Hi, We were given advice that we shouldn't pay the rent because the boiler was broken and it would be a way to get his attention seen as he wasn't responding to our texts. Also my brother is on housing benefit and it got suspended so that's why he wasn't able to pay the rent and therefore was in arrears. We tried to tell the Judge that but he wouldn't listen/let us talk to tell him as the landlord said that there was no housing benefit involved but of course there was.

Yes the property is rented and he is obtaining the possession order on the grounds of Section 8 due to rent arrears being over 2 months. The boiler problem was first mentioned months ago in June to the landlord and when he told the Duty Solicitor about the boiler she didn't say anything about how we have proof that the landlord was lying when he said he sent someone in June to look at the boiler and said it was find. I told the Duty Solicitor that if it was fine then why did I text him again in July and August. the DS didn't say anything and seen as the Judge did not allow my brother or I to speak we could not say anything. Hope this information helps. Thanks

Thanks for that but my point is, if there is any help or any way to get it suspended? I don't want to name and shame her, she is from the local law centre and she just took no notice of us regarding monies paid and the boiler.

Hi, Hope someone can help. I went to court this morning to defend a possession order. It was above section 8 but before the hearing we got it to £300 below section 8. The Judge said he wouldn't accept the £500 figure made 2 hours before the hearing and the landlord claimed he hadn't received a furthered £600 from October even though the Halifax building society gave me proof that it had gone out my account and the Judge saw that. We had the Duty Solicitor who didn't say what we wanted her to say and didn't defend us. Also the Judge did not let us speak so for example the boiler has not worked since June. I and my brother has text him to ask him to fix it. He told the Judge he fixed it in June, he didn't and I had texts from July and August asking him to fix the boiler. Is there any help or any advice that someone can give us. We expect the eviction order in a couple of days Thanks. 5:06pm: Can you believe after I posted before the landlord who swore blind to the Judge that he fixed the boiler in June even though we had proof he hadn't, has now text to ask when can he come and fix the boiler. Lying Sod!

Hi, Yes they are saying we didnt inform them and have been overpaid. Luckily we have had informed them and have some documentation from both the tax offices and the job centre. I am guessing from what you are saying she will be better coming off working tax credit asap and at least then we will have help towards the mortgage? Thanks

Hi Thanks for coming back. She earns £90.18 working tax credit She had to change from to 30 hours to ba able to still claim working tax credit and ahe is self employed. She only earned £80 during the year so there was no profit in fact there was a big loss. I actually claim income based JSA. What do you think

I have been on Jobseekers since March 2012. At the end of May they stopped paying as they were told I was claiming ESA. I wasn't and even the ESA said I wasn't. I got no response and I got my M.P. involved and they have now said that as my Wife was receiving Working Tax Credit I wasn't entitled to a penny and in fact have been overpaid. My Wife is actually self employed and is not managed to earn more than £80 during this period. DWP did help with my Mortgage interest but that has stopped as well. Is the only way for her to come off Working Tax Credit or is there any other way? I repeat, she has earned next to nothing and we are now surviving on Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks for coming back. My wife spoke to sky yesterday and a lady by the name of Stacy told her the services would be restored today. I have spoken to them today and they said that even though they have accept I have paid for this period to restore the service I have to pay in advance to April the 27th. I have been with sky virtually since it has started I want to cancel its service and they have told me I ant cancel the service. They then told me I am in contract til November even though I had to agree to a new contract when they gave me misinformation. They told me I had a problem with the box and I needed a new one a HD one but had to agree to another 12 months to get an engineer to come round. The engineer came round and said it was nothing to do with the box and I didn't need a new one in the first place. I am fed up as even they agree I have paid until March the 27th. I am guessing there is nothing I can do or is there? Thanks, Keith

Yes, I thought that but that is what they said. Have you got any other thoughts?

Sky cut us off today. To be fair the bank bounced their direct debit payment due on Feb 27th. I paid that off today but the lady I spoke to said that they also want the payment for next month as well which is not due until March 27th. I thought you paid a month in advance? So does anyone know why I still haven't got my services back? I asked the lady at the time would it come back if I paid today and she said "It could do. I don't know? It might do." But is it not the case that if I pay in advance I am not getting the services I've paid for? Does anyone know what I should do next? Thanks in advance. K.

