WIBU to use rent money

[DoorMat1010]

Suddenly my car needs a lot of work. It's used on a daily basis and I can't get round it, I need it for work.

There's around £450 worth of repairs to be done to the car and rent is £500.

Obviously I'll speak to the agency first but for the last 3 years I've paid rent on time or even a week earlier.

I can pay the overdue off over the next 10 months at £50 a month.

Feel like I'm up shits creek without a paddle.

WIBU to do it?

You need to find a solution quickly, I get that, but I think you also need to think about the longer term. You need debt advice.

You are in debt (credit cards) and you are about to get into more debt (whichever way you do it) for necessary maintenance on your car. How long before the next call on your finances pops up? You won't be able to meet it and you will get into more debt.

Depending on where you are, Citizens Advice or your local council should be able to refer you to a proper debt advice agency. (Beware of finding one yourself that just turns out to be a debt consolidation company: while I've no doubt they have their place, they will just put all your loans together and charge you interest on that.)

A proper debt advice agency will help you work out how to get your finances back on an even keel, how to stop spending more than you earn, and to keep from spiralling into more debt. Please get some real-life help with this OP, you can't afford to ignore the longer term.

No. Do not use your rent money. If you do it now you will have no problem doing it again!
Can you take out a credit card with a long interest free period so you can pay that off at £50 a month?

Had not seen the comment about you being into your overdraft. I agree you should seek debt advice as a top priority and agree that the citizens advice bureau (CAB) in your town is an excellent option. It's terribly stressful but you'll feel better with a plan.

Pearl- but if ll also needs that money to ou mortgage, she doesn't pay rent, then she can be homeless also which is far more costly looking for a new place

Ridiculous to bring the idea of morality into this. For both the op and the ll, the priority is to find the solution that is most cost effective for them. And of course they can have a conversation about what that is going to be in the present situation.

Is there anyway you could use a bike for work while you save the cash?

What you are actually asking is for your LL to give you a 10 month interest free loan. I would be thinking long and hard before I'd do this for a really good friend!! I also think it would highlight to the landlord how tight your funds are, so they will be very worried about seeing their money again ...

Go to your local CAB for debt and budgeting advice.
You absolutely must keep paying your rent.
They will help you find a better solution.

If you can afford to repay in 50 pound chunks a 12 month loan might be the best option.
According to MSE's loan estimator, a 500 pound loan at 10 percent interest (not sure how accurate this is interest wise as i've not taken out a loan in a very long time) over a 12 month period would be 43 pounds pcm.

Don't flame me but I work for a letting agency - few days late with the tent, not ideal, paying it over ten months would ring alarm bells big time. They may think you can't afford the property and give you notice.

OP please don't do it.

In spite of what MN might have you believe not all landlords are selfish money grabbing bastsrds.

A lot of landlords are accidental landlords - bought houses to live in, had to relocate but couldn't sell as in negative equity for example - they can't afford to subsidise their tenants.

Imagine if you don't pay and they give you notice? You've then got to find another property, which means stumping up another deposit, and you'll have rent arrears on your account when your new LL asks for a reference.

Really, don't jeopardise the roof over your head.

Surely a loan would be better?

Taking 10months to pay one months rent is surely a pisstake?

What if something else comes up?

Does all of the work on the car absolutely need doing? Could the worst bits be fixed to make it driveable and the rest done later?

I agree with almost everyone else-you have to pay your rent first.

Please go and get some advise about budgeting. What happens next time an emergency happens- the cooker, washing machine or your tyres need changing?

Look at your income and outgoings. If you think the car is an essential outgoing, chances are there will be other non essentials that you can cut back on. It's amazing how stark the figures are and how much can be saved when it's all written down.

Yabu not to pay rent. A few days late with consent would be OK, but effectively you're asking for an interest free ten month loan.

Can you increase your working hours to pay down your overdraft and build a small amount of savings to cover this type of thing?

Can you do the work on the car yourself? Or get family to help? And Haynes manual and some time on YouTube might save you a fortune. What work needs doing?

As a LL I would not like this.
We have gone above and beyond for our tenant. Improved the house etc. She is a good one and we want to keep her. We haven't raised the rent since she moved in two years ago and we have no intention of doing so, despite it being more than £100 per month under market value.
However
If she did what you are proposing then the trust would be gone. We need that money to pay the mortgage. Yes we could manage but that's not the point. The goodwill would be gone and we would be worried it would happen again. We might agree but we wouldn't like it and there is more chance of us not renewing later on and finding a new tenant who we are confident can afford to pay. We would be wary that we would find ourselves in a position of having to evict you with all the expense that entails.

Play the long term game and keep your housing safe.

It's not about how nice you are and how well the letting agents know you. If you fail to pay your rent, which in all likelihood is covering the mortgage on the property, who do you think is going to pay that mortgage?

Why should the LL have to use their own money to, essentially, cover your car repairs while you live in their house for free?

Rent comes first. A car is a luxury.

I was a mortgage arrears adviser many years ago, and the advice we gave that "the roof over your head" comes before all else is just as true today

Your asking to defer the full rent (and for so long) instead of getting a loan for the needed money would be a huge red flag for me - I'd worry that you couldn't afford a loan and saw the LL as the soft option, both of which would ring loud alarm bells

Excellent advice above on debt advice, other short term options, etc ... as so many have said, it's not just this one bill which may need sorting out, but your whole financial position

OP join the coop bank. They give interest free loans when you've saved with them for a year....I know that won't help this time but when you need a washer or something, they're there.

It's not fair to treat your landlord like a bank offering interest free loans. That is simply not the business arrangement you signed up to, and in some circumstances you can cause another person great hardship if you don't pay the rent agreed. A landlord is not the Bank of Mum and Dad. I would give you notice to quit if you even asked to do this.

Horrible situation to be in - much sympathy.

Do pay your rent. I would also get a loan to cover the car emergency AND consolidate your cc debt to get that paid down as it's costing you more money.

You might want to take a look at your overall situation to see what you can change to avoid this recurring, particularly whether your car is getting to the stage of needing more and more work to keep it on the road. Sometimes it makes sense to make a big change to pre-empt future recurrence of such problems.

Good luck!