You mean as opposed to all the extraneous information that doesn't help at all?

 

OP: it really is as straightforward as I said above. I should know, I deal with cases like yours in court every week.

Thanks. Have spoken to Shelter they basically said come to see us unfortunately nearest session is booked until mid November next nearest is 30 miles away.

Phoned up legal helpline from home insurance. Really helpful they suggested speaking to the court see if anything has been cancelled or not.

Spoke to court nothing cancelled as far as they are concerned its seeking possession still.

Gone back to HA asked for most senior housing manager, all gone home but they found a senior housing person who was very helpful asked for copies of all the emails and is going to come back to us on Monday. In the meantime we'll try to get to CAB or shelter next week at a drop in session.

Court person said file a defence online this weekend include the emails they have sent and everything that has happened.

Other than that there's not much we can do now its the weekend but feeling better about this mess.

Thanks to everyone who has replied really appreciate the suggestions of what'd likely ho happen its very reassuring

Yup will do I was just meaning in principle whether those emails are something to present to the court or whether that forms part of an official complaint to the HA? Housing officer and her line manager (who is the one named on the court documents) have emails confirming this from both of them. Waiting to hear from wife on how she's got on with CAB now

We are doing later this morning wife is calling CAB/shelter as soon as she's home. What has really thrown a spanner in the works is the notice now, we had it in writing that there was to be no further action taken so we didn't until now get any advice, hope there's going to be enough time to get an appt to see these people. When I return the defense to I include copies of these emails as part of any defense do you think or not? I know will take legal advice as well but just asking

Ok I now have it in writing that: They are NOT seeking possesson We do NOT need to attend court We do NOT need to file court papers Wife is phoning Shelter this morning to get further advice. To recap: Housing officer wrote no further action to be taken court action ceased dated 15/10/12 Senior housing officer (line manager of our housing officer) phoned last night 18/10/12 17:00 Court action will continue, no longer seeking possession just costs, no need to attend, no need to file a defence Above confirmed via 2 emails this morning

Had an email from the person we spoke to yesterday it doesn't say anything about not seeking possession, i've emailed back to ask about what was said last night so we'll see what comes back from that.

Disgruntled_Employee

Friends laptop didn't realise it was logged in as someone else until posts started disappearing. Bit worked up over everything tbh

Nothing nefarious just my mistake

Well they have said they will put what was said tonight into writing so we'll see if they follow through on that one.

We'll try to get hold of Shelter/CAB tomorrow - well the wife will i'll be at work but the point is the same.

I'm incredibly disappointed about this to be told unequivocally that no further action is being taken to this with 6 working days notice is a joke. I'm not going to say anything to the HA immediately as I want to see if they put in writing (via email) what was said tonight first as I believe that will be interesting to have as evidence.

I'm very concerned that people are giving this advice to tenants seems farcical to me.

Once I have that in writing I will go back to them with those questions.

I'm not moaning about the rent that was more of an observation regarding the rent increases and as you say it's not a part of this issue, aside from the fact of putting the rent up so much has made it hard to pay.

On the plus side I got my job regraded backdated to Sept 1st it's not a huge amount but it all helps.

Latest update is:

I have in writing via email that the HA were not going to continue court action after we managed to clear the arrears off. Today we received a phone call just before 5pm that they were going to continue to court to recover their costs and that we don't need to submit a defence nor do we need to attend court.

Does anyone have any further advice on this? Do we submit a defence, send the email in saying there was no further action?

We only have 6 working days before court now, we didn't seek any legal advice prior to this as we were told that they weren't going to do this.

V worried now.

Rich44

 

Do you know or can you find out exactly the date you moved/tenancy started in the previous property ?

I can find out I'll post back when I've got the papers out.

Interesting about the rent as they replied with a similar answer to my mp when I complained to him (believing it to be governments fault). I will take that further as they'll be trying the same in 2013 as inflation is still high....

Thought I'd read this before

http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN01090.pdf

That's the formula and that's what they claim is the maximum they can put the rent up each year until they reach the target rent

Depends if you did the wages calc.

2007 rent = £53 p wk, 2012 = £81 p wk, increase = £28 / wk, not the £38 increase qouted earlier. I assume this is the first rent increase since 2007.

What are the true figures?

I never said there was no change between those years just stating the start and finish points. My wages are significantly less than back then but that's not really important, I was just saying that IMHO over that time frame it is a very large rent increased (but still cheaper than private rent)

Regarding the rent increases:

We got some paperwork thru the post last Feb time advising that the rent will be going up by £38 which is the government formula for social landlords rent increases which is RPI + 0.5% + £2 per week.

We didn't have any form of consultation as such and we did think about but the paperwork said a tribunal could decide the rent could go up even MORE than that so we didn't dare appeal the increase as we live in a very high value area 70% or so of the village is owned by second homers and as such there's v little private rents available which in turn has driven the cost right up (2 bed home £800 pcm). The paperwork intimated that the tribunal would look at this and decide that the rent could go up a lot more as the cost of private rent is so much higher as it would still be affordable in comparison.

