Before I start I am not hinting for foodparcels, loans or any charity as I am a proud woman but I think my family is about to go under. I can't take much more and have been crying with stress for an hour now.

[twinsetandpearls]

As you know we have just moved and coud not sel our house.

We made plans to move before the credit crunch and we were desperate to move.

We agreed to rent the house to my sister and her friend for just under the mortgage, as they agreed to move out if we got a sale and we knew the house would stay nice for any viewings.

a fortnight after siging agreements the other tenant buggered off owing us lots of money ( and my family) My sister could not afford the full rent ( which was subsidised by us so we agreed that she could pay her third ( her house mate had a son so they used two rooms and she used one) This meant we were subisidising her by almost £500 a month. She knew we coud not sustain this and oromised to look for a flatmate, she has not and four months later we are £500 a month down. Our savings have gone on a deposit for our rental house down here and moving costs. We are now sinking.

We should take this girl to court for the money she owes us but we don;t have the momney to pay for a solicitor.

Then to top it all I have had some money taken from my bank and the bank are investigating but seem to be dragging their feet. I have given them a crime number which will speed it up, hopefully.

To top it all our car died and we needed to replace it as once a month my dp has to go back up to Lancashire. So spent his money just before my bank was drained.

Dp gets paid on Friday and until then we have no money. We just about have food. A friend drives me into work and I owe her petrol money, she is now skint so we may not even be able to get into work from Wednesday. We are now one month behind with the council tax as well. My anti depressants ran out last week and I can't afford my new prescription which is probably making things feel much worse than they are.

We are going to have to completely cancel Christmas this year, we were going to visit family and now dd is heartbroken as she can't see her dad, extended family or the friends she left behind over Christmas.

I have phoned the estate agents who are selling the house and they will rent it out but they have said because the rental market is saturated the rent will not cover the mortgage. But we will be subsidising at £100 rather than £500 a month. I know this is going to cause a huge family row when I have to ask my sister to leave the house and I am dreading it.

I know everyone is going to pile in and say you shouldn;t have moved but when we made plans the credit crunch was not big news so we thought, and so did the estate agent ( although they would say that that we would sell). When it became clear that we could not sell I even tried staying in my old job but as my school wa bankrupt they would not give me my job back once my notice had gone in.

I don't even know why I am posting this, I guess I just need to offload.

oh and talk to council about CTax arrears they may agree to let you pay of the month behind over the full year (normally tax is deducted over 10 months.)

In that case how much does your ex-tenant owe ? I don't think this is a time for sentiment I'm afraid, she did the dirty on you after all. Codul you go throguh small claims which costs a fraction of the amount of a lawyer?

Twinset - hugs.

Now, practical matters. You need to take a deep breath and be really firm with your sister. She is screwing you over by not organising a flatmate, so don't feel any guilt - give her an ultimatum with a short time scale - if she can't sort out another tenant who is reliable then she's out. No ifs or buts - you are the one paying the mortgage FGS!!

Have a look in the freezer and see what you can rustle up - it's amazing what you can throw together when you put your mind to it. Eat lots at lunch time as you get free dinners

Christmas: it's one day. That's all. Yes, you'll have to scale down, but so are many people this year. Plan a cheap fun family day, and then maybe look ahead to when you can realistically visit family up north - maybe spring or summer? If you have a plan in mind, then it'll help get you through Christmas.

As you say - this is a blip. You're a teacher - and that's not a bad position to be in during a recession. At least you know that you have a reasonable income coming in regularly. It will get better. You have overcome some crap situations in the past, this is not going to be that bad - just hang on in there!

TSAP - the house is beautiful. I really hope you get a tennent or buyer soon. If I was looking in that area we would definately view it at that price.

Can you do a car boot? easier than ebay as you get a quicker result. If you are like us you will have allsorts of tatt stuff to sell People are looking for bargains atm so will be out at these places looking for toys etc for the DC.

I have a few old AD's hanging about you are welcome to if they're the right ones. No good to me anymore so its just recycleing rather than charity and therefore very ecofriendly.

