Haven’t paid rent in months!

[Uppoopcreek]

I’ve just realised I haven’t paid my rent in around 6 months! I don’t know how this could have happened?
ive lived here around 4 years. All I can think is I set up a standing order a while ago and it didn’t work properly?
now, I have pretty severe MH problems. Awful anxiety and depression(probable ADHD but still waiting for an appointment to start the process). I never check my bank, I’m behind with other bills, too. I’m a bury my head in the sand type of person, but worry constantly about everything, About a month ago I hit rock bottom. Won’t go into details, but it wasn’t great.
I have 3 DC, and I’m on benefits.
Help! What do I do?! Had a text from landlord last night asking me to call him, which is what’s just prompted me to look now. I was asleep when he text.

@JaneFondue maybe you should keep up to date on recent renting laws if you're a landlord... yes it was recently made unlawful & discrimination.

If you're behind on bills, I recommend you go talk to citizens advice bureau. They can give free advice and sign post you to the right areas.
I have been diagnosed with ADHD and I tell you the best way to manage all of this is to make sure all your bills go out on pay day and on the same day altogether. Have your bank app pinned to your front screen of your phone so it prompts you to look. My bank alerts me with notifications of when things go out so set this up too.

As an extra precaution measure, you can set up a monthly calendar reminder on your phone with multiple alarms to check your bank at the beginning of each month.

I would then start going through each itemised bill you have. Look for cheaper options or if you can't afford it then get rid of it. I use now tv as it's a lot cheaper than most options. I use smarty mobile (which uses 3 network) I pay a tenner a month for 60gb (should be 30gb but I got a deal and they keep giving me it)

It is doable to get your affairs in order. But don't stick your head in the sand as we tend to do. Just be honest, work out a plan with your landlord and other bills you owe. And stick to it by direct debit don't leave it to yourself to transfer because you will never remember if you have adhd.

Part of treatment for me and making life less stressful is setting up things so it doesn't happen again. Use your phone for stuff like this. Technology is fantastic for us with reminders Etc. But you have to take ownership.

If you need someone to talk to, feel free to message me on here.

Exactly. The landlord has lost his son so I’m sure he can do without having to chase feckless tenants for their rent.
And yes, I do know what it is like to have severe MH issues but if isn’t plausible that the OP has spent 6 months rent without realising she had it.

Afaik good credit score is not a protected characteristic like race, religion, children etc. Please show me the recent change in laws.
The only thing I care about is my tenant must pay on time.

Has the rent for similar properties risen significantly since you moved in and your LL hasn't increased your rent proportionally?
It wouldn't surprise me if the LL was gearing up for possession order, you being in arrears and unable to pay the outstanding balance would be a very strong case to get you out and would be an opportunity to increase the rent to market levels for future tenants.

I appreciate mistakes happen and there is a lot of people (tenants and LL alike) who don't check their online banking on the regular especially if you are under the assumptions that payments should have been set up and that your tenant is a reliable payer. I wouldn't assume malice from the LL behalf either but I'd be prepared for the worst case scenario of needing to find somewhere else.

Quick Google search.

I'd like to know which bank allows spending each month until your card is rejected and ignores six bounced standing orders.
Being on benefits likely means a basic bank account where the bank makes nothing or little from the customer. Treat it badly and the bank may close the account. Then you really are in a mess.

I think it is telling that the OP hasn’t returned to the thread. She isn’t fooling anyone by pretending she didn’t notice all the unpaid rent in her account.

Yes, but I can choose to rent to someone with financial stability. Which is what I do. I dont advertise my property.

Exactly. Have things automatic so you don’t have to remember. But I can see how this happened if there wasn’t enough in the account to cover the standing order, it would fail, the computer would try again a few times and fail over the following days.

So say the rent is £500, she had £400 in the account so the standing order failed, rent isn’t get paid month one.
She didn’t realise.

She carries on as normal and manages to spend £400 too much that month and again the standing order fails again month 2.

Her payday is after the rent date again or there is some mix up with dates, it happens again month 3. She is unwell and doesn’t even look, just assumes it’s all working grand.

It could happen.

I could easily easily spend £400 extra a month on things and not be able to tell you where. Actually you could hand me £4000 and I could spend it this weekend, no problem to me.😁

My wife rents her flat out via OpenRent. There is an option to exclude benefits candidates, but all tenants are credit checked anyway.

