Hello, Im in a spot of bother renting a summer apartment on a 4month contract. I found the apartment on ownersdirect.co.uk and emailed the landlady. (early January 2013) She asked for £2,500 deposit to be payed up front, and £2,500 to be payed on the day of arrival May 20th, and then on the 20th of each month up untill Sept (4months). The apartment sleeps 8, i let her know that i was only going to have 6 of us in there, This was all agreed. but i must stress no contract of any sort has been signed. Then 2 weeks later i find im unable to go, ask is it possible to recieve my deposit back which she declined because of potential missed bookings. So i say to her im going to fill my spaces so the apartment is still taken (meaning i get my deposit back, and the apartment is still filled for the summer), she is fine with this at the time. I then post an advert on facebook to my friends and friends of friends and get a group of 6 lads, and a couple (i receive my 2.5k back) and forward on the names and contact details like the landlady asked. i mention that the couple and the group of lads do not know each other but are now friends on facebook. she is fine with this she says. then after a couple of weeks after me telling her to deal with the others direct and effectively getting me out of the rental. so for a few weeks all is well and i dont hear anything. then i get an email saying i have made the 'agreement' void, by filling my spaces with '8 indivduals' and that im sub letting the apartment (i stress i asked for the exact same amount of deposit that i payed so wasnt making a profit just breaking even and filling the places like she knew about). She also tried to say that because they havent payed the first full months rent 3 weeks before arrival that the 'agreement' is void. (still no contract has been passed over even with the lads asking for it she keeps delaying it on and on). So she expected us to pay 2.5k for the deposit, then pay another 2.5k 3 weeks we get to a apartment with out having signed any kind of contract. All this is a private letting just via ownersdirect.co.uk please can someone advise me where i stand legally having not signed a contract nor seen terms and conditions and if she can just say its 'void' and point blank refuse to return the deposit. we have tried to resolve the problem many times now and she is just refusing all emails now saying she welcomes a letter from my solicitor. Im worried i will have to pay the lads back the 2.5k and she keep mine. id really appreciate anyones helpful input and any questions you have i will answer. many thanks

Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I was made homeless with my teenage son in January. Council put us up in temporary [expensive] accommodation. As I work I dont get housing benefit. Anyway, I quickly found new accommodation through private letting. I was in the council flat less than 2 weeks. I handed the keys back in, got a receipt and gave them my forwarding address to contact me regarding rent owed. This was 17 January 2013. First letter I received was on 15 March 2013, stating I owed £660 and this was due to be paid in full within 7 days. I emailed them straight away saying I accept there is rent due however a) why has it taken 2 months to write to me and b) how has this figure been arrived at. About 10 days later I get a letter stating I owe them £144 and needs paid in full. No explanation, basically the exact same letter as the previous one only the amount differing. I emailed them back again and said I will not be in a position to pay it in their timescale however I will pay the full amount by 24 April, (my payday) In the circumstances I did not think this unreasonable. To contact me after 2 months, to give me an outlandish bill for less than 2 weeks accommodation, I could have stayed in a hotel for that amount. However I've just came home from work today to say the amount of £144 is still outstanding therefore it is now their intention of passing my account to sheriff officer. Financially its been tough to set up home on our own (me and my son), I have no family alive and my sons mum takes nothing to do with him and contributes nothing, so I dont have that sort of money to hand however I didnt think it unreasonable given how long its taken the council to contact me to state payment will be made in what is roughly 2 weeks. Their conduct seems so heavy handed and aggressive, their communication poor. They've never even explained why my bill was £660 now it's £144, surely that in itself is worthy of an explanation. Can anyone offer any advice?