We live in a 4 bedroom house. Somehow the bill for gas has increased to £8,000 and electricity to over £1,000. Even E-on admit it seems very large. For example, with gas we only use it for heating (which is off 8/9 months of the year) and even when it is on, we use it only in the evening for a few hours. The oven is electric with a gas hob. We asked E-on to check the meter which they have and they said they were fine and now they have installed pre-payment meters. I said our usage had gone down since the meter has been installed but they claim that it has increased. That said, even the figures they claim bear little relevance to the amount we are putting in to the meter. The bills seemed to shoot up a few years back which coincided with a neighbour moving in 200 meters away (we live on a farm) and a building development at the back which was stopped before the houses were built but all the utilities were installed. Even E-on say something is not right and suggested maybe a crack in the pipe underground somewhere. They told me to get someone in to check but I am on Job Seekers Allowance and can not afford to do so. Has anyone got any ideas as to what my next step should be? Thanks in advance, K.

I went to court today to argue against the council tax figure. It looks like it was yesterday I should have been there. I rang the council on Monday to check and they said they would ring back but didn't (it was just a call centre). I also rang the court on Tuesday morning and they said the council was in on Wednesday afternoon. I intended to argue my case in court. Any ideas what is the best thing to do now if it was yesterday? I say if as even the court people didn't know. Thanks, Keith

The tenant was evicted on January 31st 2012. As far as I know as this has nothing to do with us now so we are told actually has a sold sign on. I have already had the 6 months grace from January until June. It seems crazy to have to pay council tax when you have no control over anything and dont know whats going on.

I hope someone can give me some advice. I had a buy to let mortgage with TMB a few years ago. It was actually to purchase a house for my mother-in-law. As we fell behind with the mortgage TMB put it into the hands of a receiver in January 2011. My sons girlfriend stayed in it but was evicted in January 2012 at the time the house was up for sale but the receivers put it with another agents and have in fact sold it for a knock down price. The local council are taking me to court for non payment of council tax even though the house has been repossessed. They say as the land registry say its in my name I am liable. Also the actual register says myself and my wife own it but for some reason they are just having a go at me. Has anyone got any advice? Can they do this?

To be fair they have given me an answer which is that they never received a medical certificate for that period even though they had 2 covering the 6 months before. My point is why did they not ask for one? Why did it take 3 months to tell me? and why did they send me a letter saying they were helping with the mortgage. By the way when they did ask for the certificate the doctor gave them one covering that period. I think we will end up at a tribunal I was just wondering has this situation occurred before. Thanks, Keith

Yes they asked me all the normal questions about the mortgage and eventually they (ESA) back dated it to when I had my accident and swapped from JSA. Obviously before then I had served my 13 week period it just seems a bit harsh for them to suggest I might have to start again. Do you have any thoughts on my ESA question regarding non-payment of the mortgage interest for over 3 months despite not telling me and even sending me a letter saying I was due a month of payment. Thanks, Keith

Thanks for coming back. Its been income based all the way through on ESA and JSA. Hope you can help. Thanks Keith

Hello, I hope you can help me. After a fall in April 2011 I went from JSA to ESA. They eventually sorted something out in August when they asked for a medical certificate from the doctor in Jan 2012 we received an eviction notice from Santander and we then discovered the ESA had given us no help with the mortgage since November the 30th. They sent me for a medical on FEB 2nd and a few weeks later told me I was fit to work. I then redid a JSA claim but applied the fact I had no help with the mortgage and then for some reason I got a payment in March for a 3 week period in November! After lots of phone calls and letters they have told me I cannot get the back pay as I didn't send in a medical certificate even though I wasn't asked for one. I did go to the Doctors and he has given me one for that period and another cover the period up to date. I also got a letter from them in March telling me how much they will pay towards the mortgage up till April 2012. As I write I'm waiting for their papers to come so I can go to tribunal. Does anybody have any experience of this situation? Also I signed on JSA on March 2012. This has not yet been sorted but I have been told verbally that they cannot offer help with the mortgage for the first 13 weeks, even though I'm just in reality swapping benefits and it's not a new claim. Surely this can't be right as I'm being penalised for having to have an operation. To be honest if this is the case then I don't think we will survive the next eviction notice that Santander will throw at us. We have just about been making the monthly mortgage payments without help but we're on our last legs now. Again does anyone have any advice? Many thanks Keith

