If I don't pay my rent will I be evicted?

[spookyboooo]

I'm In a housing association flat upstairs.
I posted a thread the other day so I won't repeat everything but the h/a haven't maintained the land next to my flat and a tree has grown over the fence and is now fully resting on my roof.
Damaging it and it's causing unbearable noise so I can't sleep.
I've been prescribed sleeping tablets and anti depressants from the GP to try and let me sleep through it but it's not a permanent solution as they've only gave me two weeks sleeping tables and I really don't want to take anti depressants as my only issue is not sleeping due to noise.
As I said in my other thread I've complained and they've said they have 18 months to get this tree cut off my roof-so now I'm waiting till I can do stage 2 complaint then housing ombudsman (which can take months )
My local counsellor hasn't replied to me and I have nowhere else to turn too
Tonight it's blowing a Gale here and I can hear the tiles smashing around -horrific noise again.
I'm so down
If I don't pay my rent what will happen?
How can they charge me rent to live like this

Can you complain to the council about the noise? In the same way that you might if there were loud parties next door - I think it's environmental health.
Also take photos and recordings- send to HA, EH, and your local councillor.

^This

Don't stop paying the rent as you will lose your home and the HA won't rehouse you.

What you need to do is send your complaint directly to their CEO and involve your MP.

HAs also don't like bad publicity so start making noise about this on social media and with the local newspaper, that should make them hurry up your case...

Sounds like you might also want to involve the local Council if you think there is a risk to your life (ie the roof could collapse) and well being (the noise is unbearable). Contact their the Environmental Health department, they will do an inspection. Councils can force housing associations and private landlords to do repairs.

''@Efficaciou5

Well, instead of dramatising and playing the victim, you could always buy/rent or borrow some double-extender ladders and cut off the offending branches.''

Ignore this terrible advice OP.

You might injure yourself and the HA might actually hold this against you if you took your own action and damaged the roof or somebody else's window in the building in the process of cutting this down. It is their responsibility to sort out...

Why not take a video of it and post it so we can all appreciate the noise? Genuinely. Otherwise people are just going to say your over sensitive and have become obsessed.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz this is the best I can take as I can't get around the other side
The tree is resting on this side of roof so when it's windy it just hits and scrapes on the roof

Have you sent ha the picture? Tell them it is in imminent risk of falling on the property and causing damage.

@LIZS yeah I sent them it In July
I've sent it to the housing officer ,the complaint handler ,the tree maintenance team -they just not bothered at all

Send it to the council trees officer. You say it has worsened in recent wind, so send another picture.

Another way —- contact the council about a noise nuisance. When I did it I had to download an App, that allowed me to record the noise and send it. It was time stamped and decibels, duration of noise recorded. Council might then take action against the HA.
Don’t stop paying rent. You’d have to save the money to pay the backlog and you could incur fees.

This is most likely because their insurance does not cover contractors not engaged by them to do work onsite. The tree surgeon was correct to refuse the job without authorisation from the HA.

Your only course of action is to continue to ask for the tree work to be done by your HA. You can contact your MP or local councillors or whoever and ask if they can help you get the work expedited if that’s what you want to do but don’t pin your hopes on it.

The majority of the advice on both your threads has been terrible so I would honestly ignore a lot of it.

@AnxiousPangolin tbh I'm bidding on other properties every week in the mean time
I'm coming up top 10 out of hundreds so hopefully I get somewhere new soon
If not I will rent privately
I'm trying to save as much as I can to hopefully be able to do this (bonds etc )

I work for a HA so

Yes, you can withhold rent. But you need to write to them giving them time to sort the issue detailing your intention to withhold rent. Usually we recommend a 60 day warning. You then write again, and provide evidence that you have a separate bank account with the rent money held in it, you need to be able to provide statements to show you're not just spending the money but withholding it.

Once the issue is sorted you need to repay the debt in full immediately.

However, the HA can still serve a notice of intention to seek possession on you, and can still take you to court. The advice above is for your evidence to a District Judge, should it get that far, proving you're not refusing to pay, just holding it until the work is done.

@MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel Thankyou -I don't suppose you know if my h/a saying they have 18 months to cut this tree back from my roof is correct ?
When it's causing damage ?

Sorry, without knowing which HA and reading their policies I wouldn't know.

But, your HA has to publish their policies and is probably on their website so it's worth having a look and seeing what you can find..

I do know landscaping changes are not treated with urgency, unless causing damage. The fact its causing noise wouldn't matter, so I'd suggest decent ear plugs. If you can evidence damage, that would give it more urgency.

@MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel no problem Thankyou anyway
They are pretty vague really
They say they maintain the grounds yearly but mine hasn't been touched in years
I'm assuming they will blame covid
It's frustrating as nowhere in my tenancy agreement does it say I should have to live with the added feature of a tree ha ha
Thanks for your advice 😊

Does it bother other tenants? The more who complain the better, especially on h and s grounds.

@LIZS no as the downstairs flat can't hear it
It's just because I'm upstairs why it's loud unfortunately

There was shit and piss from overflowing drains covering the garden of my parents' house and the HA were doing nothing about it. They did nothing about it after the local newspaper did a big article on it either. Just some bullshit quote from the HA in the article, not even an apology or statement it was getting fixed, just a quote about how reasonable it was for them to leave copious amounts of human turds floating around in tenants' gardens for weeks. I imagine if the press contacted them about an overgrown tree they'd have responded with the crying with laughter face emoji.

HA are a real fucking disgrace. They really are. Sorry you are facing this OP.

This is good advice. I have attended a hearing with a judge looking at eviction cases for rent arrears. With only one exception, every single tenant who turned up in person or represented by a lawyer, was not evicted ( they were given more time to come to an agreement). Where no-one turned up, they were evicted. So if it comes to this - turn up at court! (
(The one who was evicted lived in a house that was tied to his job and his job had ended. He wanted to stay in the house but, sadly but understandably, this was not allowed).

sorry if I missed it. who owns the tree and who is your landlord.
both the ha?

Try emailing your MP. I know there are useless ones, but I have contacted mine twice about similarish problems, and after months of me contacting services myself and being fobbed off or just ignored by them, both times the situation was resolved incredibly quickly.

But if it was a h and s risk or damaged the building it could affect their flat and use of the garden.

You can’t just say ‘ooh it’s a health & safety risk, it might fall down’ and expect the HA to jump to it.

Do you have any idea how many people go crying to local authorities claiming that the evil tree is going to fall down and kill all their children, their dog, their grandparents, demolish their house etc. to try and get action taken? Trust me, it’s extremely common for people to massively over-exaggerate a so-called threat from trees.

Unless the tree is failing, which none of us can possibly know, the HA will assess it and prune it back from the house but as someone else who works for an HA points out, this kind of work is very low on priority lists, especially as only the OP is affected and it’s an annoyance rather than a danger.

@AnxiousPangolin I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude but there should not be a tree fully resting on my roof
The h/a haven't maintained it in years even tho their policy says it should be trimmed yearly
I pay rent I expect to be able to relax in my own flat and be able to sleep without sleeping tablets or white noise or ear plugs to drown out the noise
It's ridiculous
I'm not exaggerating anything
Would you like if you had a tree on your roof ?
Probably not
Easy to write a paragraph on here when your not in my shoes