26/04/10 court hearing so H.A. can evict us

[ConstanceWearing]

Hi, my housing association is claiming possession of my rented house for non-payment of rent and persistent late payment of rent (sections 10 and 11, apparently).

In 2007, I was taken to court for the same thing, and paid all the rent off but I was given a suspended possession (I think that's what it is called).

I have no defence besides the fact that I have been at university (2005-2010) and during this time I was advised that I was not entitled to income support or jsa during the summer holidays. For 3 years, I lived on loans from the Provident and by going over my overdraft (both these bright ideas, as I'm sure you can imagine, had dreadful financial consequences). I am constantly struggling to pay off a backlog of debt, besides my current bills.

I really don't know what I'm asking here... whether I am likely to be evicted, I suppose? I have two sons and four daughters who live with me. Three under 18 years, 3 over 18 years; my two eldest girls are pregnant but have not yet moved into their own homes. It's all very worrying.
Thanks for listening )

Offer a payment plan?

You all need somewhere to live and with all those adults (and the younger ones can get Saturday jobs) you can pay it off gradually, yes?

How stressful for you. Have you spoken to the HA to see if you can come up with a repayment plan?

www.shelter.org.uk You should give these a call, they are really helpful and will give you the advice that you need. I also think that you should go to the CAB so they can give you some money advice on how to manage your debts. Take all the paperwork with you, they will go through it all and speak to the people you owe money to so that interest is stopped and the repayments are managable for you.

Do your older children work?

If you went to court and cleared in full in 2007 you shouldn't have an SPO relating to those arears so, I assume the HA have taken you to court to gain a posession order since then. Has the HA applied for an eviction for breach of an SPO this time? It is unusual for courts to award outright orders particularly if you consistently clear the arrears when you recieve student loans etc. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that with out the full facts I can't really advise. The suggestion to approach shelter is excellent however there are some good sources of local help such as the CAB and your council is obliged to provide advice either in house or through funding an independant provider.

If you can show that you have made a concerted effort to manage your rent and have kept your HA informed you should have a good case for retaining your tenancy. Good Luck. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

I am sorry I never saw this sooner, I hope you managed to get things sorted before your hearing by getting some advice. Once you have the immediate issue of the court hearing at least on hold, or possession postponed, you really do need to get some proper debt counselling to break the cycle of paying off one debt for a bit then stopping to pay off another. Dont go for the debt counselling that you have to pay for - got to CAB or similar. They are always busy so you'll have to be persistent, but once you are 'in' its worth it. I set up a service doing debt counselling for tenants and the feed back was often that it was life-changing, so dont be afraid if you are anxious about debt counselling, they will get your debts on an affordable footing, some may get frozen or even written off. Once you have breached a suspended or postponed order your landlord will apply for a warrant of possession if you dont make an agreement to pay back the arrears and get back in line with the order's terms. The warrant is a bit of paper from the court giving them permission to enter your home with a bailiff on a given date. You can apply to stop this (a stay hearing) right up until the date of possession. All courts vary, but in my experience someone who has kids and is making a real effort to adress their problems is pretty unlikly to be evicted (I have had cases with more than 7 stays). Your old order will still be live if you cleared the arrears, but not the costs, which the court ususally add to the payable debt when they make a possession order. good luck, let us know how you go.

can't the 3 over 18 years get housing benefit for living there even if you weren't eligible for JSA or IS.