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Hello,
I am seeking advice on behalf of my 82 year old Father who has been living in Council accommodation since Feb 2023.
A little back history: My poor dad has suffered with his mental health for decades, which worsened after he and my mother divorced in 1996 and went through a bitter divorce settlement which ended up with them both losing the marital home through a 'forced sale' by the courts. My Dad has never come to terms with this as he does not understand how a home that is fully paid for (no outstanding mortgage) can be taken away and sold without the consent of the owner. My Dad was sent to Winston Green prison for contempt of court for refusing to sell the home as he was unhappy with the terms and while he was incarcerated we believe our mother was coerced by her Solicitors and the courts to sell the home, with some involvement from the Estate Agents as the house was sold way under market value.
Over the years the Police have hounded my Dad, as to this day he has disputed the sale of the house and has even refused to collect his share of the proceeds from the sale of the house. He has written to the new owners of the house, seen countless Solicitors seeking advice for whet he believes was a fraudulent case to take his home away from him under duress.
It got that bad that a few years ago he went abroad to his brothers funeral and when he landed back at Gatwick Airport, an announcement came from the pilot asking everyone to stay in their seats, the Police boarded the plane and arrested my Dad, took him to a random police station in London and left him there. To this day he has never been charged with anything and still does not know what authority and the reason behind why he was taken from the plane. We believe this was an intimidation attempt to stop him looking into the Divorce case and the sale of the house. He never retrieved his luggage which contained personal items including jewellery.
The owners of the house don't seem to be able to re-sell the house so we now believe there is some truth in him claims that the house was sold illegally and are looking into it as a family.
Back to present Day: My Dad is traumatised by the events of the past few decades. His health is not what it used to be and his mental health is declining. He refuses to see a Doctor, he has a strong fear and gets extremely anxious at the mention of any type of authoritative figure (Doctors, Police, Judges, Courts, Solicitors Council Officials etc.), as he believes they are all integrated and all played a part in his treatment and incarceration on several occasions when going through his divorce settlement, so as a family we are trying to help him as much as we can.
He has lived with several family members, including myself, but he is very independent and needed his own space, so I applied for a council property on his behalf as he would never have approached them himself. Our interaction with the council has been nothing short of challenging, for want of a better word, with a lot of lies and deceit coming form the council staff, which has led my Dad to believe he is being targeted again and refusing to interact with them, including refusing to open any mail from them.
Details below:
My Dad has refused to pay any rent due to all of the outstanding issues with the property and was taken to Court by the Council on Tues 27th Feb 2024 - he refused as expected, to attend. We informed the council he would be unlikely to attend due to his mental state. They refused to hold the court appearance and said they would inform us of the outcome. We believe they used this to their advantage to be liberal with the truth in court.
In his absence the case went in the Councils Favour, even though I had contact then rents to to advise of my Dads Mental state and advised he was still waiting for Benefits applications to come through (Attendance Allowance/ Pension Credits etc) which we would use to cover the rent shortfall.
When I asked the Rent Officer for an update on the case I was shocked at his response, below snippet:-
The hearing took place as scheduled today and the matters you raised in the email below were made aware to the Judge. The Judge concluded the points raised were not an acceptable defence.
Given the level of arrears, no payment since the start of the tenancy and the fact this tenancy is an introductory tenancy the Judge issued a 14 day possession order with an order for costs £355 and money judgement on the rent arrears.
The next stage of action after the possession date will be an eviction warrant, this can be avoided provided the debt is either paid in full or an acceptable payment plan is offered.
I responded:
Firstly, can I clarify what you mean by 'no payment since the start of the tenancy'
Is this what the Judge was informed? as that is incorrect as my brother paid 4 weeks in advance which we were told had to be paid before the keys were handed over. And Housing benefit is being paid, It is only the shortfall after benefits that has not been paid.
xxxxx@warwickdc.gov.uk. Did Housing benefit not backdate the claim to the start of the tenancy? Some clarification on the matter would be beneficial as we do not have access to my dads benefits letters. I don't believe he has ever received any.
Secondly, will we receive written correspondence of the discussion and decision made in court today as we will need this to go on file at his Doctors as well as for our own records.
We will make an appointment to see the team who will help assess his benefits at the xxxxx Street Centre so that they can correctly assess any benefits he is entitled to and not receiving and will update you again when we have spoken to them.
The Rent Officer then back-tracked with the following response after my brother asked, who went to court, and requested a copy of the court transcript:-
it was me who attended (Yuxxx Rxxxxxx)
the Judge was provided with the following:
Start date of tenancy and copy of tenancy agreement.
We have since noticed that HIDDEN in his rent payments are the payments the Council have demanded for a Lifeline System that my dad does not use, as it is not installed, he doesn't require it and even if he did, there is no phone line in the property for him to have it installed. We have refused to pay for something that is not even in use. Initially you could see the Lifeline payments as a separate transaction on his rent statement, but then we noticed his rent had increased by £4 per week since July 2023 and the arrears on the Lifeline payment have stayed at £55.45 since July 2023.
