Haven’t paid rent in months!

What’s COL?

I'm sure most people do understand mental ill health. Many have personally experienced it, and many have had training in their workplaces about mental health problems. Unfortunately, failing to pay your rent does not reduce mental ill health and may exacerbate it when the landlord presses their right to be paid for the home they're providing. Occupying someone else's property is not free of charge. CAB may help come up with a plan but the OP needs to pay their rent or they could end up homeless. We don't know the landlord's circumstances. They might need the rent money to cover their own bills

I think some folk don't realise how lucky they are to have brains that function reliably and usefully the majority of the time.

I can absolutely see me in past years, sticking my head in the sand, having the increase in utility bills come out of the unspent rent, whilst I hope fervently I am not racking up a huge debt with a utility company that I can't pay... not realising its coming out of the rent that isn't going where it should or the odd excessive spend in the supermarket...

You just keep your head down, avoid letters, hope that your card works in the store or the online payment goes through and if it does you push that thought on to the next time and the next, without fully adding up whats gone where.

@Uppoopcreek I hope you can talk to the Landlord and they'll give you some leeway to sort this out. IF you communicate with them and make promises you can keep, and KEEP talking to them, don't disappear... there is a chance.

If you ignore them, there won't be.

No, not at the time, but like the OP, later, when in recovery, you realise bills haven't been paid/ debts have mounted up.

I’m sure the landlord is overwhelmed too

Get a diary and write things down you absolutely must do. Like paying rent. Even if it's only one or two things a week. And if you don't do them write them. In for the next week.

Some people really don't get mental health on this thread & others are extremely sympathetic. I'm sure the person who made the post is extremely overwhelmed 🙄. Don't judge other people, simple. No one is perfect 👌

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Sorry but I worked in a bank for 40 years. Standing orders do work properly or, to be more accuruate, never in 40 years did I come across a standibg order that didn't. Landlords do not generally let 6 months go by without payment and without bringing this up (unless there's been another issue that stopped landlord doing so, such as ill health). Is it just the rent you haven't paid or are there other bills you haven't paid as well? I suggest you seek assistance from Citizens Advice and hope the landlord will agree a repayment plan. You need to find a way of meeting your bills and hopefully CAB could assist you to come up with a plan

Sounds tough OP.
I hope you’ve managed to sort something with the landlord today.

"I’ve just realised I haven’t paid my rent in around 6 months! I don’t know how this could have happened?"

You have answered your own question OP in your initial post.

" I never check my bank, I’m behind with other bills, too. I’m a bury my head in the sand type of person"

This is how this situation has happened. But making that statement you have indicated you are aware you do not do any financial house keeping.

There you are.

I’m sorry for what you have gone through really I am but it is not an excuse to not pay your rent when you are clothing your children in m & S and next whilst not paying your rent

This comment is the reality of the situation

I’m sorry but this is absolute rubbish. You don’t fritter away a few grand and not know about it

They say that no good deed goes unpunished and the poor guarantor is about to find that out.

I remember when Amigo were constantly advertising guarantor loans @ 50% APR. They marketed it as a kind of old school nice way to go about things.

https://www.amigoloans.co.uk/guarantor-loans

I'm reality, you might as well just lend your friends/family the money because if/when they default you're on the hook for the whole amount + 50% APR anyway.

I fear the OP's guarantor is about to get shafted.

Same

I hope the friend the guarantee won’t find it hard to get the money

I was a guarantee once. Said about it before on Another thread

for family

i will never ever do it again as I was left paying the loan / no choice

@Uppoopcreek so what happened today

did you speak to landlord

I still can’t see how you spent 400/1000 a month for 6mths

so £2.6/6k without reliesing it

I don’t know you area so took a guess in rent - could be even more in in south east and assume have 2/3 bed if 3 kids

3 beds near me are £1700
and 2 around £1300/1400

as I said before the landlord is also to blame. Why he didn’t contact you the day after rent didn’t appear in his account

Presumably you’ve been receiving UC housing costs but not using it for rent? I very much doubt that you will get DHP - you certainly wouldn’t get it here because you’ve had the rent money, you’ve just spent it on other things. I would speak to the landlord and ask him or her if they would accept a payment plan then your UC will cover ongoing rent and you can pay the extra. Also, take steps to sort out your other debts - you need to keep a roof over those children’s heads

I wonder if Mumsnet would tolerate housing benefit claimants being described as 'leeches, having their mortgage rent paid by somebody else'?

No, they aren’t.

So you never check your bank account and didn't notice that your rent wasn't being paid, or that all this extra money was in your accounf, and yet you did manage to notice that the COL crisis was crippling you?

Come on now OP. Both those things can't be true, can they?

Whilst I agree it's easy to spend through small purchases, that cant be what happened here as OP says the COL has crippled them, cant see OP going on days out ect in these circumstances

I think truthfully, the OP was aware she was overspending her rent, probably kept meaning to put it back and now it's gone too far

Person I feel most sorry for is the guarantor. One of my mum's friend's went guarantor for her when we were registered homeless when I was a teenager and my mum had no credit due to living abroad so could not (I think) buy any furnishings on HP. I doubt too many people have a spare £££ amounting to six months worth of rent sitting around in their account that they wouldn't miss.

Hope OP can get something sorted that doesn't cause the guarantor financial hardship.

That would explain it, it was right from the beginning of the tenancy.