Rent arrears - helpful advice please

notsocharmed

I'm a long time lurker using a new account to ask for advice.

Myself and my partner were made redundant from the same company 2 months ago without rendundancy or wages owing and asked our landlord of 5yrs to accept rent allowance, she agreed and all the forms were filled in, We are now waiting 2 mnths for the rent and she is understandably getting annoyed and phoning daily. The welfare office is just saying it will be dealt with and arrears will be paid.

She has now issued us with an eviction notice. Now apart from a letter she's made my partner write admitting to arrears she has no proof as we've never had a rent book or receipt as rent was paid in cash.

Is there anyway i can hurry up the welfare payment.

BostonB

Can you borrow the money for the rent, then pay it back when the RA kicks in. I got nowhere with welfare. Can't advise how to speed that up. A delay seems common enough. They are relying on the tenant to cover the shortfall. (Or the LL but its got nothing to do with the LL).

notsocharmed

Unfortunatly not as family are not in position to help and lending places like the CU just looked at us stupid when we said we wanted money but weren't working.

We understand that its hard on ll but the daily calls are a nightmare.

murphaph

notsocharmed wrote: »

I'm a long time lurker using a new account to ask for advice.

Myself and my partner were made redundant from the same company 2 months ago without rendundancy or wages owing and asked our landlord of 5yrs to accept rent allowance, she agreed and all the forms were filled in, We are now waiting 2 mnths for the rent and she is understandably getting annoyed and phoning daily. The welfare office is just saying it will be dealt with and arrears will be paid. We've had no correspondence from welfare and they are being very unhelpful in providing us with something we can show our ll.

She has now issued us with an eviction notice. Now apart from a letter she's made my partner write admitting to arrears she has no proof as we've never had a rent book or receipt as rent was paid in cash.

Is there anyway i can hurry up the welfare payment.

Contact your welfare officer and inform them of the threat of imminent eviction. Maybe that will help, but I doubt it. They are a law unto themselves and are a large part of why most LLs won't touch RS tenants. You are a prime example...good solid tenants of 5 years and as soon as you need help from the system you've been paying into, you're left hanging and your LL in turn is left hanging.

I understand you personally are not to blame for any of this, but your LL may be under severe financial pressure with her mortgage and whilst the arrears will be paid, her credit rating could be ruined if she falls behind on her mortgage payments.

Such a balls of a situation. Best of luck with the clowns.

BostonB

notsocharmed wrote: »

...We understand that its hard on ll but the daily calls are a nightmare...

The LL shouldn't be doing that. Have you asked them to stop. Perhaps suggest if the LL issues a valid arrears notification, and eventually an eviction notice you could take it to the SW. Also ask can you have rent book and receipts detailing all monies paid to date. You should have that.

Meathlass

In the interim could you pay the amount that you will have to pay anyway as part of your rent each week? I know it will only be a small amount of the total rent but might reassure the landlady that you are serious and it's an issue with the system.

Make sure you get receipts in the future or at least pay it into the her account and keep a record of that.

notsocharmed

She issued us with a 14 day arrears letter and a 28 day eviction notice on the same day just with the 14 day letter dated before. I've shown them to the welfare and got oh well it will be dealt with before thats up.
She knows the calls are making us uncomfortable but she said the bank are hassling her as well so its a pass it on kind of thing.

Offering to pay the bit towards the rent is a good idea thanks. We hate being in this situation and have no idea of how the system works so its very difficult.

D3PO

get back to your LL that's not legal what they have done.

They cannot pre date the notice of arrears. Which makes this notice invalid.

Ring your Landlord and tell them that you have got advise and their notice is invalid as a result. They will have to reissue a notice of arrears and then await the 14 days before issuing notice of eviction.

djimi

You need to make welfare aware (which Im sure they already are) that "oh well itll be sorted before that" will only cut it for the duration of the 14 days arrears notice. Once the 28 day eviction notice has been issued the landlord does not have to cancel it, even if the arrears are cleared in that time.

notsocharmed

D3PO wrote: »

get back to your LL that's not legal what they have done.

They cannot pre date the notice of arrears. Which makes this notice invalid.

