So confused re rent

[Dragonfliesdress]

Letting agents are saying I am in arrears due to the council not paying my Housing Benefit to them on the due date. I have spoken to the council and they have assured me that all rent has been paid it's just that isn't not paid exactly when the landlord has on their rental agreement, they have to adjust it to make the maths work and that this is a common issue they have with landlords. Letting agent keeps requesting "rental agreement should all be our guide please request arrears paid and all future payments paid in full on the due date" and it's like I can't do that!? I've spoken to the council and they have said they can't change the days its paid etc.
This was last year. I thought it was sorted. Didn't hear a peep from her for ages. Now suddenly she's coming back to me messaging me saying "they still haven't paid on the due date and therefore you're still in arrears". She sent me this email this morning saying I have until TOMORROW to pay the balance and get council to do as they say basically. Threatening court action.

Paid

Yes I do get £798.72 every 28 days I think

Sorry I meant has your landlord given you a rent statement? We used to get one both from private landlord and HA yearly but could request one at any time.

I just checked, it is sorry

They can't just chuck you out without going to court and proving you are in arrears.
There is good advice on the Shelter website and you can contact or visit them for advice about your own situation.

You need to get a statement from your letting agent showing all the payments of rent that have been paid for your house. That way you can clearly see any discrepancies and the dates the occurred

I do understand what they are saying but the fact that they are paying different covered period simply means there is possibility there is a period that was missed to be paid and this can only be verified once you can provide me the schedule of their payments with its corresponding covered period , so we can identify why there is shortfall in your rent statement . If you may notice in your rent statement in the first 3 months there was no payment and they paid on 12/01/17 but there was a shortfall of 256.73 which you should have settled but did not.....it then accumulates when May 2017 to Aug 2017 they have stopped paying again and when they have paid there was again shortfall of 798.72 .. adding your initial arrears of 256.73 resulted to total arrears of 1055.45.. so that simply means in between those unpaid periods.. there were dates not included in their payment.... This clearly shows in our rent statement!

From the LA.

But I cannot find the rent statement that's supposed to be attached and I've replied and no rent statement yet... I did take rent statement from LA to council last year when she mentioned this after they had a shortfall on the summer 17 time, as above, but as I said the council kept telling me there's nothing wrong

Do you have your HB paid directly to the LA?

And council wouldn't provide me with a print off of their full rent statements showing what they have paid and what dates etc and cover periods, I did ask and they said they weren't allowed, so how can I provide the LA with something to cross-reference?

Your rent is due in 12 monthly payments at £798.72. HB makes 13 four weekly payments of £737.28 so you are falling in arrears of £61.45 per month until the 13th payment goes in and makes up the difference. This is what your landlord is unhappy about.

Yes directly, she says she had 2 other HB tenants and this is not an issue with them with their payments

Your rent is due in 12 monthly payments at £798.72. HB makes 13 four weekly payments of £737.28 so you are falling in arrears of £61.45 per month

No the council pay £798.72 every 4 weeks and my rent is £798.72 every 4 weeks and she is discounting the 4 week arrears apparently

SouthernComforts OP said her rent is 4 weekly not PCM.

Sorry this is such a confused thread I started it in a rush and I'm reading through old emails and stuff and also talking to her rigjt now on mail

Why did HB stop (appear to stop according to the letting agent) between May and August 2017 - was there a change in your circumstances?

Sorry OP!!

So the first extra arrears (according to the letting agent) was a sum of £256 - which is just over a weeks rent - which may be accounted for your HB claim not coinciding with your tenancy.

Get advice from Shelter www.shelter.org.uk

It would take months for LA to take you to court and try to prove you owe money. In that time, Shelter could help you sort it out.

He is usually paid four weekly whereas rent is usually charged calendar monthly, could this none the case here

Pester the LA for the rent statement and then make an appointment with CAB or Shelter and get them to go over the figures with you. If it turns out that the council has made a mistake then they should be able to advise you on how to challenge them on it.

Sounds like 2 separate issues. When did your tenancy start, was it the same day you moved in? Tenancies in my experience (used to work in Housing for a Local Authority) usually start on a Monday which would mean not as the 19th of October was a Wednesday.

When did your previous tenancy end? Was it the Sunday the 16th of October?

If not that £256.73 could be due to an overlap between tenancies. It works out at what, a 9 day difference not paid for and possibly not due by HB because they were paying on your previous tenancy.

Between May and Aug 2017 did you have any change in circumstances, any periods when your benefits stopped? As that correspondence from the letting agent sounds like they failed to pay a 4 week period for whatever reason.

From that, how your rent is being paid currently isn't the problem. It's that they think you owe them 4 weeks plus 9 days worth of rent from previous years.

Can you phone the HB people direct? Or go into a Council Housing office and see someone who deals with HB in person? You need to clarify the dates of your tenancies starting/ending and also find out why they stopped paying last summer.

Have you had one continuous HB claim since you moved in?

Between May and Aug 2017 did you have any change in circumstances, any periods when your benefits stopped? As that correspondence from the letting agent sounds like they failed to pay a 4 week period for whatever reason.

The letting agents changed their bank details. Romina wasn't aware, it was someone else who works there. So there was a delay in processing - I kept pestering them until they paid.

It's really nothing to do with the previous tenancy. In the previous tenancy our tenancy ended months before we moved out and weren't given a new one it just rolled on, and the landlord wanted to redevelop the property, in the end housing benefit at that council wanted proof of my tenancy and landlord didn't provide me with one with relevent dates on it apparently so stopped paying. Landlord took orlur deposit for the arrears and then said we could move into different property. I didn't owe anything then and landlord has confirmed this. It was a fresh clean tenancy.
And yes my tenancy starts on a Wed

I can phone them, I tried earlier but didn't venue get the ringtone as said high volume couldn't take my call and it hung up. I am going tomorrow in person but you can't make an appointment, you turn up and take a ticket and wait for it to be called.... Plus I already did this last year in September about the 1055.45 with the council

Thank you for all the help anyway, I know it's so hard to help with the scanty and confused info I've posted. Hopefully be able to give a clearer version tomorrow... Hopefully LA will send me rent statement before I get to council tomorrow