Hi, I am due in court in six weeks time to appeal the decision where my landlord was awarded rent, after I had moved out. The origional case was very lengthy ,and assisted with advice from the CAB (face to face), Shelter (website) and a solicitor (legal advise). The actual day in court took in excess of two and a half hours, during which I effectively lost. My appeal descision has been made and accepted, the transcript of judgement has taken over eight months to obtain, and are 7352 words! As my solicitor said - the simple ones are often the most interesting! My claim was actually for the DPS to release my own deposit back to me. The LL was thus the defendant. The legal arguement given to me was tha the Landlord had not issued a section 21 notice requiring possesion; Instead, he had written to me with a contractural change proposal. In it he advised me that my permision to reside had been withdrawn and that I was to leave by .... 'at the latest'. My departure date was therefore anticipated to be on an earlier date than the date the landlord avocated, and the rent paid to that date accordingy. My consideration and acceptance of the Landlords contract change was evidenced by my acceptance letter. My case was thus pivotal around the fact that this was seen in contractural grounds, which legal evidence seemed to support. The judge however saw things differently.... A few excepts: Me: It is contractural law, obviously' Judge: Well, it is actually more complicated than contractural law. Contractural law is a lot easier than landlord and tenant.' Me: But there was a new part of the contract that was formed with Mr .... letter. That is a new contract. Judge: No it is not a new contract. It is a section 21 notice or purported to be one, but not in the right terms of the wording. It is a perfectly normal legal position. It is all laid down in Parliament. It is not me who is making this. I was on the understanding that a section 21 notice had to be headed such, and needed to give the address of both the address and the addressee, for it to be legally considered as a section 21 notice. My notice was not. Could anyone help with teh following questions: a) I need to lodge "skeleton arguement" Do I need to argue against the judges's transcript, or is it case of representing the facts? b) Any other advise?? My main reason for my court case is not financial (it has cost me hundreds); it is moral. My landlord has a number of properties and he advised me that he was used to getting his way, with his tenants, many of who are on benefits. Kind regards

This is my first post and would be grateful for any guidance regarding the legal perspective on my below issue: I have recently moved out of flat which I had rented for 18 months and paid a £550 deposit which was held in a protection scheme. At the time of first renting the property was under a letting agency. However when I came to move out the landlord intended to put the property on the market to sale. The flat was originally a new build and the land lord intended to bring the property back up to new build standard as he wanted prospective buyers to be able to get a 5% deposit. Rather than the letting agency the landlord conducted the checking out process and inspected the flat and after some discussion retained £50 to replace a blind, light bulbs etc. A bit pricey as £20 of that was fitting of light bulbs and a clip on blind. He returned £500 to myself and signed a receipt. However I had cancelled by standing order, but the day before my next rent would of been due and my rent still went to him which was an overpayment. The landlord contacted me a week later demanding that I replace the kitchen worktops as there were some scratches in them which weren't noted by the letting company at check in. They are very light scratches but will not rub out sadly. He personally inspected the property and spent several hours there before leaving, yet did not say anything at the time nor was I aware of them.He is demanding I replace and will also not return my overpayment of rent. I have spoken to citizen advice who have advised I have a case for small claims court, as such as i have sent a letter the landlord. But has replied that any claim made against me will be counter claimed for these worktops and also hoover hire + other trumped up issues which were not picked up at checkout and in fact the landlord signed the receipt on the very surface he is disputing. Also he replaced all carpets and re decorated the day after I moved out and had already planned to a month prior as he had tradesmen coming in to give quotes. I feel that he is trying to take advantage of the situation to use my money to basically make the property brand new for sale. He has also demanded that any further letters from me goes via his solicitor who happens to be a family member of his. I cannot afford a solicitor myself to defend against him and do not know what to do for the best. I spoke to the letting agency who agreed with my evidence and my perspective, however as the property is no longer under them cannot do anything to help. I would be grateful for any advice as I am very stressed by this. Thank you

