rent arrears being wrong

[batwoman83750]

Hi

 

Ive used this site before and found the advice on here absolutely fantastic. So here goes again.

 

I live in a council house and have been in arrears. We arranged to pay £10 a week while we were claiming housing benefit. I then got a job (I had been looking before, just couldnt find anything) and was not entitled to it any more. So we kept on paying the £10 a week, but also paid £80 as well. Our rent is £73 a week so this was more than enough to pay the rent and some arrears.

 

Anyway, we got a letter the other day saying we hadnt been paying and needed to get in touch by 17th Jan. I sent an e-mail straight away asking why they were saying we hadnt been paying, Ive had a reply saying that they have recieved some payments for £10 and some for £30 . They have sent out a rent statement to me, which I am yet to recieve. I have also e-mailed back to say Ive not made any £30 payments, but £80.

 

Tomorrow Im going to go to the bank to see if I can get anything on paper to say how much I have paid and when (I only do internet banking and have no working printer).

 

Im really hoping the £30 is a typing error, but when we did get our letter to say how far behind we were, I was surprised it was that much. I knew we were still in a bit of arrears, but as we get 2 rent free weeks over christmas I thought that it would be pretty much paid off by Jan. Unfortunately I am working every day now till Jan so I am unable to ring and speak to the woman. So I can only send an e-mail at night for now.

 

Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to give as much info as possible before asking my questions.

 

Am I likely to be evicted in the new year?

Will my bank statements (or whatever else I can get) be enough proof to say I have been paying?

Do I need to get legal advice?

 

Thanks for your help

[barracad]

Will my bank statements (or whatever else I can get) be enough proof to say I have been paying?

 

Yes. Also, if you have internet banking then you can look into this now without having to wait for your bank to print anything and at least know whether your figures are right or the council's figures are actually correct.

 

Were the payments made by standing order? Could you have made a typographical error and set this up for £30 instead of £80 and the recurring payments of this contined? (And if so, assume you still have the money in your account and so can pay the arrears?!)

[callumsgran]

If indeed your payments are for £80 + £10 you are effectively paying your full rent + £17 a week towards your arrears.

As long as you ARE paying something off your rent arrears and it's more than you initially agreed to pay (which it is) they cannot evict you!

Incidently it would be a good idea if on your rent free weeks you were to pay the full rent as i believe you may only be entitled to your rent free weeks if you are not in arrears and anyway you would then pay the arrears off quicker

Good luck with this

[batwoman83750]

Thanks for your replies.

 

Yes I have checked and double checked and checked again and again. I have been paying £80 a week to the right account with the right reference number. I really cant see any reason why its not gone through.

 

In regards to the rent free weeks, according to one of the letters I got (I got one to say I was behind so I should pay it and one to say Ive not been paying my rent and I have till 17th Jan to sort something out) it said that by paying my rent over the rent free weeks my arrears will drop, so they dont charge me rent, but if I wasnt to pay anything it would go against me. I am going to pay my rent over the rent free weeks hence thinking I would be pretty much paid off by jan (That was thinking I wasnt so far behind). I was never going to not pay my rent over this time.

 

Ive just had an e-mail and it doesnt look like the £30 was an error so now I really am confused as the only payments I have made is £10 on a monday and £80 on a friday. Will see my rent statement when it comes through and get to the bank (The internet cant really do anything as I can only see the last 5 weeks or so plus I have no working printer).

 

Thanks for your help, any further help would be very much appreciated.

[NewSAHD]

If you have an email address for your contact at the Local Authority - or can get one - then you should be able to download your statements (I can with my online bank), or, worse comes to worse, why not do a screen shot of your online statement (CTRL + Prnt Scrn) or get something like CutePDF (free PDF software, I've got no connection with them at all) and email your bank statements to them... you might want to delete any personal / bank information from what you send across, of course, but give them enough to cross check THEIR records against YOURS.

 

Over the years I've seen office staff make errors in inputting bank / payment details, leading to the wrong tenant/leaseholder being credited with someone else's payments!

 

You've got a little time to sort this, but best you put them under pressure to resolve this for you, rather than being put under pressure yourself