landlord Harassment - Advice needed please
Badmac64
Posts: 9 Forumite
Good Evening All,
Hope we are all well.
I am looking for some advice - myself and my wife are renting a 2 bed flat currently - I have had my hours cut so only earning 30% of my normal wage and my wife has been
made redundant. We have put a claim in for housing benefit but what we are entitled too does not cover our full rent so we are in arrears over the last 3 months.
Anyway we don't have much contact with our landlord at all - but tonight she came to the flat but both of us were not home as we are staying with my wife's elderly mother who has not long been discharged from hospital this week.
My wife was in the kitchen at her mothers house around 6pm tonight when the doorbell went - her mother went to the door and our land lady was at the door, she asked if my wife was there and attempted to enter the property. My mother in law managed to close the door over slightly to stop her making entry - my wife went to the door and the land lady was abusive towards her - She said that she had been told by the neighbour at our flat that we had left the flat and moved out as they saw us with suitcases last week - my wife explained that is not the case we had only left for a week to care for her mother who has been sick and is also recovering from the death of her husband suddenly a few months ago. Anyway the landlady was rude and my wife felt threatened when she started demanding to know when the arrears would be paid - we will be approx. £900 in arrears on Friday when we pay this months rent. She told my wife she wants it this week or she will be coming back.
My wife is now panicking that now she knows we are not at our house she is going to enter and she is also worried she is going to come back to her mums - her mum is almost 90 and has a heart condition and doesn't cope well with stress.
Where do we stand on this? Can she come back to my mother in laws home if we don't clear the arrears this week? Any advice would be gratefully received because I now have a stressed wife that my landlady will return to her mothers house or that we will be evicted. We are in Scotland if this makes any difference to the advice given.
Hope we are all well.
I am looking for some advice - myself and my wife are renting a 2 bed flat currently - I have had my hours cut so only earning 30% of my normal wage and my wife has been
made redundant. We have put a claim in for housing benefit but what we are entitled too does not cover our full rent so we are in arrears over the last 3 months.
Anyway we don't have much contact with our landlord at all - but tonight she came to the flat but both of us were not home as we are staying with my wife's elderly mother who has not long been discharged from hospital this week.
My wife was in the kitchen at her mothers house around 6pm tonight when the doorbell went - her mother went to the door and our land lady was at the door, she asked if my wife was there and attempted to enter the property. My mother in law managed to close the door over slightly to stop her making entry - my wife went to the door and the land lady was abusive towards her - She said that she had been told by the neighbour at our flat that we had left the flat and moved out as they saw us with suitcases last week - my wife explained that is not the case we had only left for a week to care for her mother who has been sick and is also recovering from the death of her husband suddenly a few months ago. Anyway the landlady was rude and my wife felt threatened when she started demanding to know when the arrears would be paid - we will be approx. £900 in arrears on Friday when we pay this months rent. She told my wife she wants it this week or she will be coming back.
My wife is now panicking that now she knows we are not at our house she is going to enter and she is also worried she is going to come back to her mums - her mum is almost 90 and has a heart condition and doesn't cope well with stress.
Where do we stand on this? Can she come back to my mother in laws home if we don't clear the arrears this week? Any advice would be gratefully received because I now have a stressed wife that my landlady will return to her mothers house or that we will be evicted. We are in Scotland if this makes any difference to the advice given.
0
Comments
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What are you worried about the landlord doing?
You do not need to engage with the landlord on the steps of your mother-in-law's house and you can call the police if you genuinely feel she is being abusive.
What conversations have you had with your landlord about your reduced income and how you will pay or afford the extra payments?
If your housing benefit does not cover your rent and you can't top it up you will need to look for somewhere else that you can afford.
You will not be evicted anytime soon but the landlord can start that process. In theory it will take 6 months but in practice it will take a lot longer.
During this time you will continue to owe the rent shortfall and if it is rising every month how will you pay it back?
Maybe you should consider moving out and living with your mother-in-law until you manage to find somewhere that is more affordable.1 -
Thank you for the advice to answer below points:
- My wife is worried she is going to go in our property as she knows we will not be there until next week.
- Both my wife and I are not worried about this while we are there but we are worried if she comes here when we go back home it will frighten my mother in law.
- We advised her immediately of the short fall in the rent and said that at the end of each month we will pay any additional if we can
- We will not have an issue paying the short fall in a couple of months - as I said my father in law died around 3 months ago and he left money, shares, life insurance payout ect to my wife - the estate is in process of being settled and my land lady knows that we have money coming.
- In Scotland I believe evictions were today banned until March - and we know that the debt will be settled within the next couple of months but we don't want to feel harassed whilst we wait.
Can I write to her and tell her we want all communication in writing and we don't want her to come chapping at our door or my mother in laws uninvited?
thanks
0 -
Just change your locks, tomorrow ideally. And put a sign on the mother in law's door saying 'no cold callers' or similar and tell her not to open the door to anyone she isn't expecting. That's not bad advice for any elderly person on their own anyway.
I doubt she'll go back to the mother in laws house though, its you she wants to harass.1 -
Perhaps you should have invited your landlady in from the doorstep ? There is no point in exacerbating the tensions that are obviously going to arise from you being unable to pay your rent.0
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Had it been our flat then I would of but I don't think we need to invite her in to my mother in laws house - she has no right to come to that house.brianposter said:Perhaps you should have invited your landlady in from the doorstep ? There is no point in exacerbating the tensions that are obviously going to arise from you being unable to pay you rent.
4 -
Perhaps the landlady shouldn't have turned up at a strangers house to hurl abuse?brianposter said:Perhaps you should have invited your landlady in from the doorstep ? There is no point in exacerbating the tensions that are obviously going to arise from you being unable to pay your rent.8 -
She's got no right to come in your house either. Change the locks.Badmac64 said:
Had it been our flat then I would of but I don't think we need to invite her in to my mother in laws house - she has no right to come to that house.brianposter said:Perhaps you should have invited your landlady in from the doorstep ? There is no point in exacerbating the tensions that are obviously going to arise from you being unable to pay you rent.5 -
There is no law against knocking on doors, and, as far as we know, the landlady had been misled over the circumstances of her tenants absence.0
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Nobody said there was?brianposter said:There is no law against knocking on doors.0 -
As above change the locks, explain when you’ll pay off arrears and tell her she’s not welcome at MILs1
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