She has signed a six month contract, her rent was for £330 a month. There was a clause in her agreement that for every day she owed us rent she paid a £5 fine.

She paid us £200 in total. She left the house with no notice or warning after a few weeks. She then disapeared having half decorated two room, as you can see from the house photos there was no need for her to do this. When she asked permsission I said only if it was completed to the high standard that was already there.

Not only this but she asked if she could store things in our house before she moved in, we let her do this free of charge for a month, even though it meant dd lost her bedroom for that month and had to slepp with is.

She has never given us notice in writing, just disapeared and then left a load of abusive phonecalls and texts saying how she hated living with sister who was an immigrant slut!! She also told me that my dd was a spoilt brat and I was a stuck up cow and that if her actions would result in us lososing our home that would be serve us right.

But she is a struggling single mum and I know she will have to pay us at some stupid amount a week so there is no point.

Her agreement commits her to six months minimum, so we could claim six months from her, so even if we ignored the five pound fine she owes us abour £1600.

I did some research and we could not take action for a few months as she had not given notice and we were bound by the tenancy.

I do not want £1600 from her I would be happy with the rent she owes us for the month she was there and to cover a months notice and for her to pat back to my mum the money she leant me.

I do not have the money at the moment for solicitors fees and soon it is going to be too late to do anything.

Then just to push me over the edge I have just had a summons from Blackpool council for overpayment of Housing benefit for over £2K. I had a similar letter about six months ago and the council said they would investigate as it did not make sense as I claimed housing benefit five years ago and apparantly the overpayment happened over a period of 5 days! I only claimed £70 a week for about 8 months.

I haven't read your whole thread, so apologies if someone has already said this, but you don't need a solicitor to make a county court claim for money you are owed. I do a few times a year when people don't pay me for work that I've done for them, and it's pretty easy. You can do it online, which is even easier.

But before even going that far you should write a formal letter stating what they owe you and that you'll give them 14 days to pay and then take them to court. Most people pay up at that stage, ime.

If you want someone to talk you through it step by step or to email you template letters to send, do CAT me.

findtheriver you are right I have overcome much worse in the past and we will get through this. I just really thought moving here was going to be the start of the good times for us.

The silver lining is that it is bringing dp and I together and I realise what a good man he is to have.

callmeover a carboot may be a good idea, I bet dd would enjoy doing it as well.

I do have a few cases of very expensive clothes though, would I not be better doing those on ebay.

How about doing it through the small claims court ? Its 10% of the claim to lodge it (which you can add to the debt) and you don't need a solicitor to do it. More info here

But you don't need to involve a solicitor. If you have a contact address send a recorded letter asking for what she owes for the time she occupied or you will got to small claims for the full amount according to the tenancy. CAB or http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/legal_system/small_claims.htm here will give details of procedure and it would cost less than £100 to do so.

I have written to her but she will not give me a forwarding address so have had to send them to her place of work and she refuses to acknowledge them.

I could send another one though.

posts crossed ! link again

Thanks for those links, I feel like I am doing something positive.

It does say not to bother if you think you will not get the money, wil they make a single parent pay up? She just does bar work.

Frogs I will CAT you, could you email me those templates.

Tell benefit people to get in line, offer them a pound a week. Don't let them upset you xx

If I owed the money I would accept and deal with it but it just does not make sense.

God I could kill for chocolate, am off to hunt for some. Have a feeling dp has eaten it. At least I may loose weight being poor.

I'll dig out my templates ready for when your CAT arrives, tsap.

Don't worry too much about the fees at this stage -- sending a pompous letter is only the cost of a stamp, and even lodging a claim in the CC is not huge. The point at which you have to consider whether or not to stop throwing good money after bad comes a lot further down the line than that.

But I'm happy to talk you through it by email, I spend enough time chasing bent solicitors and other clients through the court system.

Thanks frogs

Twins, go get a script for your AD's and I will get it filled for you love.

Thanks Shoshe, I think I may have sorted ADs.

I do love my new Dorset crew.

If you need anything, you ring me young lady or I may have to put you over my knee, UNDERSTAND!

Twinset I didn't mean to make you worry more. I just know what stress cash flow can have on you.