Need advice regarding private landlord

[Gunga]

Hi,

 

Thanks again for the replies.

 

We do not have the tenancy agreement, and it turns out, my partners mother has a guarantor agreement & not the tenancy agreement.

 

Sorry if i'm being a little vague, but i'm relaying information from my partner as i never have stepped foot in the agents office, it's all in my partners name with her mother as guarantor.

 

When we made the repayment agreement, the agent got in touch with us saying there was a slight problem.

 

Apparently the landlord wasn't happy about the agreement being made as apparently he wasn't told about it & didn't agree with it & threatened to leave the agent.

 

We continued to pay the payments, and acording to the agent, all was well, until now.

 

Maybe he's really fed up cause he's not been getting his rent & the agent might have been saying we haven't paid it, to which he might have wanted us evicted but the agent hasn't done that, so he took it into his own hands?

Edited December 12, 2009 by Gunga

[NewSAHD]

JimmySpangle, cheers there's a similar PM waiting for Gunga to this effect!

[Gunga]

Thanks for the reply Jimmy, i didn't see that before i posted.

 

I think our solicitor will send the landlord a letter, or do you think we shouldn't wait for the solicitor & do it ourself, would it not hold more weight coming from a solicitor?

 

Also want to go into more detail why we fell into arrears initially. It was the because guarantor (partners mother) was paying £120 per month as we wasn't getting all the rent paid in housing benifit and she was helping out, she then lost her job & stopped paying it, but didn't tell us straight away, nor did the agent, and the next thing we get is that we owe them the money on the agreement, £1700+

 

We made that agreement with them, and also went on a new scheme "local housing allowence" which gives more money to private tenants given the fact that private rent is always more than council rent. So all the rent is being payed via benefit & we've been paying £100 for the arrears which we thought was fine until the eviction notice came through.

[Gunga]

Thanks for all the help so far, it's really appreciated.

 

We are going to go through all our payments via bank statements & check them with a document we've just found from the agent.

 

If we've made an error i apologise, but i have to be certain at this point either way.

 

I shall post again tomorrow with the details of our findings. Also our guarantor is mailing us copies of all the documents she has, so we should see something there.

 

Thanks again.

[JimmySpangle]

Oh, it would be far better from your solicitor. He will use the correct phrasing etc so it will not look like you are trying it on. We must assume the landlord isn't yet aware of the actual facts.

 

Offer stands if you need any help.

 

also, thanks NewSAHD. Nice of you to say so.

[Gunga]

Oh, it would be far better from your solicitor. He will use the correct phrasing etc so it will not look like you are trying it on. We must assume the landlord isn't yet aware of the actual facts.

 

Offer stands if you need any help.

 

also, thanks NewSAHD. Nice of you to say so.

 

OK, well we'll prepare everything for the solicitor in a week then.

 

Also, NewSAHD feel free to post the names/addresses to members you think can help.

[NewSAHD]

Gunga, good luck

 

(EDIT:

Look forward to hearing more from you tomorrow.

 

In the meantime I will PM all those who have contributed to this thread; apologies in advance if it clutters up intrays! It's two Word documents, Companies House "Current Appointment Reports", one for the Agent, one for the Landlord.

 

Gunga, if you find your maths is right then you do need to consider contacting the Police now. Call your Solicitor first, if needs be, but if there is something fraudulent going on, there will be others who will be hit by this too.

 

As JimmySpangle has said, strike while the iron is hot)

JimmySpangle, again, cheers - and you're welcome

 

(EDIT:

Two documents on their way to you all shortly)

Edited December 12, 2009 by NewSAHD
EDIT - crossed posts

[bedlington83]

Also want to go into more detail why we fell into arrears initially. It was the because guarantor (partners mother) was paying £120 per month as we wasn't getting all the rent paid in housing benifit and she was helping out, she then lost her job & stopped paying it, but didn't tell us straight away, nor did the agent, and the next thing we get is that we owe them the money on the agreement, £1700+

 

According to the landlord's statement you paid the full rent every four weeks until February of this year. You then stopped paying anything (for whatever reason). Am I right?

 

Nothing more was paid until June when you came to an agreement with the agent to repay the arrears of £1700+. Is this right?

 

If the landlord proceeds to court with this, it will 100% be thrown out as the debt is not as claimed at all. It is not disputed that there is a debt, but it is less than £100, not the £2200 the landlord seems to believe it

How have you calculated that the arrears are less than £100?

[Gunga]

According to the landlord's statement you paid the full rent every four weeks until February of this year. You then stopped paying anything (for whatever reason). Am I right?

