To think i dont deserve to be evicted over this?!

[Blackout234]

We've lived in this house from end of october paying rent since 1st of november. my rent came out on 1st of november, 1st of December and I can't 100% say for the 1st of Jan as i've not had this months bank statement yet... Anyhow the 325 came out on the first of november and the first of december no problems, or so i thought.
the landlord is a friend of my father in laws, by the way. and has know FIL since they were kids. Most correspondence goes through fil,for some reason LL never wants to speak to us directly. anyhow, a few days ago LL called FIL to say there was something up with rent and he'd been in touch but didn't give FIL any detail so FIL passed that along to us. Ok. fine. so i dig out my bank statements from nov and dec and find on both occasions rent went out of my accounts. I thought there may have been a problem with this months rent and waited to hear something as we have no number for LL fil doesn't even have a number for LL cos LL calls fil off a private number. today i wake up to dp next to me on the phone, he puts the phone on loud speaker and i hear "im sorry son, LL is evicting you because you're in 975 arrears and the house is a mess, Blackout wasnt even out of bed when the electricians visited"
the house was untidy yes as id spent the night before in hospital with bleeding (Im almost 23 weeks pregnant) and really needed sleep so was just left to it in the spare room. You can't expect me to injure myself for the sake of two dirty plates, crumbs on the unit and baskets of washing in the living room?! I honestly thought unless mold or severe damage to the property was involved its your home to live how you like. btw it was only 9:30AM when electricians visited so not like i slept through the entire evening. I'm gutted we're being evicted. i'm 23 weeks pregnant, can't work much anymore (Self employed) because of various reason so our income is about 100 a week if lucky now as dp is on SSP. i'm so stressed and everything feels so uncertain right now. I don't want to bring my baby to a hostel :( No children yet but pregnant. today we were supposed to go to the job centre and CAB to get advice about what benefits we can claim and if possible could we claim housing benefits as in the last 10-14days our income has taken a large hit so we're struggling.
AIBU to think i dont deserve to be evicted? Why not talk to me personally or my partner and get things straight rather than going in all guns blazing?
AIBU to also ask if anyone knows whats going to happen now cos i dont and im shit scared?:(

Can't you go into the bank and ask for a statement? Do you have Internet or telephone banking? The money has gone somewhere, as its your money you must ascertain where. If your DP is on SSP and you have said your only income is £100 per week how can you pay council tax, utilities, Internet and food after £395 rent?

I also agree with a previous posters who have rung alarm bells about you being unable to contact the landlord directly. Again, not an arrangement we have.

Sounds fishy to me.

Blackout234
Do you pay your landlord by cheque or by cash? You can order a bank statement from your bank even if you dont' have online banking.

In that case I think you need to get set up with online banking, that way there's no waiting for statements to find out if things have been paid for. Sorry I can't be of more help but if you're not in arrears you can't be evicted for having a pile of washing laying about.

If you have a tenancy agreement then LL legally has to give you two months notice to find somewhere else. So you can literally refuse to budge until you are issued with a written notice of eviction.

We pay LL by direct debit. our rent is 325 per month and we have only been struggling for the last month and only on 100 a week or so for the last 2 weeks, hence why today we were going to enquire and apply for housing benefit to help with the cost of rent

Op- do you have a contract? I suspect not, and therefore you are very vulnerable in this situation.

I would seek advice from the CAB and Shelter.

If you had a contract, the LL can't do this- as they have to give you notice in writing for 2 months plus you could dispute the rent arrears.

I can't understand how it is all through this FIL/you dont' have this guy's number, it sounds to me like something dodgy is going on, like he isn't suppposed to let on his mortgage, hasn't let the mortgage company know, doesn't own the property and is subletting or some such thing.

You do still have rights though, because by giving him rent and living in the property, you are creating a verbal tenancy agreement:

www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2013/06/05/what-happens-if-you-dont-have-a-tenancy-agreement/

Seek legal/housing advice and take it from there, but I think for your sanity, you may have to move out anyway given that you can't contact this person directly which makes me think this is very dodgy or illegal anyway.

Is it possible you have sent the payments to the wrong account?

The ll should not be discussing your tenancy with fil. It's a breach of data protection.

First things first, get on to the bank. Then get on to ll. if he wants you out he needs to serve the correct notice via the courts. Shelter can tell you more about this.

Talk to shelter. Even without a written contract, you have some protection. They should be getting a court order and if you ensure you're up to date with rent before it, they don't have anything to go on.

Direct debit or standing order?

They are not the same thing.

Your circumstances sound very suspicious to me. We rent, and we can contact our landlord 24/7, which is a big necessity when you don't own your own home. You need to be able to contact him - why don't you have his number? It sounds like he's probably subletting illegally, tbh. Or he's saying you're in arrears to get you out so he can charge more to someone else. Neither is good.

I think you and DP need to apply for social housing - if he's on SSP and you're pregnant and have proof of eviction, you'll be pretty high up the register and you should find somewhere, although there's no guarantee that it'll be before you have your baby.

What does your 6 month lease agreement say re notice periods, as I just saw your update?

It should specify them if it is a properly set up contract.

