Dispute Over Rent And Property Damage

[Rentingbob]

I had a long running dispute over back rent and some property damage. My former landlords daughter takes care of the finances for him and she obtained a judgment from suing me for over £4000 in payments of back rent and the property damage.

She is now applying for an attachment of earnings order to ensure I have to pay her. This could be up to £200 a month I will have to pay and that will plunge me into a lot of financial difficulty.

The daughter seems quite ruthless and she says that putting me into deep financial difficulty is of no concern to her at all and she is ensuring I pay her in full, yet I know she is already raking in big profits from renting.

I ‘m not actually looking for legal advice, but I would like to know your views on how you see this. Is she right to show no concern about the financial difficulty she is putting me in despite already raking in good profits or is she just going about this is a business manner?

[Baldric]

Eddies info is not always accurate/reliable to be fair.

[Rentingbob]

Thanks Baldric, Somehow Eddie claims to have got off extremely lightly with money he owes. As far as I am aware, I will have to pay a substantial monthly amount to pay off what I owe her.

Maybe the court will not order me to pay the full amount she is requesting, but as I have said, I owe money to some relatives which I don't have any document evidence of so I am not expecting a court to take that into account because verbally I could just claim I owe lots of people all kinds of amounts.

If I am ordered to pay her the full amounts, that will then put me in big financial trouble. I'll talk to the CAB as Eddie advises but it may be a long shot.

[Rentingbob]

I don't think she does believe a word I say cassa333. Although she has not actually said that, she has said that what I may owe to relatives is irrelevant and of no concern to her so she will be ensuring she gets paid in full.

I was sure I would have to be able to back this up with document evidence for a court to take what I owe to relatives into account. As I don't have anything documented, I had assumed that it would not be taken into account and the court would see this as I have a lot more money spare to pay her than I actually have.

If this is the case I will be in a really bad financial state as she is asking for substantial monthly payments and has no concern about putting me in deep financial trouble.

[pixie374]

There's no reason she should be concerned, Bob. It's her money. For as long as you owe it, you basically have an unauthorised loan from her. Citizen's advice might help you come to an agreement with her, but it really is not her problem.

[Jackdaw33]

If you can afford it an offer of £50 per month will see the debt paid off in under 8 years. Depending on your financial circumstances I cannot see the court being unsympathetic to this. If you could stretch to £100 this would see it paid off in just over 3 years.

[Baldric]

///and has no concern about putting me in deep financial trouble///

Why should she? business is business, you signed an agreement, she is entitled to collect, if you got it wrong it's not her fault, is it?

[Rentingbob]

I appreciate your view pixie, and you're right it is her money and technically it is an unauthorised loan which she expects to be paid back.

I do find it hard to take that as I didn't deliberately try to avoid paying her, I just made a really big mistake and she has no concern about the financial trouble she is going to put me in because of that.

Again you are probably right that there is no reason why she should have any concern about putting me in financial trouble as it was my mistake not hers. I will go to see the CAB though.

[Rentingbob]

Thank you jackdaw33. I could afford to pay £50 a month but 8 years does seem a long time to have this hanging over me! I may be able to try and stretch to £100 a month over 3 years, but she is looking more in the region of £200 a month which would put me in big financial trouble.

Because of the undocumented money I owe to a relative, the court may feel that up to £200 a month would be a reasonable amount to pay her which she would obviously be satisfied with but would leave me a very difficult financial situation.

[Jackdaw33]

I'm sure the court will accept £100 per month.

[Rentingbob]

I would be OK with taking on £100 a month jackdaw33, she would probably not be too chuffed with it though. I guess it would work both ways in that if I were ordered to pay £200 a month, I would have to try and pay it, if it were just £100 a month then she would have to accept that.

[EDDIE51]

As I said earlier. If the two of you can't agree on a repayment plan, then the court will make the decision for you. They will look at your finances and decide what you will pay. Once that happens you are both stuck with it. It can only be changed if your financial situation gets worse or gets better.

[Rentingbob]

OK EDDIE51, it looks like I will be at the mercy of what the court orders me to pay, I can only hope it comes out favourably for me because like you say, I am likely to be stuck with it. I guess that will be the same for her as well

[MallyJ]

To be honest all I have seen is you saying she is putting you into financial difficulties but she is not...you have done that.

[Rentingbob]

You do have a point Mallyj as I was the one who made a big mistake and all she is doing is ensuring that I pay for it. What I have been meaning is that as she is demanding substantial monthly payments that I can't realistically afford it will cause me big financial trouble, where if she were to accept lower payments I wouldn't then be in financial trouble, or at least not too deep financial trouble. I do appreciate all views though.

[Peter Pedant]

jesus eddie - you're a nice guy - what have you been doing?

Um £4000 is quite a lot for her to say - "oopth - well never mind I never wanted it anyway"

so what do I say - Karma I think is what I say

[bednobs]

she cant apply for AOE unless you have failed to pay the agree amount. Are you saying that you have fallen behind on the repayment plan already set up?

[woofgang]

If you had paid her the rent she was owed when it should have been paid and if there hadn't needed to be repairs to the property, then the business would have had the use of the rent money and not be losing money by spending out on repairs. The longer it takes you to pay the business the money you owe, the further out of pocket the business becomes as they have not only lost the money, they have lost notional interest/value increase that might have accrued on that money AND will have had to spend money on the repairs and will have lost notional interest/value increase on that. Additionally you have added to her workload. I'd be expecting the money back asap too!

[Rentingbob]

Yeah that's basically what happened bednobs.

[-SharonA-]

Ahhh now we getting to the nitty gritty.

[EDDIE51]

Bednobs has a point. She can't get an attachment of earnings order unless you have already broken a repayment agreement. So what is the full story?