Rent Arrears Repayment

[marshmallow]

Please can someone help me out with a bit of knowledge. I hve rent arrears to pay because I was a guarantor for my son as he was unemployed. he has been evicted and not the LL solicitors are claiming the rent arrears which I have to pay. They have sent me an expenditure form to fill in but want to know the ins and outs of a ducks backside for ex., am I married, who is my employer how much tac and Ni I pay the contact details of my work place, do I own a property and also have the cheek to say if it cannot come to an ammicable concludion they could bankcrupt me. The deposit I paid at the beginning is not even mentioned and I don't know if it has been held in a Government Scheme Fund which is law. What do I do bow down to them or go to court?

Please help

Marshmallow

I am new to this site and have already founf out alot of usefull information thank God for people like you's.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Hi Marshmallow

Welcome to Legal Beagles.

The best thing in my opinion would be to complete the income & expenses form as you are the guarantor and I believe they can come after you for the money.

Can you afford to either come to a figure to settle this in full and final (lets say your son owes £2K can you make an offer say of 50% in full and final and pay in one lump son) or could you offer by way of a payment plan which you can comfortably afford say over 1 year and clear the debt that way.

You have not stated the sum involved but to bankrupt someone the debt has to be over £750.

Are you able to post up the agreement, especially the bit about the deposit and when it will be refunded, Please omit any personal details.

If you could post up more details I am sure others will also be along to offer advice.

Tuttsi

[Mochamoo]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

How much are the arrears and how much was the deposit?

You need to get a written breakdown of the money owed, to make sure they are not adding outrageous interest, the standard contract I had people sign had a daily interest amount included for everyday of unpaid rent which I seem to remember being 2% above base rate.

Keep everything in writing, tell them whilst you are filling in the I&E you want a copy of the tenancy agreement and a full break down of the out standing balance.

[marshmallow]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Thank you ever so much for helping me the debt includes court court costs and daily rent charged for the extra days of stay. However, the deposit I have read somewhere if it is not held in a government scheme the agents/LL can be fined? Also can they take my partners income into consideration even though he has nothing to do with it? The amount is £1812.19. I live with my partner but the mortgage is on his name can they still force the sale of the house or make me bankcrupt. I will find the agreement and try and scan it in but I only have 3 days to reply.

Regards

Marshmallow

[WendyB]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Hi Marshmallow.

Has this already been taken to court? Or have you just had threatograms from solicitors demanding payment by 3 days time? Could you detail what correspondence you have had so far, and either scan or type it in, (remove any personal details first).
If the mortgage is not in your name then there is no way that a sale could be forced

[marshmallow]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Wendy,

Thanks for showing interest and giving me support. My son was evicted on the 21st May and uptill now no mention of any deposit. I assumed the landlord would used the 650.00 deposit towards the rent arrears which I though for fair and left it at that. The court granted eviction because my son wanted to go anyway the flat was not maintained properly so he agreed to the DJ for eviction and the judge mentioned that he pay the rent arrears off accordingly taking into fact "you cannot get blood out of a stone" this is what the jusdge said. Yesterday I received the letter from the LL's solicitors seeking payment but no mention of the deposit whatsover. I then telephoned the letting agents and asked if they sent details of where the desposit was held and was told in a RDS, I then asked which one she said they don't deal with the property and to speak to the landlord. I have this morning wrote to his solicitors asking for this information and station that the amount they are asking for is wrong. I have a feeling he has not filed the deposit anywhere. If this is the case what will I do as I stood guarantor for my son as he is on sick benefit. I have checked two this am no record has been found. Sorry to go on.

Very grateful,

Marshmallow

[WendyB]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Did the judge make any order as to how much and when he should pay the arrears? Have you got a copy of the order so we can see the wording of it?.All that aside, I would think that if the solicitor's are now chasing you, although you are a guarantor they would have to take you to court in your own right, or were you named in the original court claim?
And can you clarify where the "3 days to pay" comes from?

[enaid]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

This applies if your lad rented after 6ht April 2007

Shelter England - Deposit protection schemes

Have a read of this, if they have not given the info within 14 days then they can be fined. I suggest you go through this and see if they have inded done wrong then maybe we can take a different angle on this.