You should also be aware of what deposit you have paid and where the landlord has lodged it as someone else already said. Put simply, they are legally bound to protect it in a government approved scheme such as the Deposit Protection Service or Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Failure to do that means they are acting illegally, and you can sue as already indicated.

Get internet banking set up asap. I really recommend it for sorting out this sort of problem (and others). You would be able to see immediately if there was a problem.

I believe that if you don't have a valid address for serving notices then you don't actually have to pay rent. There's no good reason for not being given the landlord's contact details.

(I'm not saying people shouldn't pay rent by the way, just illustrating one of many ways the LL isn't going about things properly).

Do you have a rental agreement? Dual signed inventory? Proof of deposit protection? Gas safety check certificate? All LL responsibilities that should be complied with.

You need to contact Shelter. If you have arrears of over 2 months the LL can issue a section 8 but the court won't award a notice seeking possession if there are under 2 months' arrears outstanding as at the court date. Alternatively he can issue you with a section 21 but the earliest he can ask you to leave us when the initial 6 months is up. Even then you don't have to go until he takes it to court and they give you a date to leave.

Even if you don't have a written agreement you have rights, so please give Shelter a call. They're the experts.

I'd also suggest for the future sorting out some kind of quicker access to banking, either telephone or Internet. You are putting yourself in the back foot not bring able to check stuff out straight away when you're on a low income. I have a list of incomings, check them off, list of outgoings, check them off then know to the penny what is left every day.

Movingonupmovingonout... Whats the difference???D: I went into the bank to set up a direct debit not a standing order so i presume its a direct debit. the thing is if it is true that the money is going into another account i dont think i'll have it back quickly, and ive no way to pay 975 of arrears out of my own pocket right now i just dont have it

As everyone else has said, TALK TO SHELTER! They are very good on giving you accurate legal advice on where you stand and practical advice on what you should do next. A friend's landlord was trying to illegally evict her just before Christmas and Shelter helped her sort it all out.

As a matter of interest, did you pay a deposit? If so, have you been notified of the approved protection scheme in which it's being held? If not, tell Shelter about that as well.

I hope you get the help you need today at CAB, you will be entitled to SMP from 29 weeks if you are self employed and there must be something until then, can you claim SSP as you are too ill to work?

I don't think leaving this tenancy would be a bad thing as it sounds like a nightmare - what is housing like where you are?

Are you sure you are paying by direct debit? I'm not 100% certain, but I think it would be pretty unusual for an individual, such as a landlord, to have the facilities to set up direct debits. A standing order, where you pay him/her a set amount, seems more likely.

If, as you say, it is direct debit, then you would have been informed by your bank if the payment had been bounced. And probably charged for it

For that matter, even if it is a standing order, they would most likely contact you if it was bounced. If the LL genuinely hasn't received the money, is it possible that it is a standing order and it has been set up to go to the wrong account number?

Your situation is ridiculous. On the tenancy agreement what does it say under landlord contact details?
You need internet banking as standard.

Well you can't go into a bank to set up a direct debit for a start.

With a direct debit you give the person you want it to go to permission to take the money from your account (directly debit it) - so they control the transaction. You are in effect giving permission for the payee to dip into your bank account.

A standing order is similar but you control the transaction by asking the bank to send £XXX on Y date every month/quarter/year. The payee has absolutely no access to your bank account.

The difference between a direct debit and a standing order is that with a direct debit, you are giving a third party permission to collect a certain amount from your account. That amount can be variable, but they have to inform you of any changes in advance of taking the money.

With a standing order, you are instructing the bank to pay a third party a set amount of money from your account on a certain date. You are responsible for making sure the details of the account you are paying into are correct, whereas with a direct debit you wouldn't be concerned with the receiving account, because the company collecting the money will be taking care of that.

Cross posted!

In simple terms, a standing order is you giving money to someone else. Whereas a direct debit is someone else taking money from you.

She is extremely unlikely to be entitled to SMP Dontstep unless she is operating a limited company as a director and therefore employee. Much more likely is that she would be entitled to Maternity Allowance assuming she has made enough class 2 NI contributions.

You cannot be paying by direct debit. I would be very surprised anyway. Direct debit means that your landlord would have to be asking your bank for the rent each month and the amounts can sometimes vary, which would be unusual to say the least.

It must be by standing order or regular BACS transfer, whereby you have instructed your bank to pay a set amount to a specified account on or as near as possible to a given date each month. They are NOT the same thing.

I think you are in need of proper legal advice, so contact the CAB urgently.

If you can prove that you have been paying the rent then you cannot be evicted like this. As I said before though, it hardly seems an ideal arrangement here.

Why is the landlord seemingly reluctant to be contacted directly, preferring your FIL as a middle man? Very odd, and worrying.

Not sure about what happens if you don't have a contract.

If rent has been paid to the landlord a lease has been created. The type of lease will be whatever the default type is under the 1988 Act. I know what it is under Scots Law but not English.

Would FIL have said anything about the housing benefit to LL? Perhaps he's not keen on you as a tenant, now he knows that there's income trouble... You need to find out whether he actually got the money or not, as he could be using that as an excuse to get you out.