Old rent arrears for current tenancy (Scotland)

[Olive80]

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,

[BankFodder]

Scottish limitation is 5 years from the date that the debt/breach first came to the knowledge of the claimant - or should reasonably have come to their knowledge.

 

So in principle it would be SB.

 

I suppose that the best thing to do is to put this to them.

One thing that you don't want is that they rise up against you and start incurring charges over this quite small sum and turning it into an unmanageable problem

[maroondevo52]

Hi,

 

I'd also agree these arrears are statute barred and therefore no debt longer exists.

 

You could write to the council and request copies of the following:

 

1. Rent Arrears Policy and Procedures for year you moved in.

2. Rent Arrears Policy and Procedure for 2013.

3. Complaints Procedure.

4. Write Off Policy and Procedure.

5. Copies of all correspondence for this Debt.

 

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

[stu007]

Hi

 

This is unbelievable that the housing association is chasing £100 arrears from 12yrs ago and does raise the issue also of the competence of their own Finance Department and Arrears Staff due to the length of time this has taken for them to raise these arrears with yourself. 12yrs is a long time for any housing association to keep arrears that long ago on their books without righting them off.

 

Please follow maroondeo52 excellent advice but Title your letter "Formal Complaint"

 

I would also do as advised by other but also ask for a copy of

 

1. Housing Associations Customer Care Standards for time of arrears and also to date.

 

2. Copies of your Rent Statements from time of arrears to date inclusive. (when arrive check to see if arrears are on statement from time of arrears and if so as stated earlier it raises the competence of the finance and arrears section of the housing association)

 

Note - When you get copies of the policies always check the Date Approved and importantly the Next Review Date.

 

Also have a check of their own website as the different policies may be available to download.

[mariner51]

The rent arrears may not be time-barred, if they were carried forward to subs months and no other T Agreement has been agreed. All LLs C/f all rent owing to following month account, until paid. (Useful for s8 if rent payments are irregular.

LL has no duty to provide regular or even annual rent statements, unless requested. Sounds like HA has recently audited his rent accounts and is trying to recover found arrears.

OP does not say whether HB was paid to himself 12 yrs ago, nor whether claim submitted before / at start of T.

If OP has had good rent payment since HA is prob best advised to write-off the 12 yo £100 debt. IMO

[Olive80]

The rent arrears may not be time-barred, if they were carried forward to subs months and no other T Agreement has been agreed. All LLs C/f all rent owing to following month account, until paid. (Useful for s8 if rent payments are irregular.

That was my question in essence, could the arrears have been considered to have carried forward each month.

LL has no duty to provide regular or even annual rent statements, unless requested. Sounds like HA has recently audited his rent accounts and is trying to recover found arrears.

I have never been provided with statements of any kind, but I may ask for them from now on.

OP does not say whether HB was paid to himself 12 yrs ago, nor whether claim submitted before / at start of T.

HB has always been paid directly to HA by the HB Dept. HB claim was submitted while I was still in residential care, but I had to accept the offer of the tenancy quite quickly before it was offered to someone else, so the claim was probably only submitted five to ten days before I moved in.

If OP has had good rent payment since HA is prob best advised to write-off the 12 yo £100 debt. IMO

As far as I am aware there have been no issues with payment of the rent, my HB has been in continuous payment with no breaks since the initial award and I have not been made aware of any problems.

 

As I said I don't really have an issue with paying the arrears if need be, but I am annoyed it took so long to be informed.