HELP! No income since March

[Jux]

Our basement was converted into a kind of granny flat with a connecting internal door to the rest of the house (our home); it has its own front door and separate address (the number with an 'a' added), but the utilities are not and cannot be separated.

We therefore charge tenants a combined rent which includes a certain amount for gas/elec/water, leaving them to pay their own Council Tax.

If they don't pay their rent, then we can't pay the joint utility bills.

The couple in there since before Christmas are elderly, one is retired the other was working but was sacked just after lockdown came about, which made it hard for her to find another job. We suggested they claim UC and apparently they did apply but actually haven't been paid it yet.

In the meantime they can't pay us. We have been using credit cards to try to stay on top of bills but can't go on.

They paid £200 last week but will not come up to discuss the debts with us. We have asked them and get shrugs, or vagueness, or "oh, I didn't know about that....." when we tell them of another benefit they could perhaps claim.

We've run out suggestions now and we've run out of credit. We dropped in a letter 3 days ago stating the amount of the debt and asking them to come and talk to us (yet again!). They have so far gone out earlyish and driven off for the day not returning until late. They are clearly avoiding us.

We don't qualify for UC ourselves as we own a property in which we do not live, ie the basement flat.

Is there anything at all we can do? Is there any help for us? A mortgage moratorium is not helpful to us as we don't have a mortgage.

TIA

It sounds like you need to start considering moving to somewhere cheaper and less hassle!

Contact the relevant companies and explain the situation, then see if you get a solicitors letter asking for payments to see that gets a response or propose a repayment plan going forward.

I don’t know your location but a friend of mine does really well letting out her basement short term to guys who were contracting locally.

Pre-covid she achieved over double the income she would otherwise get renting it on an AST. There are some set up costs, furnishing etc, but the benefits are that you don’t get tenant issues. Might be worth looking into.

Space raiders idea would also change the annex to a business let and you could then look at getting small business relief in the council tax which could see it drop considerably to zero on the annex

GingerkittyKat yes we've already applied but as said, because we own another property in which we do not live (the basement flat) we do not qualify.

We are in an almost-tourist area, and there are many many b&bs, hotels, small hotels, campsites etc - most of the smaller ones have closed in the time between the recession and now COVID. We have considered doing the flat up and trying to Airbnb, but we don't have the capital atm.

Anyway, we have all that new info and we know there's stuff we can do now to help resolve the situation re the arrears etc. at least. I'm a resourceful person though limited in action through disability so with the help I've had here we'll probably think of something that's within our capabilities. The pandemic won't last forever, things change, and I'm sure we'll manage. It is a big weight off our minds, the dishonesty of our tenants, now we know about it.

If the gas and water supply can't be separated are they not saying it is a shared property and that would come under different rules. With tenants on the premises.

Viviennemary Tell me more....?

It was really more a clutching at straws. If it's one property and landlord lives on the premises easier to get people out. In any case if they have no contract with you or permission to even be there at all I don't think they would have the sane rights as contracted tenants. You need legal advice under the circumstances.

Same that should be. Do they pay separate council tax?

Viviennemary, yes, they have separate CT, whether they pay it or not I have no idea! Not my business. They do have a contract; we always use a particular EA in town to find our tenants and they do all the checks and handle the deposit and draw up the contract. We''ve all signed.

I don't think we would get away with pretending it's just part of our house with these tenants. We may be able to change that for the next ones. We'll be talking to the EA on Monday morning, perhaps we wouldn't need a solicitor but if it turns out we do we'll just have to manage it somehow. Maybe one of our friends knows a friendly solictor! I'll put a shout out