We want the case to go back to court so that we can attend on our Dads behalf and give the judge the full facts as we do not believe the Housing Officers provided the truth to the judge at all, especially the hidden Lifeline costs.
We have taken advice on the Housing Benefits issue and it seems, from and independent HB specialists calculations, that he is not receiving the correct amount of HB either.
We have also registered my Dad with the local Medical Centre and have asked for his medical records to be forwarded to us so we can provide the proof that the council need, but they will only send this information to my Dad, which is causing major problems as he won't open mail and we only have 1 week left to start paying his rent before the council start full eviction proceedings against my Dad.
I'm wondering, do we wait for another court hearing, will there be another court hearing or will the council be automatically given the right to reposess/ evict our Dad from the property.
I would really appreciate some advice on next steps.
Thanks In Advance
I am seeking advice on behalf of my 82 year old Father who has been living in Council accommodation since Feb 2023.
A little back history: My poor dad has suffered with his mental health for decades, which worsened after he and my mother divorced in 1996 and went through a bitter divorce settlement which ended up with them both losing the marital home through a 'forced sale' by the courts. My Dad has never come to terms with this as he does not understand how a home that is fully paid for (no outstanding mortgage) can be taken away and sold without the consent of the owner. My Dad was sent to Winston Green prison for contempt of court for refusing to sell the home as he was unhappy with the terms and while he was incarcerated we believe our mother was coerced by her Solicitors and the courts to sell the home, with some involvement from the Estate Agents as the house was sold way under market value.
Over the years the Police have hounded my Dad, as to this day he has disputed the sale of the house and has even refused to collect his share of the proceeds from the sale of the house. He has written to the new owners of the house, seen countless Solicitors seeking advice for whet he believes was a fraudulent case to take his home away from him under duress.
It got that bad that a few years ago he went abroad to his brothers funeral and when he landed back at Gatwick Airport, an announcement came from the pilot asking everyone to stay in their seats, the Police boarded the plane and arrested my Dad, took him to a random police station in London and left him there. To this day he has never been charged with anything and still does not know what authority and the reason behind why he was taken from the plane. We believe this was an intimidation attempt to stop him looking into the Divorce case and the sale of the house. He never retrieved his luggage which contained personal items including jewellery.
The owners of the house don't seem to be able to re-sell the house so we now believe there is some truth in him claims that the house was sold illegally and are looking into it as a family.
Back to present Day: My Dad is traumatised by the events of the past few decades. His health is not what it used to be and his mental health is declining. He refuses to see a Doctor, he has a strong fear and gets extremely anxious at the mention of any type of authoritative figure (Doctors, Police, Judges, Courts, Solicitors Council Officials etc.), as he believes they are all integrated and all played a part in his treatment and incarceration on several occasions when going through his divorce settlement, so as a family we are trying to help him as much as we can.
He has lived with several family members, including myself, but he is very independent and needed his own space, so I applied for a council property on his behalf as he would never have approached them himself. Our interaction with the council has been nothing short of challenging, for want of a better word, with a lot of lies and deceit coming form the council staff, which has led my Dad to believe he is being targeted again and refusing to interact with them, including refusing to open any mail from them.
Details below:
- Dec 2021 - Dad was living with his son (our brother) who sadly fell ill and passed away leaving Dad homeless again
- Jan 2022 - Dad moved in with me
- Nov 2022 - Application for housing submitted to WDC on behalf of Dad
- Jan 2023 - After bidding on 2 property's which were rejected as unsuitable, I received a call from WDC advising they had come across a property that had been empty for some time while repairs were being carried out.
- The property was described as 'ready to move into straight away' by the Housing Officer. Upon viewing the same Housing Officer advised that 1 months advance rent must be paid prior to handing over the keys. My Dad did not have 1 months advance rent, so the HO told us that if one of us (his children paid it) we would be able to claim it back and our Dad would be eligible for Housing Benefit. We now know this to be false.
- When we claimed HB only a portion of the rent was awarded. My dad must pay £33 pw of the £107 pw rent.
- After a visit from the rents officer he advised that rent is paid weekly in advance, therefore only 1 weeks rent needed to be paid in advance, and that the council do not refund advance rent under any circumstances regardless of who it was paid by.
- The electrics in the entire bungalow need replacing
- The property is now showing heavy mould in the bedroom as guttering at the front of the property has not been joined together leading to water from the gutter running down the outside wall.
- The property floods due to pipes not being plumbed in properly and blocked drains due to the layout of the drain pipes. They run across the entire length of the property, from the back of the property where the kitchen is, to the front where the bathroom/ wet room is and out the front drain. There is no drain at the back of the property. Birmingham Drains were called out on emergency calls were made on several occasions, some times not turning up until 10pm at night which caused my Dad immense distress.
