Hi, I was looking for a bit of advice and i thought someone on here may be able to help me. My partner and I are in receipt of ESA and are living in a private rented house. NIHE help us pay our rent with housing benefit. Recently we got broken into and the landlady was to change our locks and make the house more secure and after 2months she still hasn't done anything, so we held the rent money as the locks were broken on or doors and aren't 100% secure. Since we held the rent she has issued my partner and I with notice for eviction on 2nd November. As neither of us are in employment at the minute, we don't know how we are going to find the money for a deposit and 1st months rent. We applied for a community care grant and got declined. Does anyone know who could help us with the money to move out? Is there anything that the SSA can do to help us with the money for the rent & deposit? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
What has happened to the money that HB give you to pay your rent?
Withholding rent for any reason is not an acceptable method dealing with issues relating to the property - and this includes disrepair. Following on from ONW's post, is there any reason you can't pay the rent you owe? I am sure you have faithfully saved it.
Our landlady got her rent in the end. The letting agency told us if we didn't pay it she was going to evict us, so we gave it to her last Friday and on Monday we were issued with a notice to quit from 2nd November. We haven't done anything wrong here, and feel very unfairly treated to be honest and now we are having to worry about finding the money for a months rent in advance and a deposit. I am just asking for advice here to see if anyone knows where we can get help with this matter. We are awaiting response from local MP's and CAB.
Our HB goes directly to landlady so she always got it, we held the rent that we were due to pay, not the HB
There is no help available Im afraid unless your local council has a rent deposit scheme where they pay the deposit and u pay them back weekly. No help with first months rent though
When you say local council, do you mean our local MP's or the housing executive? We would be going into private rental again as there's a mile long waiting list for NIHE houses. Also, if the council did not provide this service, do you have any idea if the SSA could help us with a Crisis Loan?
You could try but I doubt they would give you such a large amount and I dont think they would give you it for a deposit as its not really a crisis, they might look at it as you made yourself homeless as you wouldnt of got given a notice to quit if you didnt hold the rent..... Not meaning that to sound nasty but its the way they would look at it. What about borrowing off friends or family till you get your deposit back from your current house? Your council, ask them about it. Not everywhere does it though. I done it a while back and had to pay them back ￡15 a week till it was all paid
Won't you get your deposit back from the place you're currently in? What sort of tenancy agreement do you have at the moment and is the LL complying with the terms in it?
the letting agency said after full inspection they will then decide if we get the deposit back. There's not a thing wrong with the house but i've spoken to people who said the average waiting time for deposit back withthis agency is 21 days and its paid by cheque meaning we won't have it on time. Our parentls lent us the money to move into the house so we can't ask them again. We just accepted the notice of eviction and agreed to move on as with the bad luck we have had here it would be a blesssing in disguise but its getting the money to do so is proving very difficult.
speak with housing advice @ your local council they may be able to help. see i help those in need.
Surely they can lend you the money short term? You have pretty much said that you will get your deposit back but will have to wait approximately one month. Very short term loan. I have little sympathy with you, I have to be honest. I am tired of people expecting it to be all laid on for them. You should have sought advice about the locks - or even paid for new locks yourself.
How dare you say this? You don't even know us and the situation we are in. We have been to the DUP, UUP and PUP regarding this matter and are awaiting word from them. I don't know what gives you the impression that we sit about waiting for things to be done for us when if fact it has been the complete oposite. I find your comment extremely offensive and would rather you posted somewhere else other than this thread as we were merely asking for advice and you are offending us.
Give us an indication of who these people are, please? I have to agree with viktory; I really don't see why you think it the LL's responsibility to fit new locks and, even if it were it would have been better for you to have paid for them yourselves rather than to get yourselves into this position. Edit: Remembering you from earlier posts (and looking back at them) I'm very surprised to see that you're still claiming ESA when you had it explained to you that, as you were both able to work, neither of you should be claiming this benefit. You said 4 months ago, "I am claiming JSA at the minute, but i've heard that once my partner starts work, i won't be able to claim anymore. I am just asking about ESA as income support if my partner starts work, not as a sick pay, as i assumed by employment and support allowance it would help people with low income and as i said, my girlfriend won't be earning a lot and the amount we have to live on after the bills etc are paid is over ￡100 less per month than what we are getting with the benefits." You were told at the time that ESA was inappropriate in your situation.
Lol Anthill that made me giggle
I agree with Viktory. If it were me then i'd have sorted the locks out myself. I wouldn't have refused to pay my rent just because the landlord never bothered. Thats not how you should behave when you have a roof over your heads. My landlord hasn't repaired something in my home but that hasn't stopped me paying rent otherwise i'd get kicked out. I think Viktory meant that you should be able to stand on your own two feet and sort things out yourself. Go to the CAB or your MP for advice etc but sort it out.
I don't care how offensive you find my comment. Interesting to note that you have not commented on the practical solutions - such as fixing your own locks. Your post merely reinforces my point that you are expecting it all laid on for you. If you were foolish enough to withhold rent and then get an eviction notice I would suggest you start looking to raise some money yourselves for a deposit on a new place instead of waiting for someone to hand it to you on a plate.
My landlord took 9 months to fix the boiler leaving me with a bill twice as high but I would never have dreamt of not paying the rent! If you only need to borrow the money for a month then ask your parents-you won't get a loan anywhere else if you're not working.
Had you asked my advice when the locks were broken, I would have said repair them yourselves - deduct the cost off the rent, providing the landlord with copies of the receipts - and continue paying the rent. I feel that you have acted unwisely in withholding the rent (and now not having it available to pay) - and I don't know what other advice you can expect.
To be evicted on 2 November seems exceedingly short notice. More details are required: 1] Are you in England/Wales, Scotland, another country? 2] Are you under an AST or on a periodic tenancy month-by-month since your first AST finished? 3] What is the start/end date of your current, or most recent AST? 4] On what dates did you fail to pay the rent? 5] What sort of notice did the LL issue you with? (verbal, written letter, Section 8, Section 21, other) Edit: I had a quick google of these peculiar UUP, DUP, PUP abbreviations and I suspect you're in Northern Ireland ...?