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.

Whilst paying rent, which is a specified cost, directly to the landlord can be a solution in some cases it does have its negative aspects for landlords too.

Firstly the payment doesn’t necessarily cover the whole rent, it comes in at different times to the due date, and needs frequent reconciliation to keep the tenant appraised of the current situation. Many tenants are capable of budgeting, make a single monthly payment to their landlord and possibly wouldn’t appreciate this type of intervention.

It’s now only available when arrears each 2 months. At that stage it’s probably the better option.

Some councils are also guilty of recovering payments from the landlord instead of the tenant, if there is an overpayment due to tenant fault. ( They shouldn’t, but it happens and at best it takes time challenging the decision.) Again it’s probably worth the risk in problem cases.

This! I guess your rent must be over £500 a month how could you possibly not notice you had all that extra money?

Another pointless comment. Would you like to have severe mh problems? It’s not a “card” people play when it suits, it’s life altering.

Apologies profusely, take the 4months missing money split it across 12 months and add that to your monthly amounts and hope he accepts this. Then try to get an appointment with CAP who can help you sort through all financial stuff with compassion.

You knew exactly what you were doing!!

This is why landlords won't rent to people on UC.

Nobody has a spare £700 a month plus for 6 months and doesn't realise. You knew and you used the money anyway.

It happens. I had a friend who was going through a really hard time with her mental health and a drinking problem and didn’t realise her old job were accidentally still paying her in addition to her new job. I don’t know what you can do really other than put it on a credit card and find a way to claw the money back over time.

Agreed!

Jesus Christ op has mental health problems she can't face looking at her bank account. Talk about some people are just clueless about mental health. It's a real thing to 'bury your head in the sand'

Op what is done is done. Please call your landlord today and let them speak. Say the truth that you had set up a standing order and something has gone wrong on the banking side of things and you will call the bank and see what's happened .

Then have a cup of tea and write down a speech to say to the bank and call the bank. You can do this. Speak with the bank and see what they say.

Then have something to eat and try and stay calm and call landlord back and ask what can be done to resolve this. Perhaps they will say they can add it on to future payments? You never know. Perhaps they say that's not possible but you can only ask

As a matter of urgency gather all your statements and other bills information and make an appointment with an advisor to go through them all to find out what has and hasn’t been paid and what that rent money has been spent on

I am unsurprised that bad mh could cause you to not realise s/o wasn’t working, or that there was extra money in the account, but have to admit I am as confused as PPs as to how the extra money is all spent without noticing - you need to find out what you spent it on as that’s important information for future budgeting

we may not all be able to be on top of every penny but is our responsibility to do what we can especially if we already know we need a bit more help than others

see this time as not just a one off mess needing to be sorted but as a chance to get help to set up systems to help you manage now and into the future

get that help to set up your finances so that you have a budget, d/d and s/o so if v ill at times you can concentrate on your health and not be missing payments and building up arrears over regular bills like rent, gas, elec, car, nursery etc

use budgeting book or app, set calendar alerts for payments in/out, use phone alarms to remind you to check your account

it’s not shameful to need extra help, and it is really sensible to use all the help we can to form support systems and structure for times when a crisis might hit

bc a crisis can hit anyone, at any time

So sorry this has happened. You need to tell your landlord you’ve only just realised it wasn’t being paid automatically and also explain you’ve been severely unwell these last few months. Ask if you can set up a payment plan

@Attelina we don’t need to hear about how a leeching landlord would be ‘furious’ if this happened to you

This !

So many people on here are clueless about mental health and need to educate themselves before making sweeping judgey statements.

It no wonder our MH services are in such a dire state !

Sometimes when there is not enough in the account, the standing order doesn’t go out. So I can see how it happened the first time.

Ask for help today. You can’t go on like this.

Good luck.

I'm sorry, OP, but you didn't 'magically' have lots of extra money to spend every month, you knew something wasn't getting paid as it should.

I’m sorry @Uppoopcreek I don’t think the judgements are deserved. I’m…eh very financially astute have a high level role in financial services and I did something similar (it was 3 months before my landlord contacted me) admittedly my circumstances are quite different I had plenty of money, hence not regularly checking. But lots of people make mistakes and find managing finances difficult, so please don’t see this as some sort of moral failing. You need to come up with a way of managing things going forward. Perhaps asking a friend or their are charities who could help you go through finances and get into good habits.

Sorry op but you'd of known it wasn't being paid by having "extra" money to spend.

That said ring your LL offer a payment plan, the months rent + whatever you can afford to stop them taking it from your grauntor.

A landlord expecting to be paid his rent is a “leech”? Really?!

I never check my rent had been paid tbf,
I just assume it has been (standing order) but I do check my balance. Not paying any attention at all to your finances is extremely risky and if you have MH issues the last thing you need is extra stress surely?

Hope you managed to sleep a bit last night OP. Maybe this morning, make a list: go through statements to see what went wrong, apply for the housing loan (I can't remember what it is called), see if it is possible for UC or housing benefit to be paid directly to LL, and see about getting some help with budgeting...and then speak to LL when you have a better idea of what happened and how you can move forward. Good luck x

In an odd coincidence, I made a similar discovery this morning. Not for 6 months rent, but 2. The change coincided with a change in other circumstances that meant less money was coming in and I didn't pick up on it.

In my case, I noticed and alerted the landlord first thing. I was able to pay one month of arrears as well as November rent, and create a payment plan for the rest. But it still feels awful and shocking, even though my landlord was willing to work with me to sort it out.

It’s slightly frustrating to see so many people suggest housing hardship funds and so on - who is ultimately paying for that, whilst OP has spent the money, the taxpayer? (Genuine question).

I say this as a ND person with history of depression and anxiety.

Yep. Im sorry but I struggle to believe you didn’t realise either, OP.

Contact the council this morning and ask about discretionary housing payment. It’s not guaranteed but used for circumstances like this. Speak to your landlord and explain, get the conversation out of the way, don’t avoid it, you will feel better when this is all out in the open and you’re working towards a solution.

Sorry not read the replies.

Its very easy to bury your head in the sand and ignore this problem, but that will only make it worse.

Write down all of the bills you owe and then ring them up and set up a repayment plan through direct debit.
Explain your situation and ask if they have any hardship funds or anyway to make your bills cheaper.

Explain that you can only do say £10 a month for now (work out what you can afford for each) but that you can pay more when your circumstances change (even if they’re not going to).

Look into discretionary housing payment from your local authority to clear some of your rent debt.

Say to your LL that you will get your UC payments sent directly to him.
This is what I had to do and then I pay £50 a month myself on top to clear my rent arrears. I was only behind on rent so could afford £50 but if you can’t afford that then say less.

They’d rather you pay something than nothing.