Stressful day :'(

I think my landlord and mother nature have formed a gang against me lol. I'm so so so stressed its untrue. My landlord is Trying to fiddle us out of 543 quid! My lad works all week and only earns 750 a month and our rent is 414, our benefits weren't sorted so we were paying full rent because last time the lovely bradford council got us a grand in debt! SO for November december and January we paid 1238 in rent, the council have now back dated the money and paid them 948 quid (they owed 414 rent for October since they pay your rent in full for the first month you sign off) 534 quid was for November december and January and since we paid full rent they owe us that money, But they are saying they only owe us 170!! LIke I'm a stupid kid Who can't add up! Iv got 3 account statements and none of them have the Same info on them so I'm convinced they are committing fraud on the rent. So stressful all this its caused a huge flare just feel like crawling in a corner. But I'm gunna gather all my evidence and take it to a professional Who can help. Don't suppose any of you are lawyers or accountants? OR even landlords? XXx

[lucy-may]

Hi sorry to hear your so stressed, perhaps C A B can help sort this out, they have a legal dept; Hope this helps, Try to unstress yourself very difficult in the circumstances l'm sure, wish l could help more. X X

[Hidden]

Go back to the council and tell them what is happening?

[browneyedgal]

Im landlord and a commercial

surveyor if that helps

[Hidden]

That Does help, What can we do? I have print outs from my landlord of My accounts and all 3 of them are different, in the outstanding and outstanding base column the figures are different, surely if It's just a print out the only thing that should change is the new weeks added on? My landlord has a rep for ripping ppl off. I'm not thick and she's Trying to Tell me that She can't work out What were owed until the next payment but all they need to give us is the money the council paid them. And they want to charge us 40 quid for a tenancy renewal???? We've Never heard of that. Xxx

[browneyedgal]

Dont panic! Is there anyway I can see some paperwork?

[Hidden]

That depends lol I'm in bradford where are you? I'm also using my phone so its hard to do much other than write messages. Xxx

[Hidden]

Oh sugar just looked your in London :/ that's far Haha. Iv tried googling How to prove fraud but I can't find anything, I just want to be armed with the knowledge that I can demand my money and if they refuse I have enough evidence to take it further and have them shut down, I only have a rolling tenancy so I need to play this carefully or they will Chuck us out. I keep everything lol, I have txts, account statements, letters from my landlord, letters from the council and receipts. As an example the txt messages She sent saying we owed 156.60 on our arrears that we paid off every month, I paid her 30 quid the following month and She wrote me a letter saying I owe 144? THe week after another saying it was 156 then another 2 week it was 175! OUr rent payment was seperate from our debt and our rent is 103.48 a week so it doesn't even add up with the money She puts on top whenever we get close to paying it off. I smelled a rat and I got everything together including bank statements since they refused to give us receipts in the summer last year and I confronted her, She just said She wouldn't discuss anything because She goes by the accounts and that's all. I even told her the accounts don't add up! SHe just tapped my shoulder and said your stressed don't worry I know How much we owe you your just confused! I may be poorly but I went to a business school and I know She is messing with those accounts or producing false ones to try deceive me. I'm playing innocent tho till I get advice off someone. Xxx

[browneyedgal]

Right well it doesnt sounds as though she is behaving fairly. What you need to do is get the details from the council for the period that monies were being paid to you, cross refernce with the payments you made. I got the impression that the monies are now being paid direct from the council to her. The only way this can happen is if the rent is two months in arrears, Your best plan for action is to speak to CAB and ask them to take it from there. Its a shame that you're so far away otherwise it would be easier just to meet and go through the paperwork.

[Purpletop]

Just get them to explain in writing the discrepancies between the 3 accounts, show evidence of what has been paid between them (I.e. the council and landlord) for the period in question and to clearly identify against the specific terms of your tenancy agreement what sums they believe you still owe. I would write that in a letter and also add that although you are, of course, willing to cover any shortage in rent, you want to first ensure that the numbers are correct and that you look forward to them bringing the relevant evidence to your attention.

Once it is in a letter, it becomes a formal correspondence that can be brought in court as evidence, so it tends to be taken more seriously. Secondly, it will give you breathing time and thirdly, it puts the burden on them to prove to you that you owe the monies. Hopefully by the time they set it out in another formal letter, they realised a mistake has been made.

Good luck and I agree that if once they produce the evidence, the discrepancy still exists and you contest it, you will need to speak to a lawyer/someone at the CAB to guide you further.

[Hidden]

My friend is going to give me a number to get it all cleared up, it makes no sense that they only owe us 170 when the council over paid them by 543, we have been paying full rent and want the money paid back to us, afterall we was paying them in full every month so we wouldn't get in debt. Think the least we deserve is our money back. XXx

[Hidden]

Iv contacted my landlord by text and told them we want our money back in a check or cash, if they don't co-operate then I will take every shred of paperwork and every txt Message to citizens advice and the council and I will report them. I'm Trying to do this the right way giving them chance to hand the money over and do things right, I have a sneaky suspicion they will fight it tho. XXx