to expect my landlord to apologise?

[TheLadyEvenstar]

He sent me a text at 4.42 to say that the payment i made yesterday had not gone in and that as from the 17th feb i had a prob, i.e he wanted me out then.

I called him back at 6.15 when i woke up and saw the txt. told him then that I had the counterpart to the paying in slip and i would send it across via email if he wanted, he said I am sorry in that case then,

So i take ds1 to school come back and there is an email from him telling me that no money in account and i need to call him immediatley, so i do get told i am on his back hassling him at work...errrr you asked me to call.
I have then had text messages telling me his patience has worn out etc. SO i scan said counterpart in and email it to him from 3 different email addressed all with the same email. Guess what I HAVE HAD NO MORE CALLS TXTS OR EMAILS!!1
Now i don't think I am worng in expecting him to apologise when he made accusations and basically called me a liar...

am going to vent some steam outside now grrrrrrrrrrr

I should add I am a landlord as well and have also had nightmare tenants, but as long as tenants try to be reasonable and look after the property they are in quite a good position. Better than landlords!!

first of all he cannot just throw you out on the 17th. He has to give one months eviction notice, in writing and this has to be the proper official document. And it has to be given to you by hand and you both have to sign it.

After that he needs to take you to court.

I can sympathise I was in the same situation last xmas because of a HB fuck up .

My landlord tried every trick in the book so I sought proper legal advise and when he realised that he could not just change the locks while I was out , he had no rights just to enter my house regardless of whether or not I owed him money and calling me all hours and turning up at my house all hours was infact harrassment.

He calmed down and agreed that I could pay him the arrears in weekly installments.

I had felt awfull about owing him the money, but honestly could not pay it back as I didn't have the moeny he was asking for. I applied for loans and begged family and friends.

I stopped feeling so awfull after he threatened me telling me "You should be carefull you don't know who I am or who I know" after I asked him to leave my house so I could tend to my children who were upset by the fact he had forced his way into the house yet again and was demanding payment then and there of £1000 or we had to pack up and leave.

My advise is find anyway you can to pay back this man, offer weekly installments, via bank transfer not cash. And if he continues threatening to evict you seek advise from CAB.

At the end of the day it is him who could lose his business you can easily move into another rented property, so you have to be able to see why he is upset.

I agree about the cash in the envelope thing. make sure you have proof you paid him.

Its a pity that the nightmare landlords and nightmare tenants cannot be put together.

A different tenant who was not a nightmare but got into problems asked us to formally evict her. I really did not want to do this as I knew she had a two year girl.

I approached shelter and asked them their advice and it turned out that this tenant did not know what benefits she was eligible for.

Seriously a landlord cannot bully tenants and there are proper proceedures that have to be followed. A tenant is in a very strong position.

He called me about an hour ago and whilst I was trying to explain I cannot make a payment on a friday as the money does not clear until monday he started shouting at me "I am talking and I will finish" so when I did get the opportunity to talk and he started talking over me I said "Now I am talking and I WILL finish" he sighed and I replied, "Its not nice to be spoken to like that is it? but thats exactly how you spoke to me"

Anyway I had to cut the call short as I was in tears and have just tried to call him back but got his voice mail so I don't know what is happening now.

I have told him I will continue making the payments of £220 on mondays and £50 on wednesdays which he agreed to on Sunday evening. I have also said that if I have extra money during the week I will pay that to the account as well even if it is £20. I will also pay the child maintenance I get for ds1 to the rent arrears as well, i can't do more than that.

SO i just have to wait for an email in reply.

Seashells is right apart from he would have to give you two months' notice a month after the first lot of defaulted rent. That ends up being 3 months in reality. CAB will be able to advise about the actual parts of law that apply.

Really we landlords are comparatively powerless. It is illegal to harrass a tenant, even if they have been sent by the devil to try you. So ignore any nonsense. The law is very much on your side.

I think you should ask your landlord to communicate by letter and not telephone you or visit you. Could you not change your telephone number. The CAB would be able to give you advice on the law better than me.

Seriously landlords are fairly powerless in this situation. He can rant and rave as much as he likes, but he cannot evict you without proper proceedings unless he wants to end up in jail.

Trust me its hard to get rid of the tenants from hell. I realise its a stressful situation to be in, but there are organistations out there who can help you. Talk to shelter and CAB and make sure you know your rights.

The defaulted rent was 6th January, the HB had screwed up and only paid £440 instead of £880 and I could not find the rest to pay him which would have been a total of £600. I only get £150 a week so this would have meant going without essentials for 4 weeks to pay him.

I have emailed him the following.

I am sorry I cut you both short on our call, I needed to compose myself.

There is no way in the world that I want to move, I have spent far too long moving around and running away from my past. Now is the time for me to finally settle down and give my children the stability the deserve. I love our home and so do the children. I apologise that the payment did not clear in time, I promise you sincerely that I did make that payment in the morning after the school run. As I will tomorrow with the £50. As for the arrears I will continue looking for a loan as I do not want to lose this place.

I fell into difficulty myself prior to Christmas, and although this really is not your concern I will say it anyway, when my uncle died and I ended up footing the bill for funeral costs, but as I say this is neither here nor there now. I am getting myself back on track now as speedily as possible and will continue to make the regular payments of the present rent twice weekly.