Hi every one Please advise me if you can. I took a business loan of 90 K from Habib bank and the balance is 26 k with no arrears but I am behind with my rent and Land Lord did not wait and sent his Bailiff changed the lucks and to my surprise in less than a week the shop is let to some one else !! The bank had a charge on my Lease and I am not sure what is going to happen now. are they going to make me bankrupt? I have no asset nor house.Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any insight here... Background: I live in top floor flat with ONLY loft access possible through my entry way in my private flat. My landlord runs and owns business in ground floor. My landlord has, in the past, stored item in the loft, accessing them through my flat's entry way. Issue 1: Today landlord emails me to say "We will be updating the loft and builders will be accessing the space through your flat for 5 to 8 days." I am not comfortable with complete strangers traipsing through my flat for 8 days, and I only have 1 weeks notice. Questions: a) is this legal? b) do I have any rights? c) if it is legal, what is the required amount of time a land lord should give? Issue 2: Landlord provided 1 weeks notice before scaffolding was put in place over entire building. Despite my renter right to "live undisturbed" this is not happening as people argue outside my bedroom window at 8am in languages I don't speak. Questions: d) what is the legal amount of time a landlord must give to tenants before works like this happen? Many thanx! I have found slightly similar thread here, though not the same issue: 301953-help-with-landlord-dispute (I may not post as link since I'm a new member:)

Hi, I currently live in a 3 bedroom rented property with my wife and two dogs in Leicester, we were very fortunate to find a private rented property that allowed us to have dogs in the first place. We pay £575 rent per month and having lived in rented property before this house is not up to rentable standards however the landlord is "mates" with the letting agency he uses so all is good as far as hes concerned. As I said they allow us to have dogs and pretty much allow us to do as we like with the house in terms of decorating etc so we dont complain. However when we approached him to replace some of the cold single glazed windows last year he replaced two of them and told us that money was very tight and could not afford to do anymore, he also scrimped on a new boiler previously. My wife is expecting a baby in 6 months and I want the house we live in to be of a good standard but we love the house were in purely for location and also has a big garden for the dogs. How would/should I go about making an offer to the landlord to buy the property and take over responsibilities of replacing doors, windows, carpets etc? We do not have enough money at the moment for a mortgage so were thinking of maybe a part let part buy offer? Or maybe taking out a loan of maybe £10000 and starting him off with that, any suggestions of what to do? We really dont want to move as we wont find anywhere that lets us have pets.

I currently have rent arrears with a Housing Association and received a Notice To Quit. As I already had plans to move to another property, I advised them that is was leaving and they agreed to the leaving date I proposed ( which was after the date of the next action on the notice to quit ) My problem though is the arrears. I have met with them and gave my proposals to repay the arrears but they declined this and advised that they were looking to take court action to recover the debt. I could offer to make a higher monthly payment if this would stop the action but I am wondering what action they can take in the courts, bearing in mind that I will no longer be their tennant and will be living in a different property ?

Hi everyone I moved into a private rented property on 24th Sept 2012. I am on JSA and so I get housing benefit although I have to pay a top up of £10 a week . The landlord that I rent from offers a "No deposit" and "No rent in advance" gimmick which was ideal for me as i was homeless at the time and didn't have a pot to piste in. Many of the tenants who rent from this landlord are on benefits and so I assume were in my position at some point. My weekly rent is £96.54; of which £86.54 is housing benefit. On signing the agreement, I queried the "Rent is £96.54 per week payable in advance" and the landlord understood that Housing Benefit was paid in arrears. I received my first payment of HB on 19th October 2012 which was for 4 weeks rent. LL sent me a letter on 23rd January 2013 saying I was £579.24 in arrears. I immediately phoned them and queried this but they were adamant it was correct. I had made a payment of £386.16 on the 20th January 2013 which was for the period of 4 weeks up to and including 14th January 2013 (I didn't receive my HB until late Sunday 20th Jan although my bank statement then backtracked and it now shows HB was paid into my bank on 16th Jan.......pointless statement maybe?!) I have since phoned HB and they say they pay 4 weekly in arrears (which LL well knows) I was then advised to re-read my agreement; in particular; the rent paragraph. It states as follows: 'Rent shall be £96.54 per week payable in advance' 'The first payment of £96.54 being due on 24/09/2012 or prior to the date of taking possession' 'Thereafter, the "Rent due date" will be every 28 days during the term of this agreement. This is where they have seemingly 'moved the goalposts'! LL understood I was on benefits and HB is paid in arrears. I can only pay 4 weeks in arrears which is what HB pay me + my top up. Because HB were late in paying my latest payment, I can understand if they were saying I was a week behind. My next payment, due in February will cover from 14th Jan - 11th March 2013. This LL has a bad reputation for similar antics, along with not carrying out repairs and also for evicting tenants if they don't dance to their tune. I have tried (till I was blue in the face) to explain to LL that up until 14th Jan, I had been in the property for 16 weeks and I have paid 16 weeks but they are still adamant I owe 2 weeks?? Personally, I think they may try to evict me and go for someone who came down with the last shower as i clearly didn't!! SAVE ME!!....Please! Thanks in advance folks

