After a really dodgy experience with a really dodgy landlord we've got a great place to live. Our landlord is great and is always more than happy to help, returns answerphone messages within 24 hours, arranges workmen to fix problems within 48 hours and is generally a pretty damn good bloke. To all of you out there having problems with landlords please have hope - 2 months ago we were told we had to leave, notice had been served (which we still haven't received!!) and that we had to be out by the end of Jan/beginning of Feb. We honestly thought we'd be on the streets but our luck changed and we're now the happy inhabitants of a beautiful house.

She may be entitled to apply for a budget loan from the DWP which she could use towards her rent.

Re question 1 - the resident parent will get all the money the CSA collects so long as they're not on benefits, then they'll only get £10 per week and the CSA will keep the rest. Question 2 - so far as I know the maintenance is based on the non-resident parents income, not the household but I'm not certain.

Well, we're still waiting for the notice to quit (as is the homeless advice team for the local council!). We've both requested the notice in writing and as yet nothing has arrived. We were due to be out of the property yesterday (the landlady yelled at me on Wednesday) but we're still here. We're planning on moving out asap as we secured a gorgeous new house yesterday (just waiting for someone to help us move the furniture and fridge/freezer!) but until then it's a case of heads down and keep out of her way for about a week. Not holding out much hope of getting our deposit back but we'll see. Thanks for your help

Due to a mess up with my HB claim no rent has been paid to my landlady (who's subletting my house to me) since the end of October. Obviously the actual landlord who she rents from isn't impressed and has served notice on us. The problem is that we haven't actually recieved this notic - the first we knew about it was today when we saw the person who recieves our rent cheques and she asked how we were getting on with moving!! Turns out the notice to quit was posted at the end of November and we should have had it by now. Obviously we haven't so we've now got 10 days to find somewhere else to live. I know everyone always says they don't receive bits in the post but we honestly didn't. We were out of the country between December 5th and January 7th and despite the post office holding onto our post for us there are some things I was expecting that didn't arrive. So - question. Is the notice to quit binding as we didn't receive it and have yet to get anything in writing? Please say no!!