Can't believe that in 2007 our rent was £53 per week and it's now £81 per week - wish my wages had kept up with that

Ok just heard back from the Housing Officer they are dropping the court case as of Monday as we're now in credit with them. They are going to put that in writing to us as well. Thanks for all the advice, can't tell you what a relief it is.

Everything is in my wife's name (we weren't married when we moved in)

Hello Rich44

 

Assured tenancy or HA Secure tenancy ?

 

Can i ask the date you moved into the ordinal property before you did the exchange ?

1990 something I think that was a local council before we exchanged

Hi

We've gotten all our debts and budget stuff all sorted out now, my job was just moved up a scale at work that has also helped. It is a direct debit as I have filled the form in off their website and have posted it off to them, can't setup a standing order with the bank online at the moment due to a mess they have created with this OTP system but that's another story...

We'll call CAB today and get an appt to see someone.

I appreciate that a DD is not a guarantee of being paid but surely it shows more willing as it costs them less to administer and in the absence of the payee cancelling it should you have insufficient funds available you're going to get a huge bill from the bank. It was just a thought anyway.

Thanks

Thanks very much, after loads of calls to Santander and trips to ATMs I managed to get our account unblocked there was a transaction they didn't like the look of and they put a stop on it. So that's now sorted and i've paid another £790 so including the £400 i'd already paid I think that should be the rent FULLY up to date and we'll make another £400 payment on pay day in 2 weeks plus setup a direct debit to prevent it from happening again.

I've written this is it ok, i'm trying to not make it sound to whiney or woe is me etc

edited as it's now sent and don't want them using it to google this thread just in case...

We had all of this about this time last year and we got the notice through, we then agreed a payment plan and stuck to it until August when I stuffed it up, I have been making payments of £400 to clear the arrears off.

We agreed £5 a week to clear the arrears which were not struggling with then the rent went up by just shy of £40 a month in April and we found it much harder to keep going, I wrote to them and to our MP stating that £40 was an outrageous rent increase but was basically just told to go away. Anyway we kept it going until various things happened and August and Sept were late as they were paid with tax credits rather than the wages which made them late hence where this has come from.

I'd already paid £400 earlier this week then today we got the paperwork saying we owed £1180ish, obviously £400 was off of that figure immediately as i'd already paid it and i've been trying (after much scrounging) to pay another £790 to get us clear but the bank put a stop on our account earlier because they thought a transaction was dodgy it's just taken 3 phone calls and a 10 mile round trip drive to sort it out so now about to attempt the payment again.

Do you think it's worth writing to the landlord and saying the arrears are gone, we'll pay the court fee will you stop? Or is that likely to upset them more?

Thanks so much to everyone, nearly in tears what with this and then the bank problem too

Yes my wife is self employed but hasn't had any work, we get a tiny amount of WTC which is about £800 a year and then whatever the CTC is I can't complain moneywise (well I can but you know what I mean). It's just we were struggling to keep our heads above water before and then earlier in the year the rent went up by £40 a month (RPI + 0.5% + £2 per week) which was a massive kick in the teeth (2007 rent was £53 a week it's now £81) then we got into another mess in the summer for various reasons and because we were paying the rent out of the tax credits money it wasn't on the same day each month and we just made a right mess of it, before that I paid £400 and for Sept I paid £400 so it was coming off the arrears.

I've printed out a direct debit form for the rent and i'm going to get the arrears cleared tomorrow for sure! Is it worth writing to the landlord and saying we've cleared the rent arrears and here's a direct debit form to prevent more arrears if we pay the £100 court fees on top will you stop the proceedings?

I'm just gutted over the whole thing and my parents have paid for a family caravan Haven break for that week so that'll be out of the window I think now too, bigger picture I know but it all adds up.

Thanks to everyone who has replied it's a huge help, i'm off to have a little cry for a bit. I have ME and have stopped taking my Tramadol as it makes me violently sick so it means i'm in terrible pain 24/7 so this on top is enough to make you lose the will to live but hopefully we can get it sorted out...

Right i've now dug out all the paperwork the secured tenancy mentioned was because we did a mutual exchange and the previous tenant was on one on subsequent paperwork it is referred to as an Assured tenancy and as we've only been here since 2007 I assume reading around that is the correct type of tenancy.

Ok, we'll get on to the CAB tomorrow when the children are at school. I hope to God we can get this sorted out as there's no private rent available anywhere nearby (it's all holiday homes) so we'd probably have to move back to Norwich to get an affordable rent which would mean destroying the children's lives, me losing my job and the MiL (disabled lives next door) probably having some kind of breakdown about us moving out and not leaving the house again (sounds like an exageration but it's not). I know it's MY fault I feel terrible i've let the wife and children down, if the worst happens I don't think i'll ever be able to look them in the eyes again. I have had some low moments in my life but this is the worst i've ever ever felt, sorry for rambling on. We'll call the CAB tomorrow, we can't afford a solicitor and i've called in everything I can think of to clear the arrears off, we won't qualify for any help as my wages are about £15k

I've been trying to pay the arrears off all day, it's now in the bank but it won't go through, going to head into the branch and get them to do it over the counter straight into the landlords bank account.