 

Nothing more was paid until June when you came to an agreement with the agent to repay the arrears of £1700+. Is this right?

 

That's according to the landlord statement, yes. However it's not true. We've been paying something every month, and have proof of our payments via the agents receipts since june as we thought it would be best to keep proof of paying the arrears.

 

How have you calculated that the arrears are less than £100?

 

The landlord claims we owe him £2,329.13

Since we made the agreement in June 09 we've paid (and have all the receipts to prove this) £2,446.24 so we are actually in credit by £117.11

 

At this point, i don't believe the agents figures at all. After all the landlord is evicting us because of his figures, so they are the ones i'm concerned about at this point.

[NewSAHD]

Gunga, hi, can only send messages up to 5 people at a time, which is why this went to the other 5 first!

 

NewSAHD

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewSAHD

I'll leave a message on the main forum that says

 

"Information has been sent to

 

Angel of Sol

Aviva

bedlington83

Gunga

JimmySpangle

Kentish Lass

 

If anyone else should like to assist and requires the information obtained please post a message here."

[JimmySpangle]

 

How have you calculated that the arrears are less than £100?

 

 

The total the landlord claims we owe is £2329.13

 

The total we calculate we've payed (and have proof) is £2270

 

So the difference is only £59.

 

That's how.

[bedlington83]

Since we made the agreement in June 09 we've paid (and have all the receipts to prove this) £2,446.24 so we are actually in credit by £117.11

In post #45 you said it was £2,770.00 that you've paid since June and showed how you calculated it. Now you say it's £2,446.24. Which is correct?

 

Since you came to the agreement you should've paid £2,100 in rent (assuming that it's four weekly - we really do need to see the agreement). This means that you have paid £346.24 off the arrears. How much were the arrears?

 

What did you pay between February and when you made the agreement?

[bedlington83]

That's how.

Yes but the £2,270 includes rent and we don't yet know of the landlord's calculation of the arrears is correct because it looks like the agent hasn't been passing it on.

[JimmySpangle]

I agree, but if the agent hasn't been passing the rent on that is not the OP's problem. He has been paying as agreed when he toiok up the tenancy. If the collector has stolen the money then the landlord has an issue with them, not the OP.

[bedlington83]

If you agree that the £2,770 includes rent, how have you calculated the arrears, given that you know neither the frequency of rental payments nor the number that were missed?

Edited December 14, 2009 by bedlington83
correct the amount

[JimmySpangle]

Let me clarify. I agree that it looks like the agent hasn't been passing the rent on.

[bedlington83]

So you think that the Op has paid £2,770 off the arrears and all rental payments due since the June agreement?

[Gunga]

I'll just try to clarify.

 

According to the landlords statement

 

6 payments of £323.76 are missing from June to Oct 09 = £1,942.56

 

We've paid 6 payments of £350 from June to Oct 09 = £2,100.00

 

PLUS 6 payments of £100 for arrears = £600

 

Total we've paid since june is £2,700.

 

 

 

We've also finished working out our payments vs agents totals.

 

Agent claims from 29/10/07 to 12/04/09 we've paid £4,744.65 & the actual rent owed was £6,069.96 a shortfall of £1,325.31

 

We've calculated (using online council account figures) That we've paid the agent £5,611.38 a difference of £866.73

 

This means the real shortfall of rent was £458.58, not £1,325.31

 

Since we know we've paid £600 off arrears since june, and believe all the rent payments are up to date since then it looks to me that we shouldn't be in the mess we are in, and something has gone wrong.

Edited December 14, 2009 by Gunga

[Aviva]

I agree but until you or your Solicitor gets in touch with your landlord then it will not be sorted out.

[Gunga]

I agree but until you or your Solicitor gets in touch with your landlord then it will not be sorted out.

 

I agree. We're going to present everything to our solicitor.

[JimmySpangle]

So you think that the Op has paid £2,770 off the arrears and all rental payments due since the June agreement?

 

No, that isn't what I said at all. Please don't speculate on what I may or may not think, only what I write.

 

The OP has made it very clear from the outset that they have paid rent via the agent. At some point he fell into arrears and an arrangement was made between the Op and the agent to catch up at the rate of £100 per month. According to the OP's original posts, he is in effect in arrears by £59.

 

The landlord is trying to evict him for non payment of rent equating to several months. The problem clearly lies between the agent and the landlord.

 

I am not actually interested whether the arrears are £59 or £2000, the problem is that the agent has received monies on behalf of the landlord and I do not believe the landlord is aware of that. Hence my advise.

