Moving in with partner- CCJ

Marie569

Hello, I'm in need of a bit of advice. I posted on another Landlord forum so I know that landlords can be understandably unsure of CCJ tenants. I've been living at my property for over 4 years. I've always paid rent on time (or early), fully respected the property and neighbours, increased the value of the property by approved decorating and even forwarded my LL's mail to my own expense. I want to move my partner in as we are planning a family, we are going to be getting married also, our wedding was cancelled due to covid. The issue is my LL has been delaying the process by asking for different information sporadically instead of asking for the information in just one email and it's making the process last month's. My partner has a CCJ ( a shop catalogue that went bust and debt letters got delivered to a neighbours similar address meaning he only got the court letter) he started paying immediately and has repaid majority, we have shown my LL all of this information, including bank statements, proof of payments, utility bills etc all of the information and documentation we could possibly give, we have. (Including, the email in which the debt agency show they had the wrong address on the system) but to no avail. My LL said that it has to be fully paid off by next week and subject to another credit check before they'll even consider. We said that we can have it paid off by the end of this month (when we are paid wages) but we got no reply to this. I also have suspicion that another factor is the fact we are unmarried as they have asked when we are planning to get married, inbetween this process. My question is, can a LL legally request a non-rent CCJ be fully paid within a week? It all seems very aggressive to me. I completely understand LL being concerned and it is a tricky situation, hence my need for advice! 

- Please don't lecture on CCJ's and how we should be grateful she's even considering it because I understand the concern and I'm not ignorant to it, just need advice on next steps!

HampshireH

I feel you have given your landlord WAY to much info 

Your martial status is also irrelevant.

You could have moved your partner in without telling them and they would never have known 

penners324

Just move him in....

No need to change the tenancy agreement.

Marie569

HampshireH said:

I feel you have given your landlord WAY to much info 

Your martial status is also irrelevant.

You could have moved your partner in without telling them and they would never have known 

According to a LL forum, we haven't given enough! We were simply told by one account " you should be grateful she's even considering keeping you on because if you were my tenants, I'd be serving you a notice period"! 
We do want everything to be above board as we are getting married and planning a family but surely she understands he either moves in or I move (which she's strictly stated she DOES NOT want), she can't expect us to be living separately at this point! 

HampshireH

The is no requirement to provide your partners full financial history, all your bills and repayment plan to your landlord. That's above and beyond.

Either your LL says yes or no.

 In the meantime partner doesnt have to be a tenant he can be an occupant and unless your tenancy specifically says your only to have 1 named person residing at the property then I can't see the issue (and even that would be questionable)

penners324

What other forum is this? Very strange advise.

Slithery

Just move the partner in.

I'm not sure why you even contacted the LL about this in the first place.

canaldumidi

If you've asked the LL to replace your currenet sole tenancy with a joint tenancy, he can request whatever information he wants, by whatever date he chooses.

And he can choose whether or not to grant the joint tenancy.

If the partner moves in without becoming a joint tenant, you may or may not be in breach of your tenancy, but frankly, if you are, what is the LL going to do about it? Evict you? At significant cost to himself and over a protracted period of time.

saajan_12

Marie569 said:

Hello, I'm in need of a bit of advice. I posted on another Landlord forum so I know that landlords can be understandably unsure of CCJ tenants. I've been living at my property for over 4 years. I've always paid rent on time (or early), fully respected the property and neighbours, increased the value of the property by approved decorating and even forwarded my LL's mail to my own expense. - great, your choice and may not have the same value to the LL as you place on it, but sounds like a good relationship. 
I want to move my partner in as we are planning a family, we are going to be getting married also, our wedding was cancelled due to covid. The issue is my LL has been delaying the process by asking for different information sporadically instead of asking for the information in just one email and it's making the process last month's. - depends on the info, sometimes you know you'll need the next thing until the first thing raises a question. Sometimes you deal with people who just aren't organised - annoying, but there's no requirement to be.
My partner has a CCJ ( a shop catalogue that went bust and debt letters got delivered to a neighbours similar address meaning he only got the court letter) he started paying immediately and has repaid majority, - okay so there's an aspect of having debts / not fully beign able to afford it? (else would have been paid as soon as partner found out and any penalties from wrong address would have been challenged?)  
we have shown my LL all of this information, including bank statements, proof of payments, utility bills etc all of the information and documentation we could possibly give, we have. (Including, the email in which the debt agency show they had the wrong address on the system) but to no avail. My LL said that it has to be fully paid off by next week and subject to another credit check before they'll even consider. We said that we can have it paid off by the end of this month (when we are paid wages) but we got no reply to this. - Legally with partner + you on the tenancy, the LL is in a better position vs just you (I assume its just you currently?) however bad credit partner has. However I guess the concern is with partner on you might mentally think of it as each covering half the rent, so less likely he'll get the full rent from you before it gets to court? Also insurance etc might be more black and white about the 'no one wiht CCJs'. 

I also have suspicion that another factor is the fact we are unmarried as they have asked when we are planning to get married, inbetween this process. My question is, can a LL legally request a non-rent CCJ be fully paid within a week? - at they can ask anything they like as you're asking to add someone to the tenancy. The alternative is just they refuse. 
It all seems very aggressive to me. I completely understand LL being concerned and it is a tricky situation, hence my need for advice! 

