Unable to pay full rent

[bratzdoll]

I'm a single parent currently on maternity leave so I receive UC monthly to help pay my rent and further bills. I'm private renting but I got the flat through the homelessness scheme (when you're homeless and in temporary accommodation but willing to take a private flat instead of waiting years in temporary accommodation until a council flat is available)

The benefit of private renting through the homelessness scheme is that the council are in contact with Landlords that are happy to rent to someone on UC and are usually happy to negotiate the monthly rent price.

I moved into the flat a few months ago and always pay my rent to the Landlord's agent one day before it's due just so the receive it without any problems or anything.

This month my UC was around £1100 less than it should have been because my employer incorrectly reported that I had earned around £2500 last month
I'm still only receiving SMP so I have no clue how they made such a drastic mistake but this means DD and I are living on near to nothing this month.

I sent an email to the Landlord's agent a few days before the rent was due to let them know the situation. I included screenshots of my UC Payment page so they could see the breakdown of what I normally get and see what was deducted. I did say I was able to contribute a small amount to the rent (less than £200 as I was given less than £400 from UC to live on for the month)
I also let them know that I spoke to my work coach about what happened as she's raised this with the investigation team so hopefully she'll hear back from them soon.

I spoke to the agent on the phone the day before the rent was due (I always speak to the manager btw) and she was very understanding and just said to update her with what happens. The next morning I get an email from her saying the Landlord was not happy at all (understandingly) and that I need to do whatever it takes to be able to pay the rent in full including taking out an overdraft!

I've never not paid my rent since I've lived here and it's not as if I got the dates mixed up or I spent the money on something else. The rent amount wasn't given to me for no fault of my own. I was a bit shocked at the Landlord's response as I'd literally given him more than half of what I received just to be able to contribute something. When in reality I could have kept it and spent that on myself and my daughter as we desperately need it!

There's often a discussion on Twitter about some Landlords and how they refuse to be understanding even in unavoidable situations. I understand I'm renting and effectively helping to pay off his mortgage, but this wasn't my fault at all.

(just in case anyone wants to bash me for being on benefits, I've been working full time since I was 17. It's more or less impossible to be a single parent living on SMP)

@LakieLady newborn babies aren’t exactly expensive though. DC has cost us barely anything upto starting nursery - everything was second hand except the cot mattress and car seat!

Another possibility would be to see if UC would give you a budgetting loan for something like this. It probably wouldn't be for the full amount, but it might be a significant amount towards it.

Of course, it would mean your UC would go down in subsequent months, but it might be possible to repay it in a lumps sum when you get the UC sorted.

What percentage of your rent did you pay? Obviously you don't need to post exact amounts but there is a big difference between paying 85% and paying 10%

It may be that the landlord has been understanding in the past and this lead to a pattern of non payment of rent which led to the previous tenants being evicted at great cost to the landlord. So the landlord may be wary of the same thing happening again. The landlord feels the same way you do, they were expecting money and it didn't come. I would let go of any negative feelings towards the landlord, and focus on dealing with the employer who messed up. This is not a landlord problem.

If scrimping during this period means that when the money comes through you're ahead financially I'd strongly advise you to put it away so you have a safety net for this kind of thing. Your landlord may only be on this scheme for convenience or because he needs guaranteed income so I wouldn't assume he'll cut you any slack at all if it happens again.

@Franklin12

Where is the father and can they help.

I think a PP was indicating that just the UC element was £1400 less than it should be plus their salary and was questioning the amounts

"my UC was around £1100 less than it should have been".

I must admit I couldnt work it out either. The UC wasnt £1100 in TOTAL it was £1100 less plus their normal salary.

It’s not “plus their normal salary” though. The OP is on SMP so their UC will be higher than normal when they’re on full pay.

OP this sounds like a horrible situation and I'm angry at your employer as well. This is completely their fault and they should be trying to fix this as a matter of urgency. Their incompetence is messing with lives.

