council house being re-posessed any advice?

emmafifema

Hi there,

I have a friend who has a council house and has got into rent arrears due to the CSA taking most of her hubbys wages for past 6 months. The council have now gone to court to claim posession of the house and get her and her family evicted.

This is the third time she has been to court over this, the other two times she made payment scheme arrangements but has not stuck to them due to this |CSA money being taken every month in such large amounts.

She has 4 children all under the age of 11 and does not know what to do. The CAB have said that as she is not a secure tenant there is not much she can do unless she can pay the full amount owed before the date of eviction.

Does anyone know anything about this or can anyone offer any advice reagarding re-housing after council eviction etc???

Thanks

lynnexxxo

Hoepfully someone will have some better advice but would you be in a position to loan her some money so that the eviction does not happen. I can't imainge it will be easy to get a new place should the council evict her.

Does she not received child benefit and tax credits - even if the csa are taking a chunk of his salary surely they could pay something from these - maybe if the council see they are trying to pay something they may be less inclined to evict them.

squeaky

Perhaps you could point her at the DFW board... they'll be able to help look at her expenditures and point out ways that she can reduce them and so leave a bit more money in the pot to cover the CSA.

Can you still contact the CSA and ask for a variance on payments? While the children on the receiving end shouldn't have to "do without" it may be that your friend can get it reduced a little because it's causing her hardship.

SquatNow

The council will still have an obligation to house her!

You have to wonder how stupid the council are in these cases.

kj*daisy

The council will not have a long term obligation to house her if they find she has made herself intentionally homeless. She needs to try and pay something and then explain it to the Court and see if they will give her another chance. She may be lucky. Has she sought debt advice etc as it sounds like they could really do with some help with sorting out the CSA payments.

vivatifosi

Hi emma,

I'm another vote for the Debt Free Wannabe board. There are people on there now who can't just advise on this situation but have been in it. There are also debt councillors who lurk there. Could be a useful support for your friend. Good luck!

Running_Horse

emmafifema wrote: »

the CSA taking most of her hubbys wages for past 6 months

I was under the impression the CSA (when they can be bothered to act) only take a fraction of income per child, and have never ever heard of them taking most of someone's wages for six months.

teeni

You can return to court to suspend a bailiffs warrant even if you have made previous arrangements that have fallen down especially if you have a good reason for the default. .You say your friend is not a secure tenant she must have had a secure tenancy or court would not have made an arrangement to pay previously.

If she has had a possession order suspended in the past and then a bailiffs warrant suspended she will still be able to apply again she needs to complete a n244 form when she has received a date of the eviction requesting a hearing to suspend the warrant, there is a charge of £35.00 for the hearing but she may be eleigible for a fee exemption if she is on benefits or low pay, she can explain to the court why the other arrangements failed and make a new offer, the lowest amount the court can accept is rent due plus £3.00 against the arrears. If this is all she can afford this is what she should offer and back it up with a financial statement detailing all expenditure.

Courts do not want to evict families with yourng children if they can help it so it is worth making the application.

Teeni

Gorgeous_George

SquatNow would like to see everyone living rent-free. It is attitudes like his that contributed to the right to buy scam.

Muppet.

The CSA guidelines are 15% of take-home pay for one child; 20% for two and 25% for three.

The OP's friend may find herself rehoused by the council in a hostel or b&b (without the 2nd 'b'). I was always told to pay the most important bills first and top of the list was the mortgage (or rent) as this secured shelter from the cold and rain.

The OP needs advice from CAB/Shelter but the tax-payer cannot go on forever subsidising somebody else's desire to have children that they cannot afford. Or can they?

GG

fc123

OP needs to move over to DFW board...post same Q....lots of helpful people , some who may have been in similar circumstances. It may mean posting an SOA and facing the advice, but it is all well meant and a lot of DFW's have been saved from eviction.......

PasturesNew

As the others have said, you need to head to the DFW board for advice, but a statement that she can't pay because of the CSA payments needs to be substantiated with the actual figures.

With the figures people on the DFW board will be able to spot what the best thing she can do is. It might be the CSA are taking too much and they would advise how to quickly get that changed. Or they'd be able to advise on other aspects in the total SOA.