(anti)social land lords court rent housing benefit

silvercar

What may have happened is that the council notified Orbit that your housing benefit claim has ended. So orbit are concerned that there will be rent arrears. Once they understand that you have a UC claim that will pay your rent set up, they may be more relaxed. You need to liaise with them on this, so they understand your new claim will sort the rent. You also need to make sure that the rent is being paid to Orbit, just because HB paid the rent direct, will UC do the same? 

james_smitha

High 5 to you silvercar

Some very good text there.

I have indeed called orbit 08006781221.

Unfortunatly their staffed offices near me long before the covid pandemic stoped being open to 'inmates'

Orbit  tell me that DWP have taken over payment successfully.

I went to gret lenghths to sort what Orbit call a managed payment, so DWP pay them directly

Unfortunatly what I believe that I see is that Orbit where happy to trust the council to pay them my housing benefit in full on time, but they don't trust DWP to do the same.

If it helps, Orbit have never said that the money paid on my behalf has not been paid.

My percepsion is that they are tightening up, possibly a new manager.

Strangely they lack the same enthuseiasm for external repairs like guttering that needs replacing

elsien

Innocent till proven guilty is with regards to criminal offences. You are not “the accused.” Your court case, whatever it is as you still haven’t clarified that, is a civil matter. In fact you haven’t even said there is a court case just that there was a letter mentioning that there might be.

And no one is suggesting you have £400 tucked away down the side of an armchair. But coming to an agreement to pay something is better than completely ignoring it. 

EssexHebridean

Completely agree with “talk to the housing association” - it could be a simple misunderstanding over what is going to be paid - it could be that yes, they have now decided to enforce the true terms ie rent in advance. Until you have that conversation - and I would suggest that the easiest way of doing this may well be by email or live chat if they have that option? Far quicker than postal communications, the momentum of the conversation is maintained, and yet it doesn’t come with the ingerpretaissues that can sometimes arise when telephone conversations are recalled later. 

Great that you have your budgeting all straight - the reason for a previous responder raising that question was not by any means intended as an slight on you, but we do see a good number of folk here for whom that is not the case. With that in mind, if Orbit do explain that yes, the rent in advance policy is now being enforced, then I would suggest you simply use your emergency fund to cover the additional amount due to clear the arrears, then make a payment plan with yourself in order to get the funds back into your EF. That gets the arrears sorted and the account squared up in the shortest possible timeframe. 

Northern_Wanderer

james_smitha said:

My percepsion is that they are tightening up, possibly a new manager.

With the speeding up of the migration to Universal Credit roll out, and the fact that UC is paid in arrears, and the fact the UC payments can fluctuate monthly, I imagine that all landlords with tenants who rely on welfare to pay their rent are causing a rather large headache financially for landlords. They have all their costs to cover, like repairs, wages, office costs, refurbishments etc. Do you think they can just not pay someone wages each month? It would make sense that they might be tightening up as probably have far more tenants behind with their rent. But at the end of the day, tenants signed a tenancy agreement (it doesn't matter how long ago, it's still valid) to pay their rent by/ on a certain date of the month, those are your terms and conditions. Probably we are not getting the full picture here.

theoretica

Repossession on the grounds of late payment is discretionary - so the judge needs to agree.  Where rent is being regularly paid, in full, on a reasonable schedule which just isn't the landlord's preferred schedule, the judge is very unlikely to agree and make someone homeless.  The landlord will know this - have they actually sent this to court or just made threatening noises?  

CosmicDaisy

Skiddaw1 said:

For what it is worth, I'd also add that I was a welfare rights advisor for well over 20 years and I never met anyone recieving PIP (or DLA prior to that) who ate at 'rosette-rated restaurants' or had a 'chauffeur'. I have no idea what your point is but it doesn't sit at all well with me (or, I imagine, with anyone sufficiently disabled to be recieving PIP who happens to be reading your post).

I was reading it up to that point then stopped. I'm actually sat here thinking what the hell did I just read? I can also confirm that with my PIP award I don't eat at rosette rated restaurants (whatever the hell they are) and I do not have a chauffeur. I am however on the strongest non cancer pain relief available on prescription and consequently spend most of my time either vomiting most days or soiling my underwear. I'm not even sure what relevance the comment had to the actual problem anyway but I'm clearly missing out on a life of luxury. 

james_smitha

High 5 to you theoretica Yes it is the real deal regarding court. Page two of a recent letter, in bold text it says 'notice of intention to begin proceedings for possession of a properety in england let on an assured tenancy....'

As I have already said my rent has been paid impecably for close to ten years, but aparantly this means 'something you would not want to tread in'

I don't know if you have heard of Orbit, but they do not care who has their flats. Many are let to drug addicts and dealers. Make up your own mind there, would you let a property of yours to those types?

Also, sorry if I have said so before, the late payment is not down to me.

The universal credit that I am paid needs to cover many things including heating. Of late it has been near 4 Deg. C on some days and nearer 14 on other days. The experience of the first payment is that there was not a problem, other than the anti social Landlords

elsien

Notice of intention to proceed is a pre-court action. Usually sent beforehand to warn people and give them a chance to put things right to save everyone the hassle of going to court.
if you speak to them and set up a payment plan then there’s a reasonable chance you won’t have to go anywhere near the court process.

james_smitha

High 5 to you elsien

I appreciate what you say 100 percent.

In the local area Orbit have a very bad reputation. They are not interested in talking and being reasonable the only thing they are interested in is 'their', note the quotes, money.

They know my situation, housing benefit moving to universal credit as it is a government related issue.

I spoke to one of my neighbours that has a responcible job at the local college, he said 'they are just trying to frighten you into paying'

I would say that I believe that to be the sort of thing that drug dealers might do, but not being able to afford drugs I can't be sure