Advice needed urgently

[strugglingmum]

Hi,

I really hope someone can help as I'm currently renting a house that my Landlord is selling, he has the house on the market and served me notice on 1st October.

I am and have been saving with the aim to get together a 5% deposit and buy a house on my own for me and my boys, but I am only halfway there and was hoping I would have until March time to get everything in place.

I have looked on my credit file and have a default with British Gas for a old bill of £260 the default was November 2008, but i left the property it relates to in 2006. How do I overcome this, obviously my first step is to pay it but is there any way I can stop this affecting my mortgage application and is there any way at all I can hold off my landlord now from kicking me out in a couple of weeks?

[PaleAngel]

Re: Advice needed urgently

obviously my first step is to pay it

I would say that is the last step to be taken. If you pay them then you're almost admitting the liability. Lots of questions now

Are you saying that the debt in question is not yours? i.e. did you leave an outstanding bill when you left the property.

If you did - did you tell them you were leaving/or did you move them (as a supplier) with you to your new address?


If you did not have an outstanding debt - and you moved them with you to your new address - it sounds as though they haven't closed off the account at the old address and someone else has run up debt on your account. In this case you need to contact them and raise a dispute about this. I would also (depending on how you accessed your credit record) look into whether you can lodge a dispute against it on your record (I'm sure you used to be able to do this on Equifax, but am not sure if you still can). This should then show up if any credit searches are done (or it did in my case some years ago & saved me a LOT of hassle!).

If you were debt free but did not move them with you, but did inform them you were leaving the address - do you have proof of that? An email or a letter.

If you had a debt and moved them with you - they should have contacted you at your new address about the debt and need to prove they did (in our case we had a debt with BG but were unaware of it (last bill said we were at £0 when we left), they wrote to us at our old address despite being told by email and letter that we were moving and being given the new address - they accepted responsibility for not maintaining their records and the bill was wiped, not least because they couldn't explain why we'd been told our account was at a nil balance!).

If you had a debt and didn't tell them you were moving - you're on shaky ground, but can certainly talk to them about making repayments etc or indeed paying it off. That said, if you pay it off it will remain on your credit record for some time.

Hope this is a start for you - but don't panic unduly! Remember, just because they're a big company, doesn't mean they don't make mistakes! :tinysmile_twink_t2:

[PlanB]

Re: Advice needed urgently

I'm currently renting a house that my Landlord is selling, he has the house on the market and served me notice on 1st October. . . .

. . . . is there any way at all I can hold off my landlord now from kicking me out in a couple of weeks?

I think you need to make your housing issue a priority here. Even if you had a squeaky clean credit record you will not be able to buy a new home in two weeks.

The important thing is to establish whether your Landlord has the legal right to "kick you out". I assume you were served with a Section 21 Notice on October 1st because you are on an AST where the fixed term has either expired or is about to expire. If so this means that the Landlord is entitled to possession of the property eight weeks' (or two months) later which will be December 1st. But your Landlord can't just kick you out.

If you don't move out on that date he has to make an application to the court for a possession order. It normally takes about two months to get a hearing. There is no defence to Section 21 it simply entitles a Landlord to get possession of his own property without giving the court any grounds (i.e. reason) other than the fact that he wants the property back. Unlike a rent arrears situation.

Once the Landlord has been granted possession he can't just pitch up at the house and kick you out, he has to make another application to the court for an Eviction Warrant and again this can take at least another month probably two. If you decide to ignore that Section 21 Notice and force him down the court route then you should be able to remain in your home until the beginning of next year

It's also possible that your Landlord may not have got the dates right on that Section 21 Notice which would make it invalid in any event. What is the "rent due date" in your tenancy agreement? Everything hinges on that date.

But I'm wondering if your Landlord really wants you out in a couple of weeks. Have you spoken to him about this? Has he got a buyer and exchanged contracts on the sale? It could be that he's been advised by his solicitor to serve you notice so that he offers the house for sale with 'vacant possession' (i.e. no tenants). No one wants to buy a house which has got someone already in situ. However if he hasn't already got a buyer then he may be willing to let you stay until he has got one and then you can leave on a date by mutual agreement.

[strugglingmum]

Re: Advice needed urgently

Hi and many thanks to both for your replies. With regards to the default I will follow the advice and tomorrow contact British Gas.