Ok I didn't know if they could just go bang straight to court thanks.

Their name is xx housing trust

Edit The assignment of tenancy says it's under a "secure tenancy" some of the evidence submitted refers to it as an assured tenancy though and court date is 30th October 2012

My mistake, looking through the notice served 20th October 2011 it says

Ground 10

 

Some rent is due lawfully from the tenant

 

a) is unpaid on the date where the proceedings for possession are begun;

 

b) except where subsection 1b of section 8 of this Act applies, was in arrears at the date of the service of the notice under that section relating to those proceedings.

It's a social landlord and we've been here since Jan 2007

To top it off Paypoint website link isn't working so I can't pay it tonight (will go to the bank after work tomorrow)

Section 8

Thanks

Also the court papers state

5. The following steps have been taken to recover any arrears:

 

Various letters sent according to our rent arrears procedure, visits and personal contact

 

6. The appropirate notice seeking posession was served on the defendant on 20th October 2011

This was a hand delivered letter (no attempt at contact was made just put through the door) and we then arranged to pay the arrears with them and then stuffed it up in August.

We had a notice on 20th October 2011 which is to what they refer to in their court documents as notice, since then we had our annual rent statement in March/April time but we screwed up late August and this seems to be where this is coming from. Is this notice they hand delivered on 20th October really all they had to do, we've not had any contact from them in all this time.

Hi

Last year we got into trouble financially and ended up with rent arrears (coming off of HB after being unemployed) anyway hands up it's my fault.

Anyway social landlord is now saying we've broken our agreement with them and is taking us to court for posession. Up until now we've had no correspondence from them about it, we get a rent statement once a year in March time (when they whack the rent up a LOT!) but we've had no letters nor notices from them about arrears since 12 October 2011.

We scrimped and borrowed to pay off all the arrears and spoke to a housing officer today and told them that's what we'd done but they seem a little wishy washy as to whether clearing it off will automatically sort the court case or whether we still need to file a defence etc. We're waiting on another call back from our housing officer to clarify but will clearing the arrears and setting up a direct debit to prevent any further arrears likely to cease the action?

Any other advice (other than not getting into arrears again) thank you

What?, you thought he would get away with just a slap on the wrist?.

these days, copyright theft is a very serious offence, if he is arrested and charged with it, the best he can do is openly admit his crime, they might go easy on him if he pleads guilty from the word go.

as well as he prison sentance and/or fine, he will also most likely have his computer and such seized, and may be barred from owning anything that can be used to copy DVDs for a period of time.

 

While i do object to the ridiculous retail prices charged for DVDs and CDs, i do not condone the selling of copied/pirate DVDs, especially people who sell them on places like e-bay, who have strict rules concerning the sale of counterfeit goods.

Why not enough people do why should someone get 5 years for breaching copyright when someone who kills someone in a car gets 12 months or even less???

Sorry I don't mean to rant but I get sick of this argument I agree it's theft and should be punished but......

Ok this is a long long story but to keep it short and avoid boring people here is a quick sum up.

My partners nan passed away and left a will with a solicitor as executor (I know)...

Will says house cannot be sold for awhile as there will be someone living there so until they find a new home house cannot be sold.

There is no cash as house is only thing of value in estate

House was then vacated and needed several things doing before it could go on the market, solicitor did nothing one of the beneficiaries organised it all the only thing the solicitor has done was deal with funeral home and pass correspondance on and instruct the estate agents everything else a very ill beneficiary has done.

Anyway funeral home were charging about 25% interest on the debt (which doubled it) to £5000 so a kind relative (NOT a beneficiary!!) offered to pay that and the house clearance debt off to avoid any further charges to the estate.

The solicitors have now approached this person and asked if THEIR fees for £3000 can be paid by them and if they do then they will attach a charging order to the house so when it's sold they get their money back.

3 weeks later they had not had a reply so they sent another begging letter out to this person who again has nothing to do with the estate at all apart from being kind enough to pay the outstanding bills.

Basically I think this solicitor is panicking about getting paid with the housing market the way it is.

They now want a monthly payment from the beneficiaries or are potentially threatening them with heavy interest on the debt and bearing in mind the house sale could take a long time would cripple everyone.

2 of the beneficiaries are in benefits and very very ill and in fact none of them can really afford a penny.

I don't suppose anyone can offer some advice?

PS don't have much confidence in this solicitor as they sent out with a letter a confidential social services report to everyone and had a very cavalier attitude to it when they were informed

We've asked for a breakdown of how they think they have earned this amount but have not heard back yet.

I will just add as well that the lady concerned was a customer of this solicitors for decades and as was her husband before he passed away, it really beggars belief they are carrying on in this fashion now.

Sorry i've gone on a lot more than I wanted to and probably not got across how bad they have been dealing with everything and the way they have spoken to people etc.

Any questions just ask and i'll try to fill in but no one really knows where to go next

The s