I cannot make a payment on Friday as the money does not clear in my bank until Saturday morning hence the reason I can make the payment on Monday. I also can make a payment every Wednesday as I have the children's money in the bank then which is where the extra £50 is coming from. As stated on Sunday, if I get any extra "Spare" cash I will add that to the account as well, I cannot guarantee this will be regular but some weeks I have £20 or so spare and can pay that in as well.

Please accept my apologies that things have got to this state, Regardless of how it may seem we do want to stay here as much as this is your property this is our home, and we want it to stay that way. I also apologise for getting upset on the phone, I have some things going on which have turned me into an emotional wreck and yes I know this is not your fault or concern, I just wanted to be straight with you. I will call you shortly when I have composed myself a bit more.

DO you think this reads ok? too late if it doesn't lol. The reason i have spent so long moving around and running away is because i was seriously attacked when I was 18 and have never been able to settle since. But I like this place so i do want to stay. Also the things I have going on are depression and I am trying to come out of it without AD's and just by taking each day as it comes.

I think you need to make sure you get reciepts for your rent. Its against the law for your landlord to refuse to give reciepts.

Personally I would make the letter more concise and to the point. I would leave out details about your uncle dying. Don't mention anything about your health or previous existance. It needs to be a business letter rather than trying to make him feel sorry for you. (Please don't think I am being unsynpathetic.)

I think you need to state that you realise you are in arrears by X amount. You are experiencing major financial problems and this is how you intend to pay off the debt. You will pay Y per week on top of your usual rent. As Y per week is what you can reasonably afford. You plan to be debt free by whatever date.

The letter needs to show a court that you are doing everything you can to pay what you owe. Personally I would not pay more tha Y per week even if you have a bit of spare cash. You need the spare cash for weeks when you are a bit short.

I am not great at letter writing, but I am sure that someone from CAB could help you.

I think it would be a mistake to send the letter. Send him an email politely setting out terms that were agreed and, at most, apologising for any misunderstandings. Don't over-explain. He's obviously got some crisis of his own on - don't get involved.

It reads okay to be but may have been a bit personal. He is your landlord its a business arangement you have with him. He is not bothered whether or not you struggle to feed your children every week or if you all live on caviar all he is bothered about is getting the rent on time.

If he is still threatening you with eviction you need to speak to CAB.

What went on with HB? Why was it short? Are you not entitled to the full amount?

And do you know that you call apply for a 'discretionary housing payment' to make up the arrears?

I'd go and see CAB and the council ASAP. And stop taking his calls if he is upsetting you. Call him now because you said in your email that you would and not doing so will only excasberate the situation. But advise him that you are only contactable during reasonable hours/by email/by post and that you are making every possible effort to get the arrears paid off.

I think you made the letter far too personal, which gives him bully ammunition. Best to be businesslike and neutral in future, perhaps. Talk to the CAB.

Are you kicking ass with the HB people? After all, from what you say, it seems to be their cockup that caused this.

Waaay to much info in that letter, when you disclose such personal (and irrelevant to him) details you lay yourself wide open. If it was only half of your rent H/B havn't paid then that isnt even one months rent so would be quite a while before he could evict you

I would email back saying you will pay as much rent as possible, when possible and until then could he not contact you and that you will be contacting CAB for advise

He is bullying you but only if you let him

This was the email I sent initially the last one was an apology for cutting off the call.

Further to our earlier conversation at 6.10am I was most disappointed to hear the payment I made yesterday morning had not shown in your account. I have since sent you the proof via email from 3 different email addresses to ensure you receive it.

I do not appreciate the insinuation that I am a liar as I know I made the payment within time for it to clear and show in your account.

I also made the payment in cash which I always believed to be the best way for something to show immediately. I have spoken to the HSBC where I made the payment and they have suggested you yourself contact the account holding branch to enquire where the monies have gone to.

You came here on Sunday 25th January and we came to an agreement that the payments would be made every Monday and Wednesday. I have made Mondays payment and I am extremely upset that you found a way of contacting me to accuse me of NOT making the payment and yet now I have sent you proof you have not found the way to make contact and apologise for the accusations. You emailed me and asked me to call immediately yet when I did I was verbally abused for doing so, I simply called you as you stated in your email. I did not shout at you but was accused of doing so, when in actual fact all I said was "I cannot understand" before i had finished I had you raising your voice at me and telling me you were terminating the call as I was hassling you at work and to get off your back.

Mr H, I do not believe that by making contact with you as you requested is "being on your back", You also made a comment about me "being on your back this morning", I simply awoke at 6.15 and saw your text message which again you requested I call you immediately which I did as soon as I saw your message. I apologise for not calling you at 4.42am when you sent the following message

Please call immediately. We (you) have a problem as of the 17 feb. You have betrayed my trust and let me down.

I have not in anyway betrayed your trust nor have I let you down. I cannot stress enough that I did indeed make the agreed payment and have now sent you the proof of that payment. The scanned counter part clearly shows this, and yet for all the other times you have contacted me you cannot even acknowledge receipt of the previous emails where I have shown this proof.

I am not in the habit of shouting at people who are doing their job but I am also not in the habit of accepting accusations when I know that what I am being accused of is totally wrong and not what happened.

Please could you let me know if you have received the scanned counterpart if not I shall resend it again.

Kind regards and have a good day

This was a much better and to the point email, the other i should not have sent as I was literally in tears.

yanbu

but for your own sanity you need to ignore your landlord

Dash it is paid directly to my account and then i withdraw it and pay it into his account. This is the way he wanted it done.

I have been to their offices and am going back again tomorrow to sort out descretionaru payments I hope