Urgent help needed

[ruthie59]

Hi,

Hope this is the correct place for this post. If not please could someone move it?

I became aware of the following situation last night and am posting on behalf of a friend of a friend.

This person lives by herself in Yorkshire. Her husband has previously forged her signature to use credit cards in her name, leaving her liable for the bills. She is in her late 50's and has no children.

She moved to Yorkshire several years ago in an attempt to start a new life and until recently has been taking on several jobs in an attempt to pay off her debts. She is currently renting a farmhouse, paying £1,200 a month in rent.

All was well until recently when her income dropped due to late payments over the Christmas holiday. She now has a new landlord who has given her one week to clear the debt of £2,000 or face eviction by letter. She is still paying off the arrears as much as she can afford a month.

I suggested that she ring Shelter and the CAB as well as getting a free half hour appointment with a solicitor.

She says that she has done this already and that no help was forthcoming.

The situation is made worse by the fact that she owns several animals.

I would be grateful if anyone out there could provide any advice.

Many thanks,

Ruthie

[Amethyst]

Re: Urgent help needed

Morning Ruthie

Has any action been taken by your friend against her husband for the fraud and theft ? Completely understand if not as it is never easy with family in these kind of situations.

How much ish is owed on the credit cards and are they set up on a DMP or anything ?

What type of tenancy does she have?

Obviously credit cards are unsecured and can come down the list of priorities, well underneath her rent, so she needs to prioritise and ensure that is paid above other debts, if she is struggling with the repayments on the cards now, they'll end up defaulting anyway and if she waits until then to sort it out she'll already have been evicted and will have a bad credit record for which could affect her getting a new tenancy, so Rent first, sort the C/Cards after.

She's at early stages so can pull things back together. She needs to communicate with the landlord and make a formal offer in writing to increase the next few payments by an acceptable amount to cover the arrears, preferably before he sends her a written notice that he intends to ask the court to evict her. You mention it is a new landlord - could it be he doesn't want a tenant in the property, or doesn't like having the animals etc, and is using the arrears as a reason, but he will have to follow the correct procedures to get to that point. If she makes a reasonable offer to make up the arrears then she'll be better off if the landlord is unreasonable and continues with his plans of eviction.

I expect Shelter / CAB have told her similar - the landlord is within his rights to ask for eviction due to rent arrears and she needs to sort it out so its manageable and acceptable to the landlord.

No magic wand I'm afraid.

Regards

Sharon
xx