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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Rent arrears

170 replies

WhatNow1993 · 01/08/2019 15:12

I did post in legal but not had many responses...

Sorry if this is long... I moved into my house in 2017 after leaving a very bad relationship. My housing officer came round to sort the tenancy and while here, we filled in a housing benefit form together. She took all paperwork and evidence with her and told me she would take it all back and get it sorted out.
I know it is essentially my responsibility to make sure it was all done but it just didn't enter my head to check and I had no letters or anything to say otherwise.
I have now been served with a section 8 and have over £4000 Rent arrears.
I applied for DHP and was refused because they say I have £15 a month spare and can come to an arrangement confused social services have now opened a child protection plan as they say I've neglected my kids by risking their home and if I get evicted, they will house my children but not me.

I know I should have checked and made sure my hb had been set up correctly but I trusted my housing officer. Also how can a landlord let you get into £4000+ arrears before letting you know?

I have been to the CAB and they said there's nothing they can do to help as it is rent and is my fault no matter what the reasons are.

Does anyone know where I can go for advice/help? I stand to lose my children and my home and no one so far has been able to help me, except to say I need to pay it. I wish i could, but unfortunately I can't magic up that kind of money.

OP posts:

ShellieEllie · 01/08/2019 21:29

Have you or your childrens father ever been in the Armed Forces? If so a military charity may be able to assist.

AngelasAshes · 01/08/2019 21:29

Main thing is to go to a disability center and get a person assigned to you who can sort everything out and do full review of your benefits and finances, talk to council for you, help you with paperwork....it’s too much to do by yourself with just bits of advice.

HiItsClemFandango · 01/08/2019 21:59

@WhatNow1993 when did you receive the eviction letter and how long did it give you to move out?

HelenaDove · 01/08/2019 22:26

Are you with Clarion or Sanctuary by any chance The latter has been in Private Eye.

HelenaDove · 01/08/2019 22:40

From a review from a HA employee Taken from glass door

"OneSanctuary SAP is the name of a multi-million pound software system brought in by Sanctuary in 2016, designed for use by all areas of the business. It has been an unmitigated failure, and is a huge drawback of working for this company.
The issues caused by SAP are staggering and difficult to keep track of. Because SHA tried to implement SAP in a cost effective manner, they ended up vastly under-investing in critical elements. There is no tailoring of the generically presented system ('vanilla SAP'), which is an issue as social housing is a unique environment from a service delivery and CRM perspective, whereas vanilla SAP is more geared towards providing a solution for manufacturing industries. Thus, the system uses corporate nonsensical buzzwords and methods of handling accounts which absolutely do not reflect industry practice.
Here are just some examples of the more specific issues faced by staff:
No rent statements have been issued since it was implemented in August 2016, and if a resident insists on a rent statement it has to be prepared manually in a spreadsheet.
The rent and calculations for accounts are hard to use, and often completely wrong. Mostly because the system was never designed to understand housing benefit payments, and this has a very convoluted workaround which a computer cannot make sense of.
SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed.
Direct debits do not work reliably, and for a long time following the implementation did not work at all. Front line staff are now preferring standing order.
The front end system of SAP requires far more testing and money spent on it. Each customer account is a total mess of information, with no discernible way to separate notes left between differing departments, with information left by staff often going into the wrong account entirely. This needs looking at as from a compliance (DPA) point of view the breaches are serious.
From a usability point of view, the view of a customers account within SAP CIC does not display appropriate information to the user (as stated before this is likely because the system was never designed to be used by a HA) and the user often has to go trawling around back end systems to find obviously relevant data (e.g tenancy start date, account balance, property type etc). This is a seemingly minor but considerable waste of resources"

Original poster

WhatNow1993 · 01/08/2019 23:17

I got the section 8 in April, went to the council and set up the £20pw. I'm assuming that's why I haven't been evicted yet judging by the replies. I have tried to inbox you @LakieLady but I'm not sure I did it correctly.

OP posts:

Original poster

WhatNow1993 · 01/08/2019 23:18

I'm not with sanctuary but they do have houses in my area so maybe my housing association are working on the same system

OP posts:

calmpuppycrazykids · 01/08/2019 23:35

What now I was in this position 4 years ago funnily enough with clarion they had a different name then
You have to get in touch with shelter they are fantastic
They will get you to phone the court to have a form sent to you I’m sorry I can’t remember which one and they will help also you fill in a form for your money coming in and how money you pay out
you will have to go to court to suspend the eviction warrant I went the day before I was due to be evicted
the court was great and went through all of my outgoings and I made a payment plan which I have stuck to and I am now getting there.
I offered to pay more and they asked me if I was sure that I could afford it and they lowered the amount of repayment a week.
Don’t worry but get in touch with shelter

LakieLady · 01/08/2019 23:50

@WhatNow1993 Have replied by PM, OP!

FattyPeddledFuriously999 · 01/08/2019 23:59

Assuming there aren't other issues your children won't be removed because of rent arrears. It would cost them far ++++ more to put them in care than it would to put you up in emergency accommodation.

Are you sure you are already on a child protection plan, or are they just looking into your situation and saying it could end up as that? Or could you be on a Child in Need Plan? Normally social care refused to get involved in housing problems.

If you are on a child protection plan then the social worker or a family support worker should be able to support you with fighting this. You are entitled to a lot of support once you are actually on a plan.

Easier said than done I know but try not to worry about your children being removed for this reason. Just engage with all help that is being offered.

Alislia17 · 02/08/2019 03:58

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 02/08/2019 10:26

Alislia.
As your post was removed I'll assume you were being an arse hope. Why!!!!!!
I take it you've never seen a poor day or don't believe you will see a poor day in your life

longwayoff · 02/08/2019 10:40

Shelter, shelter, shelter. If the facts you have given are correct you are due both your rent and c tax arrears. Make a separate complaint to the Ombudsman and claim compensation.

LakieLady · 02/08/2019 10:56

Yes, if they had written to OP when she was a month or two in arrears, she would have got on to the council and got the right benefits in payment ages ago.

But fighting any eviction has to be the priority for now - that can be sorted later.

KarmaStar · 02/08/2019 11:28

You've had such good advice so there's not much I can add other thanfor you and I sincerely hope they will back date your housing benefit which will clear the debt and allow you to remain in your home with your dc.

Passthecherrycoke · 02/08/2019 11:51

No Alisha is a bot spamming porn. It wasn’t anything to do with the OP

Original poster

WhatNow1993 · 02/08/2019 13:09

I have called the Ipswich disability welfare helpline and am waiting for a call back. Thank you to everyone for the info and phone numbers

OP posts:

Original poster

WhatNow1993 · 02/08/2019 13:11

I did try shelter but they are only taking calls for immediate threat of homelessness and their webchat has been busy so couldn't talk to anyone on there this morning

OP posts:

SmileEachDay · 02/08/2019 13:59

If the children have been put up to a CP plan, have you had a core group meeting or an initial conference yet?

Motoko · 02/08/2019 14:01

Keep trying Shelter. They're the experts in housing law, and it sounds like you need an expert to unravel all this.

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