But yes the anger should be towards your employer as opposed to your landlord. It sounds like if you're struggling to get any credit then there's not much more you can do minus hope things resolve soon and pay your arrears as soon as you can. Keep chasing everything up and hoping for the best. As others have said if your landlord tries to evict you it could be a lengthy process anyway. Hopefully it doesn't come to this.

I am a LL and have rented to people relying on benefits. I had a young woman who was unable to pay her first rent because her benefits hadn’t arrived. I wasn’t very happy because it was a worry BUT the main issue was that she didn’t open a clear dialogue to explain and say how she would resolve it. After a few weeks she paid and then it was fine.

Write a clear letter/email to your LL to be sent via your intermediary expressing your apologies and what has and what will happen. You are looking at a delay of a few weeks. Realistically he can’t do much. Say how much you like living there and appreciate that he has accommodated you on benefits (whether you mean it or not). Thank him for his patience and express your own frustration with the situation which is beyond your control.

The main thing is to be clear and concise giving a time frame. Be clear you cannot at present make any further payment but the shortfall will be made up asap. Other factors such as your other financial priorities are irrelevant to him.

Then try not to worry. He can’t evict you unless you continue to default on your rent. Pay as soon as possible. If you have other bills you can’t pay be sure to contact them too. Especially council tax.

I'd imagine too that the LL has some understanding of the practicalities and may be sympathetic BUT wants you to do what you can to chase your employer/UC. If he'd said not to worry and to lay as and when, realistically you're likely to give up chasing your employer.

Don't take out an overdraft or even worse an unregulated loan as that will land you in far worse problems. Tell the LL you're chasing as hard as you can to get
it resolved and keep on at your employer.

I have no advice but I just wanted to say hang in there. Some people have no idea how hard life can be when you are living on a low income. Your LL will just have to wait. It's shit but you've done all you can and none of this is your fault. I really hope it gets sorted soon!

@LakieLady i'm currently having a completely separate issue with them, well kind of pre-empting it before it happens.

My husband has recently just started working for the NHS so now has a completely different pay day to his previous job.

His new pay day is the day is the first day of our assessment period which is all well and good however he's just found out he's going to be paid a day early next month due to Christmas which would mean two wages within one assessment period (one of the first day and one on the last). Now I know that universal credit were taken to court last year due to issues like this and they found in favour of the claimants and were told that in Cases such as these they were to manually move the payment to the following month so as not to cause problems however trying to explain the issue to any of their advisors is proving almost impossible as they don't seem to know anything about these new rules and just keep telling me that we will have to deal with it.

Yes, lots of people don't realise that may be eligible for help with their council tax. It used to be assessed automatically when housing benefit was done, but now all councils run their own schemes and people don't realise they have to apply for it separately.

If you'r already getting it, OP, make sure you tell them you're now on SMP, and they'll reassess your claim. If you're not already on it, apply!

@Skyll

Well. There’s a big difference between giving the landlord £200 when the rent is £400 and £200 when it’s £1400

There’s also a big difference between you being able to tell him you’ve been phoning your employer every day for over 3 weeks and are doing your best to sort it with them and just phoning once

How does your payroll think you got paid £2500 but that didn’t go into your bank account? What’s their reason for that discrepancy?

How many times every day have you emailed or phoned? Can you go and see them?

Where did I say the rent is £400?? In what world can you even private rent anything other than maybe a room in a house for £400?! I said I was given less than £400 and could only pay a little less than £200. I'm actually starting to think you're not really here to help as opposed to other posters so I doubt I'll reply to you again

I am sorry its awful but you are therefore expecting your landlord to sort out the mess your employer made? You need to ask your employer for an advance on your salary to resolve the mess they made. Your employers fault - your employer needs to fix it.

I'm renting and effectively helping to pay off his mortgage
I think you will have lost any sympathy with that statement

I think the only thing not dissected here is why you got pregnant in the first place!

Honestly, it isn't your fault, it isn't your landlords fault, so they will just have to be patient.

Try not to stress over it, it will get sorted out, and you have done all you can for now.
Nobody is going to be killed for the rent/mortgage going off kilter for a bit.