The landlord issue is not simple, infact he is a very greedy man who didn't even put my deposit in a dps until 2 years ago after i began renting in October 2007 and I asked him several times where my deposit was protected. He has a total of 16 properties so I imagine I wasn't alone.
What he originally said to me was he wanted me out on 1st December as (and I am quoting this exactly as he said it' 'I want to register me living there to avoid Capital Gains Tax, but you can stay longer if you let me say I'm living there.'
I have been asked to allow a viewing on Saturday, no one has viewed it yet and I have explained to the Agents my situation and that I am not prepared to let anyone view while it is uncertain where I stand.

He has become difficult to deal with, texting me constantly asking will I be out on 1st December and can people view. It is harassing me and I even had a call at work on my works number today asking me to allow a viewing which is when I asked them not to ask me again or phone me at work. I do want to leave, but I am just not ready to yet and do feel I am being bullied out of the house after 6 years and looking after it as if it were my own home.

[PlanB]

Re: Advice needed urgently

Has he actually served you with a Section 21 Notice which expires on December 1st ?

[strugglingmum]

Re: Advice needed urgently

The notice is section 21 and ends with After the end of the period of your tenancy which will next end after the expiration of two months from the service of this notice upon you dated 1st October

[PlanB]

Re: Advice needed urgently

I have been asked to allow a viewing on Saturday, no one has viewed it yet and I have explained to the Agents my situation and that I am not prepared to let anyone view while it is uncertain where I stand.

He has become difficult to deal with, texting me constantly asking will I be out on 1st December and can people view. It is harassing me and I even had a call at work on my works number today asking me to allow a viewing which is when I asked them not to ask me again or phone me at work.

You need to study your tenancy agreement for a clause about providing access to potential purchasers. It will usually say that you have to permit this as long as you are given 24 or 48 hours notice in advance.

[PlanB]

Re: Advice needed urgently

The notice is section 21 and ends with After the end of the period of your tenancy which will next end after the expiration of two months from the service of this notice upon you dated 1st October

What is your "rent due date"? What date did he actually serve the Notice on you regardless of the date on the Notice? A Section 21 Notice is only valid if it's served on or before the rent due date and gives you two months notice. So for example if your rent is paid on 1st October then the Notice expires on 1st December as long as you had the Notice physically served on you on or before the 1st October. But if your rent is due on 30th of the month and you were served the Notice on the 1st October then he's missed that deadline (Sept 30th) and it will fall due on the 30th December and so on.

[strugglingmum]

Re: Advice needed urgently

My rent due is 4th of the Month and it was posted through by hand on 1st October.

[PlanB]

Re: Advice needed urgently

My rent due is 4th of the Month and it was posted through by hand on 1st October.

Then I fear it's valid with the 'out date' being 4th December not 1st December

But he hasn't got a buyer yet and he has got you paying rent so he may be willing to play ball on the date layball: especially if you tell him you've no intention of moving out on that date and you're going to stay put until evicted which he will know takes 3 - 5 months to achieve.


Try to see this as business and not personal. It doesn't really matter why he's willing to let you stay longer if staying longer suits you and the kids too. Moving out before Christmas is not ideal :santa_wink: The fact that he wants to put his name on the electoral roll or council tax to mitigate his CGT liability shouldn't bother you unless he asks you to do anything unlawful. He's the one breaking the law if he says he is living there when he isn't, not you. If he wants his name on the utilities you may not object as long as he's paying them

Even if he gets a buyer on Saturday the sale won't complete until about February because there's an awful lot of legal paperwork and hoops to jump through first. In fact statistically one in three sales collapse.

When would it suit you to move?

[strugglingmum]

Re: Advice needed urgently

Hi again and thankyou for taking the time to reply :-) You have helped a lot and I see things a little differently as you have worded everything so well :-)

I was hoping to move around March time, I'm saving on average £200 a week I have saved just under £3000 now and am aiming for £6000 as my deposit.

I really need to be able to continue steadily like this to achieve a purchase. I have got us down to living on a bare minimum and set myself a raise £50 a week challenge in that saving by ebaying etc so moving in between will be a massive upheaval, having to find somewhere else to rent, involve more agents/moving costs and probably have to commit for at least 6 months.

I know it will set me back and I will never have a chance like there is now to get out of this renting trap I'm in :-/