Court date

[Bomber99]

Not sure if this is in the right section please move if not.
My daughter received a court summons from her housing association for underpayment of rent.
Universal credit are covering her and her partners rent £106 per week. Unbeknown to them the rent was increased to £126 per week.
What they tell me is they have never received a letter informing them that their rent had increased and therefore did not have an opportunity to inform the proper authorities hopefully to get the extra payment covered.

This lead to them owing around £1800 and a court date 18/01/2023 for eviction

We called the housing association yesterday and I paid £1000 off the amount.

Tomorrow Universal credit will pay £500
We informed the housing association that once the payment from universal credit had been made we would pay the remainder to clear the debt.

So a couple of questions.
(1) the housing association said even if arrears were paid off, the case would still have to go to court due to it now being in front of the judge. Is this correct ?

(2) Housing association said if money owing was paid off there is unlikely to be a eviction ?

(3) As my daughter was not aware of the rent increase and her circumstances have not changed for over 2years would she have any hope of getting universal credit to backdate the extra rental charges ?

We are aware a lot of her mail gets delivered to the wrong address, as it goes to a similar named street.
For example her street name is the same as the one it is wrongly delivered to only one has north in it the other south

We have also done a SAR with the housing association because they have mentioned that they have tried calling my daughter on several occasions to discuss this matter but my daughter says she has not received a single phone call from them.

thanks for any advise given

[atticus]

1. No. They can withdraw the case.

2. This should be the case. Why can the HA not commit to it?

3. Hopefully someone else can answer (benefits is not my special subject).

[Bomber99]

Hi Atticus
thank you for your response

My daughter has just been in contact with the housing association and they have told her even if she was to pay the outstanding balance in the next couple of days they would still go to court as they have already paid £355 court costs.

If there was no need to go to court would the housing association be able to have these charges refunded ?

[dslippy]

She will have to go to court.

[Bomber99]

Hello DSLIPPY
thank you for your response.

if we paid the rest of the monies owed to the housing association plus the £355 court fees would that stop the case going to court.
All we are trying to do is save our daughter the experience of being taken to court.

Or is it the case, the court case date is set for the 18/02/2023 and therefore must go ahead whether the monies are paid or not

[Bomber99]

Hi all
daughter went to court
Housing association turned up 45 mins late for the hearing.
Hearing was heard in there absence
Case was struck out
Housing association was instructed to pay court costs back to daughter. Judge said housing association should not have taken the court costs before the hearing anyway.
judge refused to discuss the matter with housing association because they were late for the hearing.

Housing association have told daughter it will take up to 28 days to refund the court fees.
Although now she is 4 weeks in advance with her rent housing association has informed her if she falls in arrears with her rent before the court costs have been refunded they will take the arrears out of the court costs.
Can they do this ???

[efpom]

In my view, the HA would need a court Order to set off court ordered costs, against a subsequently arising debt.

[Bomber99]

Hi all back for some more advice plz

so my daughter has been calling the housing association (orbit) to get the court costs refunded to her.

Each time she contacts orbit they push her from pillar to post when asking about the refund of the court costs and each time they state someone from the financial side would be in touch.
No one ever does.

The judge at her hearing said orbit should not have taken these monies until a judgment had been made.

So what would the best course of action be to recover these monies from orbit.

many thanks in advance for any suggestions

[Bomber99]

Hi all back for some more advice plz
so my daughter has been calling the housing association (orbit) to get the court costs refunded to her.
Each time she contacts orbit they push her from pillar to post when asking about the refund of the court costs and each time they state someone from the financial side would be in touch.
No one ever does.
The judge at her hearing said orbit should not have taken these monies until a judgment had been made.
So what would the best course of action be to recover these monies from orbit.
many thanks in advance for any suggestions

[Bomber99]

Bump