Also, people who aren't on benefits can be terrible for paying their rent; it's not just "people on benefits"

What are your employers doing to fix this? Have they given you a timeframe for when it will be resolved?

You said you weren’t going to say the number. I gave two values of rent as examples of what your rent might be - £400 and £1400 and said £200 as a proportion of £400 is more than it is a proportion of £1400. I never said your rent was either of those figures.

I have every sympathy for you being short of money but you’re angry with the wrong person. Get on to your employer and get them to sort it.

@MatildaTheCat has sound advice - write your LL a letter/email explaining the situation and send it to him via the agent. If you make it clear in writing that this is your employer's error and you're doing everything you can to rectify the situation, he'll be more understanding.

As PP's have said, he may have had bad experiences with previous tenants and think you're messing him about.

Fwiw my rent in a 3 bed council house was £355 pcm 3 years ago so to have a rent of £400 is not unreasonable, depending on where you’re from.

But again, I picked £400 and £1400 as illustrative amounts only.

@bratzdoll I think @Skyll IS trying to be helpful.

There's been loads of comments so I can't reply to everyone individually but I'd like to say thanks so much for all the advice!

I know it didn't sound like it in my OP but I'm so furious with my employer. The thing is they're generally so shit with things like this. They've messed up my SMP twice with no explanation or even an apology. Since I've been on maternity, the communication has been so poor. Phonecalls go answered as well as emails.
I also can't just turn up at work and have them sort things as I live in London and work is based in Kent!

It's all so frustrating but I'll keep on contacting Payroll to see what they're doing about it (if anything,) I'll also contact my work coach who is really helpful.

I know I have an employer probed rather than a Landlord problem (I never stated I had a problem with him, was just a bit shocked at the response but clearly understandable)

[quote SnowWhitesRestingBitchFace]@LakieLady i'm currently having a completely separate issue with them, well kind of pre-empting it before it happens.

My husband has recently just started working for the NHS so now has a completely different pay day to his previous job.

His new pay day is the day is the first day of our assessment period which is all well and good however he's just found out he's going to be paid a day early next month due to Christmas which would mean two wages within one assessment period (one of the first day and one on the last). Now I know that universal credit were taken to court last year due to issues like this and they found in favour of the claimants and were told that in Cases such as these they were to manually move the payment to the following month so as not to cause problems however trying to explain the issue to any of their advisors is proving almost impossible as they don't seem to know anything about these new rules and just keep telling me that we will have to deal with it.[/quote]
They don't know anything about lots of rules, @SnowWhitesRestingBitchFace. They don't know how to calculate overpayments arising because someone has savings over £16k, or the things that exempt families from being benefit capped, or the effect of getting PIP for claimants under 35 and renting!

One of my clients was told yesterday that she had to go to the CAB to get a form that can be downloaded from the govt website.

And a couple of months ago, a client asked me to calculate how much UC she would get if she changed her working hours.

Her job was a UC work coach!

Everyone working will get a little bit more in their next payment anyway, as the new work allowances and reduced taper rate came into force on Monday.

@CovidPassQuestion

The problem is that the LL's mortgage company won't be sympathetic/understanding, will they?

I'm sorry you're in this situation, UC is a nightmare.

No-one should become a landlord unless they can cover a tenant not paying their rent for several months.

The landlord should be more sympathetic. It is not the OP's fault.

I am sorry its awful but you are therefore expecting your landlord to sort out the mess your employer made?

Where did I say that? The situation will be rectified at some point by UC, my work coach has just told me there's no timescale for how long it'll take. I don't expect my Landlord to sort out anything. All I can do is update his agent and hope it's all sorted by the end of the month at least

The landlord doesn’t have to be sympathetic though. It’s a business arrangement.

At the end of the day, it’s not going to be worth their while to start eviction proceedings for the sake of one month’s arrears (depending how long it takes the op to get it sorted - it’s encouraging that others managed to get UC to adjust within a week) and the op can ignore all the comments via the agent about getting a loan or anything else.