[Mochamoo]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

OK So the outstanding amount is 1812.19
Your deposit which where ever it may be held is £650

So you owe £1162.19

You need to get in writing what this is made up of, have they already taken this into account? Did your son leave the place in a state and did it need cleaning/repairs /utility reconnection etc?

They are by the sounds of it, like Wendy said, just threatening you at the moment which is unfortunately a common practice to make you panic and give them as much money as you have.

Take a deep breath and don't panic, the Judge has already made the comment that you can not get blood out of a stone so he knows that the repayment plan is likely to be small.

The house is in your partners name, he was not named on the lease they can't make claims on his property. Dont worry x

I know its scary getting official letters from solicitors, but just remember that you need to stay calm and try to ignore the threats as much as possible. Do you need help with your Income and Expenditure form? If I were you I would not include any of my partners money/bills ect as he has no liability for the debt. If you want to send it (with out personal info on it) to any of the team or post it up here we can offer advice on filling it in.

[marshmallow]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Thank you to all of you,

The Judgement was merely on eviction grounds it was not a money order. We both got papers to attend court because I was the guarantor but only my son had to fill in the papers as to what has been set out regarding the eviction, not me, so i guess they think he has'nt the money so get the guarantor which is liable for non payment of rent. I will have to dig out the agreement but I am 100% sure there was no paperwork stating where the deposit is held or no mention or corresspondence from the LL or LA what will happen to the deposit when eviction took place from 21st May to now no contact whatsoever

If it is all above board then they should send me a copy of paperwork they hold on the deposit if not then I guess there is a snake in the grass!

You all have cheered me up a bit I will try and scann anything I find relevent.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

You could send a SAR to the solicitors asking all the information etc that you need, that should place this in dispute until that answer all your queries. You also need to know what charges they are applying in addition to the rent arrears.

Where did the 3 days come from? Was it from the threatogram?

Thank you to all of you,

The Judgement was merely on eviction grounds it was not a money order. We both got papers to attend court because I was the guarantor but only my son had to fill in the papers as to what has been set out regarding the eviction, not me, so i guess they think he has'nt the money so get the guarantor which is liable for non payment of rent. I will have to dig out the agreement but I am 100% sure there was no paperwork stating where the deposit is held or no mention or corresspondence from the LL or LA what will happen to the deposit when eviction took place from 21st May to now no contact whatsoever

If it is all above board then they should send me a copy of paperwork they hold on the deposit if not then I guess there is a snake in the grass!

You all have cheered me up a bit I will try and scann anything I find relevent.

[WendyB]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Write to the solicitors requesting a breakdown of the alleged debt.(SAR. if needs be, if they don't come up with all the info) Absolutely DO NOT phone them, make sure you get everything in writing.
If you want to draft out a letter and put it up on here before you send it, please do.

[marshmallow]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Wendy,

I have wrote a brief letter asking them to forward the paperwork of where the deposit had been held as no notification has been received to what has happened to the deposit which I think could be an argument. Also one other question fo I have to let them know everything about my financial situation and every penny that I pay out or should I just keep it basic and offer a payment?

Please could you let me know.

Many thanks

Marshmallow

[WendyB]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Marshmallow. As we have said before, you need to get a breakdown of exactly how the debt is made up, breakdown of rent, deposit, charges etc, everything BEFORE you come to any arrangement to pay. Until you have this don't send them any details about your financial situation. It is their responsibility to prove to you that the amount they are asking you to pay is correct. So send an SAR requesting all the info they have on you etc. If you don't want to pay £10 for the SAR then send a letter requesting a breakdown of the "alleged" debt. If I wrote to you and said you owed me money, you wouldn't just pay up on the strenght of one letter without checking the facts would you? This is what the solicitors hope you will do with their threatograms. And you still haven't answered the question about where the "3 days to sort it out" comes from or what it refers to, I'm presuming it's part of one of the threatogram letters?

Have you also looked at the link Enaid gave in post#8.

[marshmallow]

Re: Rent Arrears Repayment

Thanks Wendy,

You are right when I said three days I received the letter 2 days after the date on the letter which was 19th August I received it on the 21st so I panicked thinking I only have 3 days left to sort it out, they gave me 7 days to reply.

Thanks Wendy