Ring your Landlord and tell them that you have got advise and their notice is invalid as a result. They will have to reissue a notice of arrears and then await the 14 days before issuing notice of eviction.

Trouble is how do i prove she gave them both to us at the same time its not as if we signed them or anything?

djimi wrote: »

You need to make welfare aware (which Im sure they already are) that "oh well itll be sorted before that" will only cut it for the duration of the 14 days arrears notice. Once the 28 day eviction notice has been issued the landlord does not have to cancel it, even if the arrears are cleared in that time.

Ok thanks i hadn't realised that i thought as long as rent up to date nothing she could do? I'll go back down to SW monday morning.

D3PO

notsocharmed wrote: »

Trouble is how do i prove she gave them both to us at the same time its not as if we signed them or anything?


.

that's not your problem that's hers. she should have sent registered post so proof you received them was available. you can say you never received notice. if she doesn't have proof then essentially notice wasn't served as far as the prtb are concerned

JustAThought

D3PO wrote: »

that's not your problem that's hers. she should have sent registered post so proof you received them was available. you can say you never received notice. if she doesn't have proof then essentially notice wasn't served as far as the prtb are concerned

You'll only antagonise her if you start pretending you didn't get the letter. Out what you've said here in writing re the eviction etc, go back down to the office & if you get the same shrug-off ask for her supervisor and escalate it. They have te capacity to make quick decisions once they have a paper trail and a letter - you shouldn't be under this stress because they won't make a decision .

D3PO

JustAThought wrote: »

You'll only antagonise her if you start pretending you didn't get the letter..

doesn't matter. the letter was served illegally pre dated to try and illegally evict the OP by circumventing the correct eviction process. The LL hasn't done this right and regardless of the fact that the OP is in arrears they are entitled to due process.

Doing anything other than fighting for your tenancy rights would be wrong. I have sympathy for the LL but that doesn't mean they can flaunt the law.

murphaph

D3PO wrote: »

doesn't matter. the letter was served illegally pre dated to try and illegally evict the OP by circumventing the correct eviction process. The LL hasn't done this right and regardless of the fact that the OP is in arrears they are entitled to due process.

Doing anything other than fighting for your tenancy rights would be wrong. I have sympathy for the LL but that doesn't mean they can flaunt the law.

Agreed. The law is as it is and it should be followed. I also have sympathy for the LL so I think you should pay her whatever you can afford in the meantime OP. But you have to basically camp inside the SW office until a decision is made. YOU need to put the same pressure on them that your LL is putting on you.

carpejugulum

notsocharmed wrote: »

she has no proof as we've never had a rent book or receipt as rent was paid in cash.

And what proof do you have? How did you prove you had been renting for 6+ months to get RA?

spockety

Go to your local TD and/or councillor and tell them you are about to be lucked out on to the street because SW are dragging their heels.

notsocharmed

Thanks we have been down to the SW office every couple of days they are getting fed up of us now, but we will keep at them. We have every sympathy for our landlady as it can't be easy for her either.

carpejugulum wrote: »

And what proof do you have? How did you prove you had been renting for 6+ months to get RA?

Our contract being renewed every 12mnths with dates on it, bills for 5yrs and the form filled in from the ll. They accepted those quite happily.

spockety wrote: »

Go to your local TD and/or councillor and tell them you are about to be lucked out on to the street because SW are dragging their heels.

We had decided that was the next port of call on monday after going back into SW.

Thank you all for the advice its very useful, We'd certainly never have thought of the eviction notice being invalid and are very happy in the house and really don't want to move.

murphaph

notsocharmed wrote: »

Thank you all for the advice its very useful, We'd certainly never have thought of the eviction notice being invalid and are very happy in the house and really don't want to move.

Unfortunately it might still come to that. You are just a couple, right? no kids? If so and you're renting anything more than a 1 bed (and you mentioned house so I'm guessing it's at least 2, possibly 3 bed) then they'll deem you "over accommodated" there and likely request that you find something else anyway.

Have you checked the maximum rates for your family unit in your given local authority area here?

You may be in for a shock..in Dublin at any rate the RS limits simply don't allow people to rent at current market rates any more.