rent arrears & guarantor of lease

[kj61]

18 months ago I signed as a guarantor on a 6 month shorthold lease for my grown up daughter & her 1 year old son. 7 months ago she was unemployed & I helped her to fill in a claim form for housing benefit but first she had to get a letter from her landlord to say she was up to date with her rent. He did this & she made the claim. They assessed the rent & said they would only pay �250 towards her monthly rent of �450. I have now had a visit from her landlord telling me that his bookkeeper has made a mistake & just realised the rent hasn't been paid for 11 months & he is going to go to court to get it from me. I have spoken to my daughter about this & she has looked through her bank statements & found it has not been coming out of her bank but hadn't realised it until last week when the landlord first got in touch. She said she has offered to pay �100 on top of her monthly rent to catch up with the arrears but he has refused. Can he do this. I am on the verge of being made redundant & he even suggested I sell my house to pay it!

[bednobs]

blimey, what a mess! and poor you! Im not surprised the landlord is acting like this, because at an extra 100 quid a month, its going to take her around 4 years to pay off the arrears! I am, however absolutely astonished that some one can not be in control of their finances to either not realise 1) you have an extra 450 pounds a month or 2) that someone isnt paying you 450 pounds a month when they should be. I think he cam legally enforce you to pay, as you are garuntor, but idonyt hink he can lump all 5ooo quid on you at once

[themas]

1. If you haven't already had it, you need to ask the landlord for a detailed statement throughout the whole tenancy showing the amount and dates of all payments, both those made by your daughter and the housing benefit ones if they were made direct to him. (If he goes to Court he would have to provide this anyway, if you disputed the amount owed.) You must then check the statement in detail to satisfy yourself about the amount owed.

2. Does the guarantee state that he can take action against you without (or before) taking action against your daughter? If it doesn't, then it may be (but I am not certain) that he should go to Court against your daughter first, although this is unlikely to help you as there could then be 2 lots of Court fees added on to the debt.

3. He is out of order in saying you should sell your house. The mistake was his in the first place. If he takes you to Court you must fill in the Court form giving details of your finances and make an instalment payment offer. If the Court accepts it and you pay the amount regularly without fail, then he can do nothing more.