Problem with council grant

linzilou

Hi good afternoon, a few months ago My daughter was about to be made homeless herself and 2 children one disabled as the private rental she was living in the landlord wanted to sell and gave her a month to get out. She asked the council for help and they told her if she could find another private rental they would take her off the housing waiting list she was in and instead give her a grant for the deposit and moving expenses. She sent everything off to them they asked for they passed it and paid the grant to the landlord this was 6 months ago they rang her today saying they made a mistake the person who sorted the grant has been reprimanded they have requested the money back from her landlord. She did everything they asked full paperwork etc she is in a terrible state is she liable to pay it back as she just doesn’t have it does anyone know if she could appeal please. 

theartfullodger

If this is England then any notice landlord gave does not end tenancy nor compel tenant to leave, must be AT LEAST 2 months notice.

marcia_

linzilou said:

Hi good afternoon, a few months ago My daughter was about to be made homeless herself and 2 children one disabled as the private rental she was living in the landlord wanted to sell and gave her a month to get out. She asked the council for help and they told her if she could find another private rental they would take her off the housing waiting list she was in and instead give her a grant for the deposit and moving expenses. She sent everything off to them they asked for they passed it and paid the grant to the landlord this was 6 months ago they rang her today saying they made a mistake the person who sorted the grant has been reprimanded they have requested the money back from her landlord. She did everything they asked full paperwork etc she is in a terrible state is she liable to pay it back as she just doesn’t have it does anyone know if she could appeal please. 

 She really needs the help of a welfare rights organisation such as Citizens Advice or similar near you. You can probably appeal it as it was their error but you would be best getting professional support 

Brie

Shelter is another great organisation that can help in situations like this.

I'm assuming from what you say that she has already moved?  So presumably the money was paid to her new landlord.  If the LL accepted this as a deposit it should have been paid into an official deposit scheme so it's possible that it can't be recovered from there until she moves out.  

What the council may agree to is for her to repay anything back over time - so maybe over the course of a year.  If she is unable to they may decide to do an attachment to her UC or other benefits.  Or they may be rotten and pass the debt to a collection agency.  If that happens please let her know that they have no rights to enter her home and no right to take anything in it.  That can only happen if a bailiff is sent and collection agencies don't generally have access to those.  

Shelter and Citizen's Advice should be able to work as an advocate for her to get a reasonable solution in place.  One would hope that the fact that the council made a mistake should count in her favour but sometimes there will be too much bureaucracy blocking common sense.  

beckstar1975

Surely this is worth her going to get MP about too, their website should show when they run surgeries and you can always email them. Despite my MP being a complete numpty as a career politician even he is quick and responsive in local issues, so hopefully hers will be too