Rent Arrears and Court Charges

[Guest]

Hi I have recently paid off my rent arrears, but have court costs of £452.99 outstanding.
My weekly rent is £94.24, but I pay £96 every week to keep me slightly ahead in the event I may be out of work again.

I was alarmed to receive a rent statement from Warwick District Council today advising me that I am again in arrears of £167.36. I immediately contacted the council to be informed that the rent statement was printed before the last weeks payment was taken off so I an actually only £72 in arrears. This is still alarming as I pay my rent every week and pay over the amount due.

This petulant advisor on the phone informed me that the council are perfectly within their rights to remove any 'overpayments' on my rent account to pay off the outstanding court charges. Is this true?

He also advised me that whilst the court costs are still outstanding, the eviction notice on the property is still in place and the council may still evict me should they wish to? This I find extremely difficult to believe.

I am self employed and at any point could find myself without a business income. I pay the additional rent so that if I do find myself without an income, there is money in the rent account to keep me going for a few weeks if not months as I was expecting this additional money to have built up. What the council are effectively saying is that If I decided to pay a months rent in advance, which is effectively what their terms are, they would take that advance rent to clear court cost, then if I was to lose my income, I would immediately be in rent arrears and face eviction again.... instead of that money being in my rent account covering me for a month.

I protested to this petulant advisor who tried to accuse me of trying to get out of paying the court costs, I advised him this was not the case, as I pay my rent and should I wish to, when I am able to, pay anything off the court costs I would do that separately. His only response to that was that if I am not happy with what he is telling me I should write to the council to complain, effectively he was dismissing my comments... not interested in my views.

Please someone help me on this. I am so fed up with the council shafting me every time I try to sort my finances out.

[nemesis45]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

Good morning,

I am of the opinion that you should take the advisors advice and make a Formal Complaint to the CEO of the local authority, this obliges them to fully investigate and respond to the complaint within 56 days.

Complain not just about the rent situation but also the " attitude " of the advisor.

The name of the CEO will be on the council website.

nem

[Diana M]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

Were these court costs as a result of a Suspended Possession Order due to rent arrears?

If so was there a deadline for paying them before possession would be granted to the Local Authority?

You've referred to an Eviction Notice on the property, could that be a Suspended Warrant for Eviction on the condition you pay rent arrears and any court costs?

Or was there another reason for the "court costs"?

Di

[Guest]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

Hi Di

Yes, it was as a result of a Suspended Possession Order due to rent arrears.

There was no deadline to pay, the court costs were only added to a 'sub-account' on my rent account.

Thanks

[Guest]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

Also in Feb 2014, my rent statement advised that court costs were £205, I have not been to court since then, and have paid all arrears off, so baffled as to why they are claiming over £200 in excess of that. I'm now trying to find a more recent rent statement.

[Diana M]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

it was as a result of a Suspended Possession Order due to rent arrears.

There was no deadline to pay

I've not seen the Suspended Possession Order but it's most unusual for a SPO not to be date specific.

It would normally say something like 'the Claimant (Local Authority) will be granted possession of the property on XX date unless YYY pounds is paid in respect of Paragraph 1234" or words to that effect.

Since this may be a delicate situation (Eviction Warrant suspended?) then I would try to come some agreed affordable payment arrangement for the court costs because I doubt you can dispute the amount if the court has ordered them.

From what you say the alternative could be bailiffs

If they refuse your payment schedule offer then you can make a formal complaint to the council and if necessary refer it to the Local Government Ombudsman if it's not resolved.

http://www.lgo.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Di

[Crazy council]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

Hi
Put in a formal complaint to both the CEO and head of finance, the head of finance is called a 151 officer, and it will trigger something internaly, requests a full breakdown of charges added and the reason they were added. They may have added baillifs costs in ( hence the 200 in charges goes to 400+ , its also sometimes why monies paid do not show on the accounts, )

Possession orders can be suspended without a date, and usually refiar to just the figure, ie, the SP is in affect whilst the arrears are still there. I have see this used by local authority's, were the arrears are large, but a repayment arraignment of a few pounds a week extra have been agreed.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi
Put in a formal complaint to both the CEO and head of finance, the head of finance is called a 151 officer, and it will trigger something internaly, requests a full breakdown of charges added and the reason they were added. They may have added baillifs costs in ( hence the 200 in charges goes to 400+ , its also sometimes why monies paid do not show on the accounts, )

Possession orders can be suspended without a date, and usually refiar to just the figure, ie, the SP is in affect whilst the arrears are still there. I have see this used by local authority's, were the arrears are large, but a repayment arraignment of a few pounds a week extra have been agreed.

[Guest]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

I cant attach files, but I am looking at 2 'General Form of Order' one dated 2013 and one dated 2014 and 1 Order for Possession dated 2012. The wording is the same on all apart from the Possession Order from 2012 where no court costs were added.

GFO States: - Warrant Suspended, the defendant must pay x per week towards the arrears of xxx in addition to current rent, first payment to be made by xx/xx/xxxx

Possession Order from 2012 states to the effect of,
1- defendant give up possession of the property on or before xx/xx/xxxx.
2- defendant pay the claimant xxx arrears
3- defendant pay the claimant costs of xx
4- defendant pay of total of xx to claimant
5- order not enforced so long as defendant pays claimant rent + arrears cost totalling x by the payments set oit below
6 -judgement obtained in case Wxxx dated 2003 is discharged.
Payment required £45 per month first payment on or before 30th April 2012.


And I found a letter form the council, after the court hearing, advising that it is their terms that '...the terms of the court order will remain in force until the court costs are cleared. You will be required to clear the court costs when your rent account is cleared and we will advise you accordingly.'

I cleared my rent some time ago. They have never contacted me about the court costs, they just took money from my rent account and moved it to the sub account.

Is what they say actually enforceable, surely they can not take what's paid into my rent account and use it to pay off court fees??

[Guest]

Re: Rent Arrears and Court Charges

Thank you for this. Yes, the arrears were large and payments were small as I was on benefits at the time., buy when I was able to I paid larger sums.

Hi
Put in a formal complaint to both the CEO and head of finance, the head of finance is called a 151 officer, and it will trigger something internaly, requests a full breakdown of charges added and the reason they were added. They may have added baillifs costs in ( hence the 200 in charges goes to 400+ , its also sometimes why monies paid do not show on the accounts, )

Possession orders can be suspended without a date, and usually refiar to just the figure, ie, the SP is in affect whilst the arrears are still there. I have see this used by local authority's, were the arrears are large, but a repayment arraignment of a few pounds a week extra have been agreed.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi
Put in a formal complaint to both the CEO and head of finance, the head of finance is called a 151 officer, and it will trigger something internaly, requests a full breakdown of charges added and the reason they were added. They may have added baillifs costs in ( hence the 200 in charges goes to 400+ , its also sometimes why monies paid do not show on the accounts, )

Possession orders can be suspended without a date, and usually refiar to just the figure, ie, the SP is in affect whilst the arrears are still there. I have see this used by local authority's, were the arrears are large, but a repayment arraignment of a few pounds a week extra have been agreed.