- The front door was an old wooden door which you could see daylight around the edges, it took 3 months to get the door changed while my Dad lived with a heavy draught.
- Considering the HO advised the property was ready to move into, the kitchen cupboards are very old, and falling apart, what we thought just needed a good clean needs totally replacing.
- The council knew as this was our third viewing on a property if we had rejected it after viewing, my Dad would have been penalised and removed from the bidding list for 12 months. I told the HO I did not recall bidding on the property previously, but she was adamant it was a property I had shown interest in previously, but it had been removed from the list while all of these 'repairs' had been carried out, which is why we got the call to see if we would be interested in taking it, it was ours to take straight away, she said.
- But its a dump and my Dad is so depressed living there.
- All the windows in the property need replacing as the are below government standard.
- My Dad will not allow all of this work to be carried out while he is in the property as it is so small he gets very distressed when strangers are walking around all of his belongings.
- The council even gave ma a parking ticket on the day my dad moved in, when we were moving all of his furniture in, the street he lives in is permit holders only, which we did not notice and they refused to cancel the ticket. It's been an absolute nightmare since day 1.
My Dad has refused to pay any rent due to all of the outstanding issues with the property and was taken to Court by the Council on Tues 27th Feb 2024 - he refused as expected, to attend. We informed the council he would be unlikely to attend due to his mental state. They refused to hold the court appearance and said they would inform us of the outcome. We believe they used this to their advantage to be liberal with the truth in court.
In his absence the case went in the Councils Favour, even though I had contact then rents to to advise of my Dads Mental state and advised he was still waiting for Benefits applications to come through (Attendance Allowance/ Pension Credits etc) which we would use to cover the rent shortfall.
When I asked the Rent Officer for an update on the case I was shocked at his response, below snippet:-
The hearing took place as scheduled today and the matters you raised in the email below were made aware to the Judge. The Judge concluded the points raised were not an acceptable defence.
Given the level of arrears, no payment since the start of the tenancy and the fact this tenancy is an introductory tenancy the Judge issued a 14 day possession order with an order for costs £355 and money judgement on the rent arrears.
The next stage of action after the possession date will be an eviction warrant, this can be avoided provided the debt is either paid in full or an acceptable payment plan is offered.
I responded:
Firstly, can I clarify what you mean by 'no payment since the start of the tenancy'
Is this what the Judge was informed? as that is incorrect as my brother paid 4 weeks in advance which we were told had to be paid before the keys were handed over. And Housing benefit is being paid, It is only the shortfall after benefits that has not been paid.
xxxxx@warwickdc.gov.uk. Did Housing benefit not backdate the claim to the start of the tenancy? Some clarification on the matter would be beneficial as we do not have access to my dads benefits letters. I don't believe he has ever received any.
Secondly, will we receive written correspondence of the discussion and decision made in court today as we will need this to go on file at his Doctors as well as for our own records.
We will make an appointment to see the team who will help assess his benefits at the xxxxx Street Centre so that they can correctly assess any benefits he is entitled to and not receiving and will update you again when we have spoken to them.
The Rent Officer then back-tracked with the following response after my brother asked, who went to court, and requested a copy of the court transcript:-
it was me who attended (Yuxxx Rxxxxxx)
the Judge was provided with the following:
Start date of tenancy and copy of tenancy agreement.
- Rent statement – from start of tenancy which showed all payments made to date. – this showed all benefits payments and the advance that was paid.
- The date the notice of seeking possession was served and a copy was provided to the court.
- The court was informed of Mr Axxxxxxx’s Health & repairs issues that were raised in the email from Miss C Axxxxxxx dated 27.02.2024.
We have since noticed that HIDDEN in his rent payments are the payments the Council have demanded for a Lifeline System that my dad does not use, as it is not installed, he doesn't require it and even if he did, there is no phone line in the property for him to have it installed. We have refused to pay for something that is not even in use. Initially you could see the Lifeline payments as a separate transaction on his rent statement, but then we noticed his rent had increased by £4 per week since July 2023 and the arrears on the Lifeline payment have stayed at £55.45 since July 2023.
We want the case to go back to court so that we can attend on our Dads behalf and give the judge the full facts as we do not believe the Housing Officers provided the truth to the judge at all, especially the hidden Lifeline costs.
We have taken advice on the Housing Benefits issue and it seems, from and independent HB specialists calculations, that he is not receiving the correct amount of HB either.
We have also registered my Dad with the local Medical Centre and have asked for his medical records to be forwarded to us so we can provide the proof that the council need, but they will only send this information to my Dad, which is causing major problems as he won't open mail and we only have 1 week left to start paying his rent before the council start full eviction proceedings against my Dad.
I'm wondering, do we wait for another court hearing, will there be another court hearing or will the council be automatically given the right to reposess/ evict our Dad from the property.
I would really appreciate some advice on next steps.
Thanks In Advance
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