Further Update, HI, You helped us in the past regarding an all monies charge. We were in court today and it has been suspended for 28 days so some bank accounts can be produced. However they have thrown at us a separate company current account which is also secured on the house. We have not seen these figures before well not since we ceased trading. Our solicitor from the local law centre tried to argue that it was all part of the same agreement and couldn't be taken in isolation. On the way out the judge said to her that he was minded not to except that submission although he did say another judge might disagree. Funnily enough their solicitor said afterwards that he agreed with her after reading the Miller case. Have you got any ideas or any examples of other cases that we may be able to quote? You saved us last time maybe you can do it again. Thanks Keith M

Hi I hope this is the right category! I have used this site recently, with success and I was wondering if anyone could help me on another matter. In November 2010 LPA Receivers took over a property which we had bought originally some years before for my Mother-in-Law. She is now housed elsewhere. The Mortgage was with TMB and a family friend was living there whilst the house was being sold. She was paying a reduced rent. The friend has now left under instruction from the Receivers. They want to auction it in 8 weeks. Presumably that will be at a big knock down price. Is there anyway I can get the house back to sell myself? I have a tenant (a friend of my sons') who will come in now until the house is sold who is willing to pay full rent. Many Thanks, Keith.

Hi Lea Sorry, I mustn't have made myself clear. The letter they produce in court for 12k was months before the business finished. The letter was dated May 2009 and the business didn't finish until October 2009 when the overdraft had been reduced to 2k according to the Natwest man. The business was trading successfully but the head franchise went bust and took us with it. They put a letter in court implying the business was over in May 2009 but that was just not true. So hopefully this might make more sense. Many thanks again. Keith

Thank you Lea!! We had our court case this morning and it has been suspended for both parties to digest the evidence and put together their side of the story. Thankfully the RBS v. Miller case you came up with proved too much for the Judge and he wanted time to consider it. Just before we went in, they threw us a massive curve ball. They showed us a letter from 2009 claiming the business overdraft was just over £12,000 and that didn't form part of the above case and was payable on demand. It was the first time we have heard of this. I have to say I think it was a sneaky trick as it was an old letter and we actually traded for at least 6 months after that and the overdraft we ended with was considerably less, I think about £2,000. It was like having 30 pages of statements and them quoting the position after 13 pages and not at the final position. To be frank, it was in my opinion a blatant lie and we will prove so. I have to say, it does their solicitors Green & Co. no favours. What do you think? Is there anything that you would recommend us to do? A couple of weeks ago, we thought and were told by everyone that we didn't have a chance of still being in our house after Tuesday, but thanks to you and your help we live to fight another day! We cannot thank you enough! Kindest Regards, Keith.

Once again thanks! The Market Value of the one bedroom flat is £75,000 and the 2 bedroom £80,000. With regard to the DWP responding they ONLY time they have responded was when contacted by the MP's office. He told me they had a certain time they HAD to respond to him. Trouble is I am just a nobody to them, but thanks. I will send that subject access request. Kindest Regards, Keith.

Thanks, I have tried since November in writing twice to get a breakdown. As on previous occasions the DWP have totally ignored me and the only time I have got a response was when the MP's office chased them up. The Mother-in-Law's original property was the one in the hands of the receiver but due to her medical conditions we had to put her in the flat as it is all on one level. I remember at the time the DWP saying her original house was exempt of any calculation, perhaps for family reasons I don't know. Yes, the housing benefit is paying the Mortgage. What do you mean by the properties worth? Do you mean the rent that could be obtained because if it is, it is a fair rent I think, for the area. If it is anything else can you let me know what you mean please? Once again, Many Thanks, Keith.

Thanks for your prompt reply. The Mortgage is £250,000 at and interest of £875 per month. The DWP give me £41 per week. Before the accident (March 2011) I got £87 per week. They have just come back to my MP (but not me) and said it is because of other properties that we own. To fill you in, one property has been in the hands of the receivers for over 12 months and so there has been no rent payable. We also have a one bed flat which is occupied by my 77 year old infirm Mother-in-Law. She gives us her housing benefit of £380 pcm, and one other flat which is up for sale with no rent paid. Both are in negative equity. What are your thoughts? Many Thanks, Keith.