In July last year the company we pay our ground rent to changed. I had happily been paying it monthly to the original company with no problems. So as soon as i learnt a new company would be taking it on i emailed them straight away to explain that i can only afford to pay it via monthly payments. I emailed them a few times with no response, and then at the beginning of Dec i received a pack detailing what i owed them for the remainder of last year and for this year. They said that i must pay them what i owe for 2012 by the 1st Jan 2013. Not having the money to pay what i owed in one go i again emailed them and said i would pay what i owed them plus 2013 payment via 12 monthly payments. I received a letter this week stating that i must pay everything that i owe them within 7 working days or face late payment fees of £45. So again i emailed them stressing i can only afford to pay via 12 monthly payments. I also payed this months payment as they had provided their bank details. So the next day i finally get the first email from them saying that this ground rent can only be payed off with one payment. So i wondering where i stand with this now? The previous company had no problems taking monthly payments, and i carnt afford to pay in one go so this is the only way i can do it All advice welcome???

Hi, I have read lots of the forum in relation to landlords not returning deposits etc but my case is slightly different and I'm hoping someone here can advise me I was a lodger in a couples house (they had access to my bedroom to fix radiator etc, no lock on door) which I found on the spare room website. I did not agree any length of term or notice terms and did not sign any paperwork. They asked for £390 deposit which I gave and paid my rent monthly in advance. I didn't feel particularly welcome there but it was cheap so I stayed for 6 months until she had a fit one day and accused me of physically smashing her microwave to pieces, shouting and me and then storming off. I never raised my voice or swore, but told her that I had not damaged it. She stormed off and 10 minutes later her husband found that the spring had fallen out of the door and fixed it straight away. At this point I decided I needed to move out so found somewhere else to live and a few days later (26th dec) gave her a months notice to move out. I thought this was the right and reasonable thing to do although as we had no contract and I could have moved out there and then. 2 weeks later I had my dog staying, this was agree when I moved in that he could stay every now and then. He had stayed the night a few times before and it was never an issue. At around 1800 on a Friday night he came to me and said the dog couldn't stay. It had snowed heavily and I couldn't get my car out to take him anywhere and I told him he was being completely unreasonable as it was dark and icy and I had no where else to take the dog. He was adamant the dog had to go so I said "if the dog isnt welcome then I'm not welcome" to which he relied "well yeah". I moved out that night and asked for my deposit and remainder of rent being £563. I had to go back the next day to collect a few items and I again asked for my money back to which they said they didn't owe me rent. Since I moved out over a week ago I have emailed asked for my money which they have ignored. I am going to give them 7 days and then write to them asking for the money which I know they will also ignore. How long is reasonable to wait before threatening county court action? Also am I entitled to claim the extra rent back as I had no choice but to move out at their request? Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi, Recently I received a letter from my housing association stating I had arrears of around £100. I thought this was rather odd as I have lived in this property for 12 years and have claimed housing benefit (I'm severely disabled) to cover the full cost of the rent for the entire duration. On querying the arrears (while not acknowledging them) I was told they were for the first couple of weeks of my tenancy before my housing benefit began to be paid. This is probably down to a HB error on the date of my entry into the property. I have no problem in principle with paying arrears, but in this case it is rather annoying that they have waited until now to inform me, as I assume that after all this time the HB dept will not be interested. So my question is: Given that these arrears are seemingly from 12 years ago are they statute barred or because my tennacy is still current are they considered to have, in effect, rolled over every month until now. Thanks,

