£2500 Rent Arrears Council Flat. Need advice on what to do? 15 September 2022 at 8:45AM in Benefits & tax credits 14 replies 1.5K views

tinkleberryy

At what figure does the council start eviction proceedings for someone in rent arrears?

I don't currently have the money to clear this £2500 arrears, but if I keep making future payments, effectively keeping my debt at £2500 would they eventually come to evict me?

donnac2558

They will want you to make payments towards the arrears.   They can take money from your benefit, they will not just let you pay nothing towards arrears.

tifo

How'd you get into such arrears anyway? If this was a private landlord or mortgage you'd have been out or home repossessed.

peteuk

tifo said:

How'd you get into such arrears anyway? If this was a private landlord or mortgage you'd have been out or home repossessed.

Disagree, This could be two months rent or mortgage on a house, will take longer to go through the courts to get someone evicted and then its likely to escalate. 

freesha

At that level, you're lucky to have not had any action taken already.

freesha

peteuk said:

tifo said:

How'd you get into such arrears anyway? If this was a private landlord or mortgage you'd have been out or home repossessed.

Disagree, This could be two months rent or mortgage on a house, will take longer to go through the courts to get someone evicted and then its likely to escalate. 

peteuk said:

tifo said:

How'd you get into such arrears anyway? If this was a private landlord or mortgage you'd have been out or home repossessed.

Disagree, This could be two months rent or mortgage on a house, will take longer to go through the courts to get someone evicted and then its likely to escalate. 

2 months' rent on a council house would not be £2500, behave.

Robbie64

The earliest that a council can apply to the court for a possession order is when rent is in arrears by 8 x weekly rent or 2 x monthly rent.

The OP should speak to his or her council as soon as possible and try to come to some arrangement. Ideally they should try and reduce the arrears below the 8xW or 2xM rent figure.

peteuk

peteuk said:

tifo said:

How'd you get into such arrears anyway? If this was a private landlord or mortgage you'd have been out or home repossessed.

Disagree, This could be two months rent or mortgage on a house, will take longer to go through the courts to get someone evicted and then its likely to escalate. 

2 months' rent on a council house would not be £2500, behave.

Not disagreeing with Council house, but the statement “If this was a private landlord or mortgage you'd have been out or home repossessed.”

huckster

@tinkleberryy

Suggest that you get local debt advice.  Have you enquired about benefits ? Support from local Council ?  Councils have various grants and allowances that can be applied for.  

tifo

peteuk said:

Not disagreeing with Council house, but the statement “If this was a private landlord or mortgage you'd have been out or home repossessed.”

Not relevant since this is a council property, hence the *IF* in there, implying the OP is lucky this is a council house.

Whilst it will take time, a private landlord could issue a section 8 for rent arrears and a section 21 notice for broken terms (payment) to start the eviction process.

MattMattMattUK

tinkleberryy said:

At what figure does the council start eviction proceedings for someone in rent arrears?

I don't currently have the money to clear this £2500 arrears, but if I keep making future payments, effectively keeping my debt at £2500 would they eventually come to evict me?

They will likely take recover action at some point, but that could be as simple as them saying you have to pay a token amount towards it each month. How likely and how quickly they take action will depend on how many months that arrears represents and if you engage with them when they contact you, though it might well be worth being proactive. 

Have you got the ability to pay back a token amount and make sure you will not get in to the same situation again?