 

I do not wish to be drawn into a 'so you think' debate. My posts atre entirely to help the Op and not for one upmanship on who gave the better definition of arrears.

[bedlington83]

Here's an interesting calculation:

£350 X 12 (months in a year) = £4,200

£4200 / 13 (total 4 week periods in a year) = £323.076

 

Is it just a coincidence that, if we mis-read the final figure and ignore the zero, we end up with the exact same figure as on the landlord's statement?

 

I suspect that the rent is £350 per calendar month but is meant to be paid 4 weekly (to tie in with the benefit cycle)

 

6 payments of £323.76 are missing from June to Oct 09 = £1,942.56

 

We've paid 6 payments of £350 from June to Oct 09 = £2,100.00

 

PLUS 6 payments of £100 for arrears = £600

 

Total we've paid since june is £2,700.

 

We've also finished working out our payments vs agents totals.

 

Agent claims from 29/10/07 to 12/04/09 we've paid £4,744.65 & the actual rent owed was £6,069.96 a shortfall of £1,325.31

 

We've calculated (using online council account figures) That we've paid the agent £5,611.38 a difference of £866.73

 

This means the real shortfall of rent was £458.58, not £1,325.31

To get £458.58 you've subtracted your calculation of the arrears (£866.73) from the Agent's calculation of arrears (£1,325.31) but I'm afraid that calculation doesn't give a meaningful number. It's just the difference between the two arrears values.

 

The calculation is A - P + R, where A is the arrears amount at June, P is the total amount paid (rent and the 6 £100s) since June and R is the rent due since June. I cannot have any confidence in the figures that follow as the arrears at June and the rent payable and frequency are unclear. However, if my suspicion above is correct and the arrears figure in the agreement includes the £323.76 due on 11/06/09, then the amount you are in arrears is

£1752.80 - £2,700 + £1618.80 = £671.60.

[bedlington83]

No, that isn't what I said at all. Please don't speculate on what I may or may not think, only what I write.

Then please explain how you calculated Op is less than £100 in arrears

 

The OP has made it very clear from the outset that they have paid rent via the agent. At some point he fell into arrears and an arrangement was made between the Op and the agent to catch up at the rate of £100 per month. According to the OP's original posts, he is in effect in arrears by £59.

According to the OP he owed £1,752.80 at 11/06/09. He has since paid either £600 or £670 towards the arrears. This means he is still more than two moths rent in arrears and has no defence to the section 8

 

The landlord is trying to evict him for non payment of rent equating to several months.

Once again you get it badly wrong. The tenant has been served a section 8 notice. This is a mandatory ground for eviction when the tenant is two months in arrears.

 

The problem clearly lies between the agent and the landlord.

Only if the OP has repaid the majority of the arrears (either to the agent or the landlord). If he hasn't then he has a problem

 

I am not actually interested whether the arrears are £59 or £2000, the problem is that the agent has received monies on behalf of the landlord and I do not believe the landlord is aware of that. Hence my advise.

It's very bad advice. It's of paramount importance how much the arrears really are, given that the OP has been served a section 8 notice.

 

I do not wish to be drawn into a 'so you think' debate. My posts atre entirely to help the Op and not for one upmanship on who gave the better definition of arrears.

You aren't helping though Jimmy, that's the problem.

[JimmySpangle]

Your comments are quite offensive 'once again you get it badly wrong'. There is no part of this I have got wrong at all.

 

Judging by all the quotes from me in your last post everything I suggest will be picked apart by you and as I said, I am not going to get into this with you.

 

The section 8 you refer to would be thrown out of court as the tenenat can indeed show that they have paid the arrears. Do with the thread as you wish. I am frankly fed up with people on this forum who seem to take great delight in trying to ridicule others who are offereing sound advise with offensive little snipes here and there.

 

My last piece of advise to the OP is just see a solicitor before this idiot ties you up in knots with nonsense.

[Gunga]

According to the OP he owed £1,752.80 at 11/06/09. He has since paid either £600 or £670 towards the arrears. This means he is still more than two moths rent in arrears and has no defence to the section 8

 

No, the £1,752.80 owed at 11/06/09 is according to the agent.

 

At the 08/06/09 the Landlord claims we owed £710.33.

 

Since the landlord is evicting us based on his figures, i'm lead to believe his figures are correct, not the agent who i believe have it wrong. Especially since the landlord hasn't received any payments from the agent since 16/03/09.

 

If that landlord is correct with his figures and the arrears were £710.33 at 08/06/09, we have paid £600 on the arrears, as well as all our rent since we made the agreement on 11/06/09.