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Hi I will try to keep this brief, any help or advice will be appreciated, I have a disabled friend who moved into a house last year. the rent was £450 as her HB allowance is only £360 per month, there was a shortfall of £90 per month, The house was ok, she decided to take it because it had a garden, (she has 4 cats) so we plundered our savings and got together the shortfall. As she wanted to make sure she had enough to pay the rent we set aside £2165 (about 2 years worth of top up).
On the 6th September we went to the Landlords home to pay the rent 3 x £450 which is what he was asking. Whilst we were there to my horror, she gave him the £2165. in giving him this money (which he was very quick to take i might add) he was to use it towards the shortfall in rent after the initial 3 months were up and HB was being paid to him, starting on 23rd November (12 weeks away)
He promised a contract, but he did sign a rent book which had both amounts in,
We left, when we got out side i asked her why she did that she said"Gill you know what I am like with money i will only spent it, this way at least i know its paid and I wont have to deal with it again".
About 8 weeks into the tenancy she was rushed into hospital with a severe chest infection, I put this down to the fact that the house was so cold, because the boiler didn't work properly, we phoned him about this and he said" let the government put one in I cant afford it".
Whilst there he sent her a text saying that he wasn't happy with her cats, it wasn't in the contract that she could have them ( we had no contract) and he wanted her leave the house. He knew about them because of the garden, there is more to all that but I am trying to be brief.
She was diagnosed with COPD and was there for 4 days, when she came home, the texts kept coming, in the end she gave it to him with both barrels, she is a person who doesn't mince her words, the texts stopped.
Still very poorly she found somewhere else to live, I know she didn't have to leave because of the law, but she was concerned he would come and change the locks and put her stuff in the road, or take the cats. ( you hear of things happening)
She phoned him to asked for her money back because the 12 weeks weren't up yet, no reply,5 calls and texts later and still no reply, on the 21st November she moved out, I phoned him to say she had left, and offer him the chance to come and inspect the property he refused, (so we took photo's) 2 weeks later she phoned requesting her money back and he said"you have damaged my property and left it in a bad condition you will not get any money back and hung up. that was the last time we heard from him.
I can promise you that the house was left exactly how we found it, maybe a bit cleaner, she was only there 9 weeks we hadn't even unpacked her things, she actually only lived in one room, because of her disability spends most of her time in bed.
We issued court proceedings against him and won, because of his no reply We wrote to Liverpool council for help, it took 19 weeks to get her 3 months rent paid back, purely because he wouldn't confirm that she had been a tenant or paid any rent, we had no tenancy but we had the rent book.
Now what to do next, she wanted to put put a charge on his property, so i did a few checks, and found that he is a bankrupt and has been since 2011,with debts to Liverpool and Croydon councils. His affairs are with an insolvency firm, so i wrote to them and told them what I saying here, with knobs on!! but all i got was a copy of his bankruptcy notice which I had already and a copy of the people who are dealing with him, which I knew because i wrote to them, all i wanted was some advice as to way forward, but again got nothing.
My friend is living in a house she is unhappy with because she cant now afford anything better.
Please don't tell me she should not have given him the money in the first place, because hind sight is a wonderful thing. She put her faith in someone she totally trusted, and he ripped her off because he knew she was disabled and on a limited income.
I watch these programs, about these cuts, Where on earth does the government think that people are going to get the extra money to pay private landlords, just to stay in their homes. Had her allowance not been cut in the first place she would not be in the situation she is in today. The basic rent where we live is about £450 for a house that has everything working and decent, any thing below that is pretty much crap.
She now uses £90 of her ESA to pay her rent, that's £90 she struggles to put towards other bills and food and try to maintain a decent standard of living, aren't we a proud lot. some should give themselves a pat on the back for a least trying, and those who rip off the system, well, you know what you can do!
On the 6th September we went to the Landlords home to pay the rent 3 x £450 which is what he was asking. Whilst we were there to my horror, she gave him the £2165. in giving him this money (which he was very quick to take i might add) he was to use it towards the shortfall in rent after the initial 3 months were up and HB was being paid to him, starting on 23rd November (12 weeks away)
He promised a contract, but he did sign a rent book which had both amounts in,
We left, when we got out side i asked her why she did that she said"Gill you know what I am like with money i will only spent it, this way at least i know its paid and I wont have to deal with it again".
About 8 weeks into the tenancy she was rushed into hospital with a severe chest infection, I put this down to the fact that the house was so cold, because the boiler didn't work properly, we phoned him about this and he said" let the government put one in I cant afford it".
Whilst there he sent her a text saying that he wasn't happy with her cats, it wasn't in the contract that she could have them ( we had no contract) and he wanted her leave the house. He knew about them because of the garden, there is more to all that but I am trying to be brief.
She was diagnosed with COPD and was there for 4 days, when she came home, the texts kept coming, in the end she gave it to him with both barrels, she is a person who doesn't mince her words, the texts stopped.
Still very poorly she found somewhere else to live, I know she didn't have to leave because of the law, but she was concerned he would come and change the locks and put her stuff in the road, or take the cats. ( you hear of things happening)
She phoned him to asked for her money back because the 12 weeks weren't up yet, no reply,5 calls and texts later and still no reply, on the 21st November she moved out, I phoned him to say she had left, and offer him the chance to come and inspect the property he refused, (so we took photo's) 2 weeks later she phoned requesting her money back and he said"you have damaged my property and left it in a bad condition you will not get any money back and hung up. that was the last time we heard from him.
I can promise you that the house was left exactly how we found it, maybe a bit cleaner, she was only there 9 weeks we hadn't even unpacked her things, she actually only lived in one room, because of her disability spends most of her time in bed.
We issued court proceedings against him and won, because of his no reply We wrote to Liverpool council for help, it took 19 weeks to get her 3 months rent paid back, purely because he wouldn't confirm that she had been a tenant or paid any rent, we had no tenancy but we had the rent book.
Now what to do next, she wanted to put put a charge on his property, so i did a few checks, and found that he is a bankrupt and has been since 2011,with debts to Liverpool and Croydon councils. His affairs are with an insolvency firm, so i wrote to them and told them what I saying here, with knobs on!! but all i got was a copy of his bankruptcy notice which I had already and a copy of the people who are dealing with him, which I knew because i wrote to them, all i wanted was some advice as to way forward, but again got nothing.
My friend is living in a house she is unhappy with because she cant now afford anything better.
Please don't tell me she should not have given him the money in the first place, because hind sight is a wonderful thing. She put her faith in someone she totally trusted, and he ripped her off because he knew she was disabled and on a limited income.
I watch these programs, about these cuts, Where on earth does the government think that people are going to get the extra money to pay private landlords, just to stay in their homes. Had her allowance not been cut in the first place she would not be in the situation she is in today. The basic rent where we live is about £450 for a house that has everything working and decent, any thing below that is pretty much crap.
She now uses £90 of her ESA to pay her rent, that's £90 she struggles to put towards other bills and food and try to maintain a decent standard of living, aren't we a proud lot. some should give themselves a pat on the back for a least trying, and those who rip off the system, well, you know what you can do!
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