To ask landlord if I pay the rent late?

[needtogobacktowork]

Hi, our rent is due today but we are a little short after paying an unexpected bill and also DH taking a week off work when the babies were ill to help look after them.

I have enough to pay it but it will leave us with nothing to live off for the next to weeks. Do you think it's a reasonable request if I ask to pay £100 less and catch up in 2 weeks when I get my maternity pay?

We have no previous rent arrears and have been in the property did over s year but he was also out landlord ar our last property so we have known him s while.

My LL wouldn’t even let us change the rent date when dh changed jobs even though we said we would pay the extra to cover the additional weeks so we were update. We lived here for 3 years. She would serve us papers to leave if we were ever short for rent even though we are good tenants we would never risk it. We always pay several days early and in full. It’s too important when it’s a roof over our head. As others said it might put a black mark against you.

I would ask, as a one off with a clear repayment date then it should be fine. However I would in future get a credit card for situations like this. That is what they are for and it is much safer to borrow from your bank than essentially your landlord, you say you are wary of them but your not wary of being in debt to your landlord.

Landlords cannot serve 'papers to leave' in england. Just notice of legal action which may or may not result in eviction. Short rent is very difficult to evict for.

We were accidental landlords. Our house didn’t sell for over 4 years but we had to move for DH work. We were paying rent where we were living and mortgage on the house. If the tenants didn’t pay the rent we couldn’t pay the mortgage and wouldn’t have had any money for food for our children. Rent didn’t cover the mortgage repayments as we bought about a year before the bubble burst. No harm in asking though. 2 years after the house sale I am still grateful that we do not own a house.

No. It's cheeky. It's not your landlord's problem to be frank, that you haven't budgeted properly to have a cushion for times like these. Asking will put a black mark against you as a problem tenant. And you say you'd only ask if you had no other option, but what does that mean if landlord says no? You're not really talking about asking the LL, but telling.

And I'm not a LL btw, I rent too. Last thing you want is to make your LL aware you're in financial difficulty as when they're making their risk assessments you'll be the first to go, especially when they deal with shitty tenants who don't pay or trash the place sometimes.

"Today 08:48 Mercurial123

my tenant does this all the time, she's on housing benefit and is always behind on her share of the rent. The first time she asked I should have refused. As a landlord I keep the house well maintained as a tenant you need to pay your rent on time."

Just because you allowed it once doesn't mean you gave carte blanche for it forevermore! Write to her and explain from now on you require the rent paid in full on time. Guarantee if you make it clear it's a top priority for you it'll become her priority bill again.

No bill should come before the rent and council tax.

From one renter to another, don't do it. If your finances are that bad how would you afford the fees and moving costs if your landlord decided not to renew your tenancy as a result of this. What was the unexpected Bill? I always pay rent and council tax first. It's not ideal but I think you may have to get a credit card to pay for food.

Pixie, The unexpected bill was paying off a store card debt with a reduced repayment = "partially satisfying" a debt. I can understand it was tempting, but they obviously couldn't afford to do it and it wasn't a priority bill.

Landlords cannot serve 'papers to leave' in england. Just notice of legal action which may or may not result in eviction. Short rent is very difficult to evict for.
Not really true, they can serve a section 21 which means you have 2 months to leave, without having any particular reason, except in the first 6 months, or under a fixed term tenancy:
www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants/section-21-and-section-8-notices

Thanks category12 I must have skipped a page Hopefully it doesn't happen again but if it does definitely rent before store card OP

Another ex LL, who would, and did, allow this when tenant had hard time financially. Most were good, and only did it once, a couple were repeat offenders. One of those was a student, who complained that her money came 3 times a year so it was hard to keep some for monthly rent. I suggested she could pay the whole terms rent in advance when she got her money if she preferred, and was amazed that she preferred that, and did so!
If you keep it a one off, I don't think it would be likely to create a bad impression, but make really sure it doesn't happen again.

Hamburgers lol you know nothing about my situation. My tenant has been behind in her rent for the last six months. How long would YOU be patient for?

no, a section 21 does NOT mean you have two months to leave and that isn't what it says on gov.uk.

It is a two month notice of legal proceedings commencing if the tenant does not leave. Any tenant seeking council accommodation will be advised to stay put until the bailiffs, and does nothing wrong by doing so. Any tenant wanting to stay until the bailiffs for whatever reason - same.

boring old facts, eh.

I'm a LL and I wouldn't be happy with this. I've been in this situation before and given people the benefit of the doubt but at first it's £100 then it escalates. OP have you thought about what you will cut back on next month to make up for the £100 short fall? It does sound like you have real budgeting issues. I just don't understand why anyone would spend all their savings on things for a baby when keeping a roof over your heads is the most important thing.

Thank you for all your replies, I've taken your advice on board and I've managed to borrow from a friend.
Even though I know this is a one off I can't expect the LL to believe that and you're all right in saying a roof over our heads is the main thing.

I know I need to keep a tighter ship and will be making changes to make sure it doesn't happen again.

That’s good. It is the better option of course. I’m glad you found a friend to help you out.

Good news and good luck with improving matters.

no, a section 21 does NOT mean you have two months to leave and that isn't what it says on gov.uk.

It is a two month notice of legal proceedings commencing ... stay put until the bailiffs...

OK, yes, you are strictly speaking correct, the OP could stay after a section 21 and the 2 month period.
That way you choose the option of months of stress, then have the bailiffs show up and force you to leave within a couple of hours. Then you can wait in the council office with your babies, and whatever you can carry, until they find a b&b for you, for the night.
So yes, that is an alternative to obeying a section 21 notice, which may or may not seem a great choice for a young family .
Not sure why someone on these threads always wants to encourage people to push these thing to the line of what you can get away with without actually being arrested? The number of people on 'can't pay we'll take it away', who have been told they can't be thrown out of their home, despite receiving notice to quit...and 2 hours later they are outside with a few bags of possessions, looking shocked.

What came first; the paying off the store card (hardly an "unexpected" bill) or your DH taking a week's unpaid leave? Surely you knew at the point of no return that you wouldn't be able to cover the rent?

Well done OP, and good luck for the future :-)

Well done, OP, it's a tough position to have been in but at least you won't be behind with the rent. That can make things very tricky, as you don't want to damage your LL's trust in your ability to afford the flat.

Maternity leave is a tough time. Lots of people are in a position to make big savings beforehand, others aren't. It will be easier to keep ontop of things with the store card paid off. Definetly done the right thing prioritising rent.

MyFavouriteChameleon

Your comment is extremely ignorant. Nobody chooses voluntarily to stay in a place beyond the NTQ...they are told to do so by the council & all housing charities. If they leave before they need to legally (ie: when the bailiffs show up) they can be classed as intentionally homeless and the council no longer has a duty to house them.

That is why people on here advise that & they are right to do so. Maybe get your information from somewhere other than a shitty, exploitative reality show, eh?

What tabbymack said. And more facts you won't like - all bailiffs now give notice. You do need to learn not to believe TV.

MyFavouriteChameleon

I have been on threads where the people telling an poster to stay put are all landlords themselves. They understand how the system works. Unless the tenant has somewhere else to go then they have no option but to sit it out.