We received so many applications that we immediately filtered out all the candidates with an income of less than £60k.

There's just no way that anybody could bring a complaint if you're renting out the property based upon objective criteria such as credit reports, references, income and ability to pay the rent.

You can dress it up however you want, if you are refusing to consider renting to anyone on benefits, you are breaking the law.

You don’t have to care, but that’s what it is.

You did deliberately overspend though and bought luxuries; and you just admitted it.

You said you were on a limited income and buying your kids clothes from M and S and Next instead of paying rent. You knew you couldn't afford it so 'buried your head in the sand' and handed over the card 'praying it wasn't declined'.

You justified it to yourself by telling yourself they were essential items but it wasn't essential that you dressed your kids from M and S and Next when their clothes could've been bought much cheaper elsewhere and would be just as functional and nice.

It makes no sense you justifying it by saying as long as your kids were well-dressed they weren't going without so it was justified, when you were putting their actual housing at risk.

It's the equivalent of someone saying they didn't pay rent but also didn't think they overspend or buy luxuries but bought all their food from M and S or Waitrose because food is essential so that's justified.

Get on to your local citizens advice and get an appt asap, they'll help you...
I had similar when I missed a housing benefit form last November due to MH, they only wanted to check my circumstances hadn't changed but didn't know for 4 months, by that time they'd stopped my claim and I got into 1000s of rent arrears. Had to then claim UC instead so more delays getting rent paid again. CA helped me sort it including making all the phone calls to stop proceedings get people off my back and get the benefit claims in.
Good luck x

Ok. As pp said above, landlords are allowed to filter on ability to pay rent, so I will continue to do that and take the chance that people sue.
I would rather do that than be short.

I hope someone does sue you one day, landlords like you make my stomach churn.

It’s never gonna happen, honey. Most landlords will do it, and you can’t prove it.

I don’t understand this mentality.

Someone on benefits has more of a regular income, than someone who is working and could lose their job or have time off sick, for maternity, dip in hours etc which would lead to a dip in income.

It used to always be the case that the benefit money would go straight to the LL and the tenant wouldn’t see it at all.
You can still request this now.

Any unpaid rent would be taken straight out of their benefit money and they wouldn’t have a chance not to pay.
You wouldn’t even have to contact them, you go straight through the benefits people.

You can rent to whoever you choose to but someone getting money from benefits is just as likely/unlikely to hand it over than someone who isn’t.

Oh well. I dont really have the time to mess around with MH and people who want to dress their kids in Next when my own kids were dressed in supermarket clothes.
I rented for years and my credit score was thoroughly checked, especially since I have a foreign name and am not white.

You can. I didn't know my housing benefit had stopped as it was getting paid directly to housing association - couldn't then go back on ESA and Housing benefit so had to apply for UC. Have been getting UC since June and the 1st thing I did was arrange for the rent part to go straight to HA. Think I had to tell/authorise HA to speak to UC and it got arranged that way...

And it’s a sensible decision to choose tenants who are less likely to default on their rent or trash the place. I wouldn’t rent to benefit claimants either when there are plenty of professional people looking to rent. It’s common sense and impossible to prove.

Are you sure your benefit claim isn't set up as a "direct payment to landlord?"
Maybe you did this and have forgotten due to your mental health?
I'm sure they'd have been in to you before now if you'd not paid it for 6 months OP
Hope you get it sorted.

Exactly the same as hiring people. You can always find a reason not to while still staying on the right side of the law.

@JaneFondue you asked for someone to show you the change in law, which I did.

Being on benefits doesn’t mean you can’t pay your rent. Many people on UC are working full time and receive a UC top up for example. The housing element of UC can be paid directly to the landlord, which to me seems a safer bet than just hoping your tenant pays the rent each month. Not everyone on UC is out to swindle landlords. I work full time, with a UC top up, and pay my rent early every month. It’s the luck of the draw I suppose, and you don’t know if you have a good tenant who will pay on time until they’re already in your property, but that applies regardless of whether your tenant is on UC or not. It comes down to character, and I bet there’s some landlords who have been burned by young professionals or families too.

Anyway, I was showing you the information that you asked for. It makes not a jot of difference to me who you choose to rent to.

Exactly. Landlords are under no obligation to rent their home to the poorest out of some sort of charity.

They should, and will, rent it to exactly who they wish for whatever reason they wish.