Hi everyone, I am hoping someone can advise me with some problems I am having with a previous landlord. As I have explained in other threads I have in this forum I was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder in August this year. First of all, my employer, the NHS and my friends/family have been brilliant in helping me; however, as you can probably imagine I am currently living on a greatly reduced income. Essentially, on a monthly basis I do not have enough money to meet my expenses. In response to this, I have been able renegotiate with my creditors/utility providers (with the exception of NPower but that is another story lol). My problem is that I am paying off a circa £500 debt to a previous landlord in outstanding rent and really do not view this as a priority debt. Because I have to prioritise council tax, rent to current landlord (which is fully in order) I can no longer afford to pay anything to my previous landlord. The payments I have made so far have been made direct to them but negotiated by a small time debt collector who is working on their behalf. I am regularly reminded that they will take court action if I do not continue my payments; however, it is getting to the stage now where I am thinking that I should just let the matter go to court, accept the debt and let the judge order me to pay what I can afford - I firmly believe that this would be significantly less than what I am paying now. I know that I would get a CCJ but I am still very young and my credit is already blown to bits. I would certainly have time to recover financially. In the new year I will be starting a course that will very hopefully lead me back in to work but this wont happen for a while. What does everyone think - should I just fold and let them take court action. Please remember that this is not a case of wont pay it is simply a matter of can't pay (literally) Thank you all, timetoshine

Hi, I am hoping to receive some advice please. My situation is pretty messed up, I have a lot of debts due to a gambling addiction but I am trying to sort things out. I still have a job so still have income. Any advice on my renting situation would be appreciated. I moved into a property in October. I paid the deposit and first months rent. I was due to pay rent on 6 November and 6 December neither of which have been paid. I keep telling the letting agent that it is coming but I never have it. He is coming around tonight at 10:30pm to collect 1 months rent but I don't have anything to give him and will need to cancel. I think after this the landlord will want to evict me. I have a 6 months assured shorthold tenancy and the deposit is in a tenancy protection scheme. Regarding rent arrears the contract says: --- If the tenant - (1) is at least fourteen days late in paying the Rent or any part of it, whether or not the Rent has been formally demanded, or (2) has broken any of the terms of this Agreement then, subject to any statutory provisions, the Landlord may recover possession of the Property and the tenancy will come to an end. Any other rights or remedies the Landlord may have will remain in force. Note: The Landlord cannot recover possession without an order of the court under the Housing Act 1988. Note: This clause does not affect the Tenant's rights under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. --- I've been trying to read of on my rights on the Shelter site and on here. I've phoned Shelter but been unable to get through to an adviser. I think the first step is that the landlord has to give me notice asking me to leave. Is that right? What is the shortest term it can be? This is my main concern, on some places it says 2 months and on some it says 2 months or 14 days depending on the reason. 14 days and I would have a big problem! Any advice on what I can do? I will have some money at the end of the month but the absolute most I could pay is 1 month. After that at the end of each month I should be able to pay a bit more than 1 month but it will take several months to catch up on the arrears. As a side note, when I moved in the heating/hot water was not working. It took 6 weeks for the agent to get it sorted. Then it broke again yesterday so I am freezing - guess I should get used to it! Do I have any rights at the moment to ask the agent to sort it? I really don't want to let him in if I don't have to given the situation. Also, the flat is a big house converted into 4 flats so has some communal areas - I have never received a key to the back door and I have never received keys to unlock the bathroom window. Also, the agent has a key for the front door. I'm not sure if any of these things matter. Any advice on this would be massively appreciated. I'm going through a lot of stuff at the moment I'm really trying to make a change and sort them out. I want to be able to set out a plan wit the agent, making an offer on how I will catch up with the payments. Or, be able to say, look I understand you want me out but please go through the correct process and give me time.

