emergency advice prevents eviction

The swift response of Stoke CAB housing specialist, Martin Coates, kept “Joe”, “Louise” and their two children in their home when their landlord decided to evict them.

“Joe” and “Louise” had been struggling to get by on “Joe’s” wage and tax credits, and had run up two months rent arrears whilst trying to deal with other debts.

The landlord had demanded £50 a week towards the arrears on top of the £86.50 rent, which “Joe” and “Louise” could not afford. They had offered an extra £20 a week which was all they could afford.

“Joe” and “Louise” approached the bureau for help when their landlord served a possession summons on them.

“Checking through the paperwork it became clear that the landlord had not followed the proper legal procedure. He had failed to give them the notice that the law said he should so they had had little opportunity to take further steps to prevent the eviction,” said the Bureau housing caseworker Martin Coates.

Martin advised them that just because the landlord had issued a possession summons did not mean they had to leave the property and they could challenge his claim in court. Understandably anxious at this prospect, we agreed that Martin would represent them at the forthcoming County Court hearing.

At the hearing the District Judge agreed with our argument that the claim should not succeed saying it was one of the most “hopeless” applications he had seen.

Relieved that the claim had been thrown out and they would not be made homeless, “Joe” and “Louise” now have some time in order to sort out the rent arrears issue, with which we will be helping them.

“Had “Joe” and “Louise” not got advice from the CAB it is likely they would have left their home voluntarily, thus making it much harder to find alternative accommodation, and allowed the landlord to flout the law,” said Martin Coates.

“Because we were able to spot the flaws in the landlord’s application and bring these to the attention of the court, “Joe”, “Louise” and their children still have a roof over their heads.”

“However, if the landlord still wants to get them out and follows the correct procedure it will be very difficult for us to prevent eviction next time.” said Martin.

“Because private tenants have very little security it is absolutely essential that they seek advice at the earliest possible opportunity if they get into arrears or have any other sort of dispute with their landlord.

“In our experience, if we can resolve these disputes early on there is a much stronger chance of keeping people in their homes.”