UK - Problems with Landlord/Eviction

when we moved into our current house in may we were on housing benefits,
which the landlord was fine about, however to apply for them at the new
address we required our tenancy agreement which wasnt supplied until 5months
after we moved in, we had no way of chasing it up as we didn\'t know the
landlords name or address, we just had a phone number to which mostly all
calls texts were ignored. anyway, now we have put our claim into the council
for backdating etc, however the landlord has now decided to start
proceedings to evict us, rather than wait for the council\'s decision on the
back dated rent. further more on the supposed official papers he has put
bare faced lies about me and my partner and has continuously lied about
having contacted the council. we recieved a text from him today stating he
had phoned the council and our application had been unsuccessful and we were
to leave immediatley under section 8. yet, when i spoke to the council i was
told infact they had discussed no details with him due to client
confidentiality. also since moving in we have seen no evidence of where our
deposit is being held, which i thought was requred by law. please advise if
the landlord is in the right and if can a) evict us without a court order,
and b) if there is anything we can do about the lies he\'s told. thanks.

[OHlandlord]

Unfortunately, I cannot give you the exact laws of the UK. I am not familiar with them. I will tell you what American laws and courts have ruled and what is standard here. (Hopefully it will apply.)

When applying for Section 8 assistance in the US, the house or unit must be approved, along with the tenants, BEFORE you are permitted to take residency there. If you take residency prior to being approved, YOU (and not the Housing Authority) are responsible for any rent that accumulates before your assistance payments start. They may be willing to backdate your assistance payments to the landlord, but the landlord is not required to wait for it, nor to accept the assistance payment (in most places*). *There are some areas that mandate acceptance of rental assistance programs, but most states have no such requirement - the LL is free to decline to accept this program.

If you are responsible for the rent and fail to pay it (even if you are later ruled eligible for that assistance) you can be evicted through a court of law for non-payment of rent. The rent is still due to the LL on time, no matter who pays it. In the US, the LL would issue a Pay or Quit notice or another similar notice to you, giving you a specific number of days to either pay the rent or move out. If you failed to do so, the LL could file with a court of law for an eviction. You would be assigned a court date within the month when you would be allowed to present a defense to the eviction request. The LL would only have to prove that you have paid no rent for the time period in question. No other statements or lies he has told would matter. (This applies only to evictions for non-payment, and not to any other type of evictions.)

If the judge ruled in favor of the LL, you would be given only a few days to move out, or a court officer would arrive and remove your belongings from the residence and place them on the curb. All of this can happen (from unpaid rent notice through eviction by removing belongings to the curb) within a month-6 weeks in my state. I could not remove the tenants from the residence myself. Only a court can order this. It is illegal for me to attempt to remove them myself. If I did, or I forced them out unlawfully, the tenants could sue me.

I do not know if acceptance of your assistance is mandatory in the UK. If it is not, the LL can demand rent payment be made to him. If you fail to pay, he can move (file a court case) to evict you.

Since you are attempting to obtain Section 8 assistance, please call your housing caseworker immediately and explain the situation. Ask them to refer you to free legal counsel (you should be eligible). The attorney can advise you what your country's laws are on acceptance of assistance payments and what procedure the LL must take to evict you. He may even be able to help to defend you from this eviction in many cases.

I hope this is some help to you. If you need more specific advice, you can use the links at the top to find an attorney. I believe there is a fee for that service, but it may be worth it to get exact information if you cannot get free counsel. Good luck.

It would seem he is not being truthful.

You may challenge any eviction attempt and even take him to court to show his false statements if need be.

Even the threat of it will likely slow him down!