Hi everyone, my brother and his wife have got a situation with their landlord, they have a 30 day rolling contract (I can confirm this if any one needs the specifics) the story thus far is below: On 3rd Nov, they gave notice and informed the landlord/letting agents that they were vacating the premises on 3rd Dec 2012. On 10th Nov the property they were moving to was removed as the landlord decided to pull it off the rental market and sell it. On 11th November they informed the letting agent they had been let down and were not moving after, they told the letting agent they were going to be staying for the 'foreseeable future'. On the 11th November the landlord responded with a request for clarification of 'foreseeable future' and specifically whether this would mean the continuance of their tenancy past Christmas 2012. My brother and his wife responded with they were looking at a couple of other place and if the places where not suitable they would then stay beyond Christmas and possibly beyond. On 21st November they informed the letting agency/landlord they were moving on the 3rd after all. On the 22nd November, the landlord informed the letting agent that he was unhappy and was seeking another months rent with this statement - 'This leaves us with at the very least one months loss of rental earnings through no fault of our own which is unreasonable. ' 23rd they landlord then retracted the demand and made a new demands for 2 weeks rent - and therefore we can offer a compromise of two weeks additional rent to be paid by X which results in two weeks loss of rental by ourselves. The landlord then added this - As we have already signed and exchanged a new agency agreement with XXX we will contact them to determine if they have incurred any costs to date for advertising, preparing new Tenancy papers etc and advise you accordingly. They had advertised the property for let from the 3rd-11th Nov and apparently had a couple of viewings but no firm offers. The adverts were pulled on the 11-12th and resumed on the 22-23rd. So, the questions... What the heck do we do about this? Is he liable for the additional rent demand? Is he liable for the losses of the letting agent? - I do not believe the landlord not the agent has actually suffered any real world tangible loss... If he refuses to pay I assume the landlord will dispute the return of the deposit, how does he go about defending this claim? Should he defend it? That will do for now, I look forward to a few thoughts from Caggers on the forum... mrbrooks

Hi, My landlord passed away some time back and although I could get no contact details about the executor I was told to keep paying into the bank account of my deceased landlord. My neighbour in an adjoining flat was told the same. So we have been doing this for over a year, while at the same time unable to get any verification on the name or address of the executor apart from a daughters first name. We both feel this lack of contact was so that no upkeep had to be done on the properties (has been a long time since the last gas check). Today myself and the neighbour received a section 48 notice each, advising us that our landlord is now (a named man) who is executor of the estate. An address was provided as the landlord on this notice. My notice said nothing else. My neighbours though had the date of her contract start date stated (12 month contract, started 3 years ago) and also details of the bank account to now send the rent too. Up until now every letter we got since my landlords death had been identical in every way. We both received court papers for eviction around the same time (still here as they filled out the court forms wrong). Everything has been the same except these letters. I was always concerned that there was something not 'right' about the bank account my rent money goes into (long story I won't repeat here). Now with my rent going into the account of a dead person and someone in the same building paying their rent into the executors account, I want to ask is this normal and legal? The whole situation considering the attempted eviction and now this has left me unnerved. I have a feeling the section 48 is so they can remove us cheaper than through the courts as the executor can just claim rent arrears, which they tried originally and failed as there were no arrears. At the same time I do not want to pay into a bank account if there is something fishy going on. Thanks for bearing with me while I got to the actual questions!

