Rent Arrears

[ostell]

My stepdaughter phoned me yesterday in tears about a letter from her landlord stating that she was £6,000 in arrears with the rent and he would be looking to the guarantor, her uncle, for payment. I've yet to see the paper work.

The agreement is, I believe, an assured short term tenancy that has continued without being renewed. If that is the case then can the landlord still go back to the guarantor as the original term of the contract has been passed?

She's approaching 40, she should have learnt by now. She gets the rent paid but since the money is sent to her instead of the landlord I suspect some of it may have been spent. The latest boyfriend moved in 18 months ago and hasn't worked since. Because he is at home all day she lost some of her benefits and has even less income than she had previously.

This is about the 4th time I've had to get her out of the mire.

[sunshine111]

Re: Rent Arrears

Hi Ostel

i believe that the landlord can approach the uncle for the debt. but in trying to consider ways around her uncle having to cover all of the debt, maybe below might help.

is there a particular reason why the debt is being built up? has your daughter disclosed to you any domestic abuse from her new partner? DA is not only physical it can be mental and financial as well. Do you think she will confide in you exactly what is going on? does she have children? There are agencies that she can approach that can help without them being completely intrusive

if there is still scope for negation with the landlord to keep the home, your step/d may want to approach her local LA and get the payments to the landlord made direct. she can also ask for something called DHP to help clear some of the arrears. If the LA agree this payment would go straight to the landlord, any remaining balance she can offer a repayment plan - she may need to approach her CAB for some help with this.

to get payments made direct to the landlord, your
step/d will need to give cause - some type of vulnerability i.e. literacy issues, language, lost previous home through rent arrears, DA and the tenancy is in her sole name, addiction, that kind of thing.

where HB non dependant deductions are being made (for the boyfriend) he should be giving her the shortfall.

my opinions only. Hopefully you will get more replies and additional advice.

[ostell]

Re: Rent Arrears

It's a long and complicated matter. Uncle (brother in law) has paid 2,000 to the landlord, HB payments are now being paid direct to the landlord and landlord is accepting increased payment to try and clear the arrears. (Some Hope!). Step daughter too proud to apply for a council house.

Since she left home she continually gets into debt. Bought first house with then boyfriend, sold at fair profit to pay off some of the outstanding debts but spent it instead. Hid from the debtors for sufficient time to be able to state statute barred (about 30,000 worth). Got into debt again, another daughter got a loan for her for 5,000 and couldn't pay that. Unfortunately my other daughter's partner was killed in a motor accident and my current wife found an insurance policy amongst the paperwork that paid that off. (the paperwork was about to be thrown out!).

Got into debt again and borrowed 7,500 from me (remortgage) and paid it back (fitfully) over several years. Borrowed 300 from a friend of mine, has yet to pay that back. Got uncle to guarantor the rent for the current house. I haven't talked to my brother in law for many years, he is some distance away. He had absolutely no idea of the situation previously. He was aghast when I told him what had happened previously. He didn't even know the current boyfriend is living there.

Current boyfriend is not European. Had visa because married (still) to UK national. Left wife, no divorce ('cause he would have lost visa) and met daughter. Visa was due to expire, met my step daughter and yet another baby. Kept applying for visa (I think hoping the baby would get him one). Left work in London and moved in with daughter on the South coast after baby was born and applied several times to get a visa. Sticking point was the availability of funds. Since moving into the house 18 months ago has not worked even though he has had work permits and visas. Visa granted but only for 30 months. So he went back to home country for 4 weeks with the baby.

As he is non European he is, of course, not entitled to any benefit. My daughter is keeping him. Because he is in the house she has to pay full council tax, loses child care allowance because he is in the house and not working and probably loses some housing benefit. She is working and still has to pay for child care after school for the older daughter because he can't be bothered to collect her from school. She picks the youngster up on her way home from work.

His idea of looking for a job, which he want to be in the telecoms industry in London, is to look for one job at a time. When he doesn't get that job he looks for the next one, a gap of weeks if not months. Plenty of local jobs around but he won't put himself out for that, it's too demeaning.

My daughter knows that I won't lend her money again and I think the partner is lazy for sitting on his arse for 18 months and getting my daughter to look after him. Stupidly they do things like buy a new 40" TV, have the full package of Virgin TV, phone and broadband. At the moment there is no heating one because there is no money.

Nice to get it off my chest. Told you it was complicated. The above is just a simplification.

[dan_1207]

Re: Rent Arrears

My stepdaughter phoned me yesterday in tears about a letter from her landlord stating that she was £6,000 in arrears with the rent and he would be looking to the guarantor, her uncle, for payment. I've yet to see the paper work.

The agreement is, I believe, an assured short term tenancy that has continued without being renewed. If that is the case then can the landlord still go back to the guarantor as the original term of the contract has been passed?

She's approaching 40, she should have learnt by now. She gets the rent paid but since the money is sent to her instead of the landlord I suspect some of it may have been spent. The latest boyfriend moved in 18 months ago and hasn't worked since. Because he is at home all day she lost some of her benefits and has even less income than she had previously.

This is about the 4th time I've had to get her out of the mire.

Where a tenancy for a fixed term ticks over to a statutory periodic one, all the terms remain the same, so the guarantor will remain liable unfortunately.

[ostell]

Re: Rent Arrears

My brother in law paid off sufficient of the arrears to be released from his liabilities of guarantor. Step daughter has promised to repay him £200 per month to repay, some chance.

I will no doubt find out in the next few months.