- Please don't lecture on CCJ's and how we should be grateful she's even considering it because I understand the concern and I'm not ignorant to it, just need advice on next steps!

Legally the LL is in no worse position by adding partner, since they can still claim 100% of the rent from you and let you two sort out your shares between you. Potential explanations for their behaviour- maybe they think practically you'll see it as splitting the rent, you'll pay your share and partner won't, meaning more chance of having to pursue the legal side? Or they may have insurance which requires no tenants with CCJs (without looking into the detail that you can afford the rent alone) Or ..

However the LL's rationale aside, you currently have a valid tenancy and are requesting to change it, so the LL can refuse or agree with whatever criteria they like (rational or not). 

Practically, what's stopping you from moving partner in as an occupant without being on the tenancy? That's perfectly above board from a tenancy law perspective as its your home. The only potential issue is if you contractually agreed it would be only you living there. If you breach that and say overcrowd the property or make hte LL fall foul of HMO requirements, and the LL faces penalties then perhaps the LL could sue you for damages. However if it doesn't impact the LL, then its only a technical breach and there's no comeback on you. 

RogerBareford

Marie569 said:

Hello, I'm in need of a bit of advice. I posted on another Landlord forum so I know that landlords can be understandably unsure of CCJ tenants. I've been living at my property for over 4 years. I've always paid rent on time (or early), fully respected the property and neighbours, increased the value of the property by approved decorating and even forwarded my LL's mail to my own expense. I want to move my partner in as we are planning a family, we are going to be getting married also, our wedding was cancelled due to covid. The issue is my LL has been delaying the process by asking for different information sporadically instead of asking for the information in just one email and it's making the process last month's. My partner has a CCJ ( a shop catalogue that went bust and debt letters got delivered to a neighbours similar address meaning he only got the court letter) he started paying immediately and has repaid majority, we have shown my LL all of this information, including bank statements, proof of payments, utility bills etc all of the information and documentation we could possibly give, we have. (Including, the email in which the debt agency show they had the wrong address on the system) but to no avail. My LL said that it has to be fully paid off by next week and subject to another credit check before they'll even consider. We said that we can have it paid off by the end of this month (when we are paid wages) but we got no reply to this. I also have suspicion that another factor is the fact we are unmarried as they have asked when we are planning to get married, inbetween this process. My question is, can a LL legally request a non-rent CCJ be fully paid within a week? It all seems very aggressive to me. I completely understand LL being concerned and it is a tricky situation, hence my need for advice! 

- Please don't lecture on CCJ's and how we should be grateful she's even considering it because I understand the concern and I'm not ignorant to it, just need advice on next steps!

If your partner got the court letter then they could have immedietly paid the full amount and then the CCJ wouldn't have appeared on their record at all. So showing they had the wrong address is irrelevant because your partner had the letter from the court which is the one that matters and they must have known they owed the money before when they ordered from a catalog and never paid the balance.

So sending evidence of the wrong adress is a waste of time in my opinion but so is the landlord asking for all this information and then expecting it to be paid off before they move in.

I would simply say to the LL that you want to live with your partner and them making a silly mistake and getting a CCJ shouldn't be an issue. If they don't let them move in immedietly then you will be forced to find another property and then have the cost of finding new tenants.

At the end of the day you currently pay the rent yourself so having an extra person and sharing the costs is only going to a positive and not make it less likely the rent will be paid..

KievLover

Marie569 said:

Hello, I'm in need of a bit of advice. I posted on another Landlord forum so I know that landlords can be understandably unsure of CCJ tenants. I've been living at my property for over 4 years. I've always paid rent on time (or early), fully respected the property and neighbours, increased the value of the property by approved decorating and even forwarded my LL's mail to my own expense. I want to move my partner in as we are planning a family, we are going to be getting married also, our wedding was cancelled due to covid. The issue is my LL has been delaying the process by asking for different information sporadically instead of asking for the information in just one email and it's making the process last month's. My partner has a CCJ ( a shop catalogue that went bust and debt letters got delivered to a neighbours similar address meaning he only got the court letter) he started paying immediately and has repaid majority, we have shown my LL all of this information, including bank statements, proof of payments, utility bills etc all of the information and documentation we could possibly give, we have. (Including, the email in which the debt agency show they had the wrong address on the system) but to no avail. My LL said that it has to be fully paid off by next week and subject to another credit check before they'll even consider. We said that we can have it paid off by the end of this month (when we are paid wages) but we got no reply to this. I also have suspicion that another factor is the fact we are unmarried as they have asked when we are planning to get married, inbetween this process. My question is, can a LL legally request a non-rent CCJ be fully paid within a week? It all seems very aggressive to me. I completely understand LL being concerned and it is a tricky situation, hence my need for advice! 

- Please don't lecture on CCJ's and how we should be grateful she's even considering it because I understand the concern and I'm not ignorant to it, just need advice on next steps!

Your LL may need to satisfy insurance requirements to say he has seen debt paid off.

My advice would be to forget going down the joint lease road and ask for them to be added as a permitted occupier instead. Your partner will have no legal rights but it means you won't be breaking insurance terms strictly needing adhering to if it says you should be the sole occupier.