hi all, not really got time to go into too much detail right now with the background of how this all came up (will give details tomorrow when I can) but due to changes in circumstances certain benefits got stopped last year and took quite a few months to be restarted again. .the same has happened over the summer this year and both of these instances have resulted in a build up of debt. I am on the verge of being taken to court for repossession of my home (local authority) but have paid the majority of what I owe with back payments of the benefits I have just had reinstated. I have recently gained employment, a year after graduating last year as a mature student with 2 children and will get my first pay on 30th november. My most urgent problem right now is that, despite telling british gas of my situation re benefit non-payment, on and off for over a year, as well as my rent arrears this has caused, they are refusing to stop court action (on thursday this week, to cut off my supply on 20th november) despite my application to the british gas energy trust and my offer to pay a substantial amount to both my gas and electric bills on the 30th of november and every month from then on now I am working. I know this is very last minute but I really dont know what to do. My home phone is incoming calls only until I can pay that bill which I have told them so email is the only way at present that I can talk to them..they have given me a freephone number but the only pay phone near me has glue stuck in the coin slot!!! Any advice would be truly appreciated. .all I want to do is get out of this mess ..if only they would give me 2 more weeks and I will have been payed and will be able to pay them!!! Thank you for any help you can give ..to be honest I just wanna give up. .really seems like theres no way out, they just wont give me the extra week or two to come up with the money..

Hi all, Now I am confused as I have just spoken to my landlord (Calico Housing) to see if they recived the housing benefit (rent) today as I thought they recive it weekly but I have just got told that my rent for housing benefit is at the end of every month, I thought my rent is weekly? I have been reciving housing benefit since January of this year and I didn't even knew it was every month, seems a bit strange don't you think?

Hi, I'm a new user so hope I've started this thread in the right place !! I am planning on having an extension built on to my property and the plans have been passed by Stockport council. I emailed the Ground Rent company and informed them of the intention to extend. They replied to my email and asked me to forward copies of the plans which I did. There was no mention of "Admin Fees" in the email. Today I have received a letter from them stating "We wish to confirm that the fee in connection with considering the possibility of granting the consent is £600.00" This will take 10 working days and if I want to expedite sooner then a further £144.00 is required. How can they justify that kind of fee ? Their statement only says this is for "considering the possibility of granting consent" so they could just say No ! Help !! Thanks

Hi. I have a situation which is pretty unique (I believe) and don't seem to get a straight answer from any of the government sites or even my bank, so I was wondering if anyone here has any advice. In 2006 I divorced and my (ex) wife stayed in our mortgaged property while I rented a different property that was completely separate. Unfortunately, she was unable to take over the mortgage or to raise enough capital to buy the property from me, so the mortgage is in my name still despite me not living there. In Lieu of maintenance, I pay the mortgage for her (they're around the same price). She is self-employed and makes a maximum of £7k a year but also has tax credits and maintenance from her previous husband to make up the shortfall. We have no written contract between ourselves for the mortgaged property and I am not in a landlord position, as she has free reign to do anything to the property and I have no landlord-style liability to fix things if they go wrong. Last month I lost my job through a dismissal (long story) but although I qualify Contribution based JSA, Housing benefit for my rented home and council tax benefit. The grey area is the mortgage, which is still in my name and needs paying. The bank has asked me to make token payments and really to pay the contractual minimum which monthly is more than my income now. They also suggested that I go to the jobcentre and complete the form MI12, but can I do this and still claim housing benefit as the rented property and the mortgaged property are two separate addresses although both in my name. I don't want her evicted as we're still on good terms, and as I am in negative equity with the property, sale of any description is out of the question. Any advice would be gratefully accepted.

