Son issued with a section 8

[nohope]

Just a quick one i hope.

My son has been given a section 8 under housing act 1988 blah blah blah.

 

On it the landlord has put as part of his reason for giving the section 8 that - the tenant or a person residing or visiting the dwelling-house has been convicted of an indictable offence committed in, or in the locality of, the dwelling-house.

 

What the hell is an indictable offence?

[BankFodder]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictable_offence

[nohope]

I read that and confused myself. I need a plain english laymans version lol

[mariner51]

In England and Wales (except in private prosecutions by individuals) an indictment is issued by the public prosecutor (in most cases this will be the Crown Prosecution Service) on behalf of the Crown,

All proceedings on indictment must be brought before the Crown Court.[2] By virtue of practice directions issued under section 75(1) of the Supreme Court Act 1981, an indictment must be tried by a High Court judge, a Circuit judge or a recorder (which of these it is depends on the offence).

 

So the person has been convicted of a serious crime, prob resulting in a term of imprisonment.

[nohope]

So if he went to magistrates court and ended up with an £80 fine and 100 hours Cs it wouldnt be counted as an indictable offence?

[mariner51]

I think your son has a s8 notice which includes ground 14 as 1 reason

Ground 14:

The tenant or a person residing in or visiting the dwelling-house

(a) has been guilty of conduct causing or likely to cause a nuisance or annoyance

to a person residing, visiting or otherwise engaging in a lawful activity in the

locality, or

(b) has been convicted of-

(i) using the dwelling-house or allowing it to be used for immoral or illegal

purposes, or

(ii) an arrestable offence committed in, or in the locality of, the dwelling-house.

Note: This ground was amended by the Housing Act 1996 and applies from

28 February 1997

I believe this may be grounds for repossession at Judge's discretion

AIUI if s8 includes any of the grounds 1-9 these are mandatory (eg g8 rent owing > 2 months,) which means repo order must be granted.

 

My earlier text was taken from Wikipedia. the g14 text from the directgov site. As you see g14 does not state 'indictable' but 'arrestable' offence, which is one that could be decided by Mags resulting in a fine & CSO.

[nohope]

Yes it states 8,10,11,12,13 and 14 and yes it startes of by saying 14(b)(i) but then goes on to say - the tenant or a person residing or visiting the dwelling-house has been convicted of an indictable offence committed in, or in the locality of, the dwelling-house.

But given what is ment by indictable offence this does not apply to him as he did not go to crown court or serve any time inside as it was classed as a minor offence.

[Steve__M]

So if he went to magistrates court and ended up with an £80 fine and 100 hours Cs it wouldnt be counted as an indictable offence?

 

If he was convicted of an offence for which you can be arrested for, then that sounds like an "arrestable offence". I think that even if he was dealt with by magistrate that does not necessarily mean the offence was not indictable as where the case gets dealt with is partly at discretion of magistrate.

 

I am not a lawyer though.

[R J Dearden]

There are a lot of grounds for possession in that S8 including rent arrears in which the tenant has to be 2 months or 8 weeks (depending upon how the rent is paid) in arrears. If this is the case then the judge usually has no option but to provide an order for possession to the landlord.

Edited January 30, 2012 by R J Dearden

[nohope]

He's going to get kicked out because he's just over 2 months behind which is partly his fault and partly the landlords fault. He asked the landlord for a letter to take to the council as proof of the rent for his Hb but the landlord didn't supply him with the letter so no housing benefit got paid so in turn there was no rent for the landlord.

Now the lanlord is nit picking and out of all the things he's put down on the section 8 only one of them is true, which is the rent not getting paid.

[mariner51]

Rent payment in full, when due, is a priority and the resp of your son, not HB. LL may have decided he does not want any T on HB. It will be for the Judge to decide whether to grant a repo order & on what grounds. Your son can increase his chances of avoiding mandatory repo for g8 if he pays LL the rent owing, by date of hearing.

[nohope]

He was paying it but then his jsa got stopped and in turn his housing got stopped. He got his jsa sorted but the council wanted all the forms filled out again for benfit and thats where the LL came into it and didnt produce the letter he needed. LL has been a bit hit and miss with all the tenants in all 3 flats, he can be fine one day then complaining the next for something he said was ok the day before..