Sorry for the long explanation. On the 06/09/12 I lost my job. On 07/09/12 I made an online claim for JSA(C+IB) and for Housing/Council Tax Benefit. On 07/09/2012 my wife went to the Peak Valley Housing Association office to tell them I was out of work, of the above and that we will be paying rent of £250.97 on 29/09/12 to bring our rent account to a nil balance. My wife was told that any overpaid rent would be refunded once the housing benefit was awarded. Full housing and council tax benefit was awarded from W/C 10/09/12 and this created a rent credit of £239.85. We had a letter saying that we had overpaid our council tax by £143.00 and this was to be refunded to us. So my wife went to the housing office to ask how we got our overpaid rent refunded. This is where the problems start. She was told it's not that simple. First our account would have to be looked into, then referred to their finance section who would then make a decision on if we could get the money refunded. We would then have to wait for someone to send us a form to complete. My wife spoke to the same person yesterday 01/11/12 at the housing office and was told a different story. Although our account is now in credit, they will be keeping a week of the rent we had overpaid. This wasn't mentioned on 07/09/12. They accept that housing benefit is paid in arrears, but because our account was in credit they are keeping a weeks rent. Also to get any of the money back we had to request a form in writing, which we did yesterday. Can they do this? How can they keep rent for a week that Housing Benefit has been paid?:mad2: We had no problem getting the council tax refunded, all that took was one phone call to give them bank details to pay the money to.

Back in the good old days (1970 to 1975) I was offered a job down south (I live on TEESSIDE) The job offer was for a better wage than I could get at home but due to housing costs I had to refuse the job. The employer came back to say they would supplement my housing cost by £45 a week (remember this is 1970's and my wage was £48 a week. I wonder with the cuts that are coming in now how long it will be before an employer that want people to work in areas with more expensive housing will have to up wages or supplement rent for their employees as they had to in the 70's when there were plenty of jobs to go round. dpick

Hi All, I am about to start the process of extending the lease on my flat (currently at 73 years). I am not sure whether to go down ther formal or informal route yet. Is there a difference in cost? If the cost is the same I think the formal route would be best as I get a longer lease and peppercorn ground rent. I don't have the valuation to extend the lease yet but I have made an inital enquiry and the Freeholder/landlord has recoommended extending to 99 years with a £250 a year ground rent. Is £250 a reasonable and standard ground rent for a converted 1 bed flat in Brighton? I have heard conflicting opinions from local extate agents. Some say £150 is more accurate. Any advice on the formal or informal route costs and ground rent would be very welcome. The Lease advisory service were a bit vague. Thanks Jay

Hi I had a tenant who just upped and left without notice owing £800.00 rent I found her new address through asking around and also her new mobile number She said she would drop off the keys with a letter explaining she was vacating This she did also stating that she would pay for the removal of the accumulated rubbish She also said she would pay installments for the owed rent I agreed, however no back rent has been forthcoming so I wrote to her 2 weeks ago to which she didn't bother responding, I phoned and got the answerphone everytime. I have now decided that my best course would probably be to take her to the County Court for rent arrears and clearance costs I have prepared a letter to her which will be posted explaining I have already written to her and this is now a letter before action giving her 14 days to respond I am however not sure what to put on the N1 claim form when that point is reached any advice about wording would be appreciated ie Accordingly the claiment claims etc.... Obviously I can't give out too much information in this thread Thank you

Hello Everybody, This Forum is Great and I couldn't believe,Real Good people out there who take real time out and gives honest advice to another human being to get his life sort out..... "Its really a best Gift from from a mankind to another mankind." OK! My story is, I am having a problem with my local Council. The problem is kind of created by myself. I was claiming housing benefit and i am self employed person. I did not disclosed my accounts properly. I know... i know... Its all my fault.... but i have learn my lessons means now council is doing investigation about me and they stopped my H.B. few months back ago. And arrears were building up and now arrears are too high and they are taking me to County court for Arrears.. As i said above i have learned my lessons and want to fix the mess i created but don't know where to start. i am bit afraid they might go heavy hand on me as i have wife and kids, i don't want them to suffer with me all because of my mistakes.... Council hasn't accused me for Fraud or anything yet but i know deep down i made it mistake... Now i want to fix it....Don't know what to do...... Any help or advice i will really appreciate.... Many Thanks.