Evictions/Bailiffs. Do people really not know?

Wouldn’t be a landlord in the uk for any amount of money. Too much risk . It is not quite so bad here, at least non payers get evicted after a while. There are a lot of people who invest in property instead of shares etc, especially these days. We don’t but many of our friends do and they are protected to a greater level than they seem to be there.

There has been at least one successful claim against the tv company for using this film without permission of the people involved.
There is nowhere any information on any of these poor people being paid by the tv companies.
In some of these programmes, the people do refuse entry to the tv crews and they have to stay outside. Unfortunately, so many people are in just such a state of shock and have no understanding of their rights they do not think of doing that, probably do not know that they can. Never are they asked if it is okay for the tv crews to come in.

I've worked in debt the debt collection industry, in every type of debt, for over 40 years and believe me, every debtor is given plenty of warnings by both their creditors, their agencies and the courts. There is a lot of ignoring it, not acknowledging their debt and burying their head in the sand before it gets to the repossession of goods and assets stage.

suziewoosie Harsh

Earlier this morning the theme music from the ITV programme 'This Week' was played on Radio 3 - Karelia suite by Sibelius.

It's spine-tingling to listen to, particularly as it reminded me of a time when TV documentaries were of the highest quality and worth watching.

I can't imagine why anyone watches a programme about evictions, screened as entertainment, rather than fact-finding.

This Week

Gosh. What an attitude suziewoozie. If you loan another person’s property it doesn’t give you the Goddamn right to leave it like a hovel! Some of the examples on these programmes just beggar belief how people have lived and expect people to be sympathetic about their money worries. Respect doesn’t cost anything.

I can believe it Chewbacca
We are very small scale landlords and touch wood have been very lucky with our tenants so far.
We started years ago when we could see what was happening with property prices, with a view to providing an income for our retirement.

We are certainly no where near on the scale of the infamous Fergus Wilson!

marpau Yes and a bit rude too but I will ignore!

Ohmother

Gosh. What an attitude suziewoozie. If you loan another person’s property it doesn’t give you the Goddamn right to leave it like a hovel! Some of the examples on these programmes just beggar belief how people have lived and expect people to be sympathetic about their money worries. Respect doesn’t cost anything.

Indeed, Ohmother! I've never watched a programme about evicting people - until one happened to be on TV yesterday, and I got interested . The particular circumstance was one man, with one small property to let out. When the tenants were eventually persuaded to leave, he had to try and clean what he said was ground in cat sht out of the carpets, in addition to having received no rent.

I can't see the fun in watching people be made homeless as a form of entertainment but I have equal sympathy for people whose property has been trashed and who have also been defrauded of legally owing rent.

there has been at least one successful court case against the programme I m amazed that with all the laws about not filming people how the programme makers can get away with it

That's just plain bullying of people who are in a terrible situation.
They probably don't know their rights, as Franbern says, and also can't think straight as they are being evicted.

suziewoozie

JenniferEccles

It’s worth also sparing a thought for the poor landlord in these sorry sagas.

Yes we all know there are awful rogue ones, letting out dreadfully maintained properties, but the vast majority are decent people letting property to supplement their income.

If a tenant stops paying rent and refuses to vacate the property it can take months for the landlord to get them out through the courts, and in some cases the property is vandalised, incurring more expense for the owner.

We have taken out a rent protection policy for peace of mind in case we should ever be unlucky enough to have a nightmare tenant.

What don’t you start a tgread about landlords then? Renting properties out is a business and all businesses have risks. Tough

Very hard on the young man who was sent abroad by his boss and had to rent out his flat to just about cover his mortgage. The woman who moved in didn’t pay any rent after the first month, but could afford to go on exotic holidays. Took months to get her out and poor man was lumbered with debts that took years to pay off and hampered his chances of buying a house when he was married.

That kind of theft is ok with you then Susie? As long as the world is dragged down to the lowest level and no one tries to plan to improve their future.

You seem very bitter!

I think there was a poster, not long ago, whose son was in exactly that position. He and his family were homeless while the tenant lived rent free in his house. He was paying mortgage and hotel bills.

There’s already a shortage of good quality rental property and telling landlords they just have to accept the risk of not being paid won’t improve things.

There has to be a balance.

My work is in connection to the courts and it's always struck me as odd that they don't send out mail normally, recorded / registered delivery.
The position they take is that it's deemed court documents are delivered by unless they are returned.

Meant to add * by mail

When I was working as an estate agent I had to attend many re-possessions on behalf of the Building Societies. I noticed in many of the houses that there were nearly always stacks of unopened letters in the hall. These were from debt collectors, banks, building societies etc. Sadly, I came to the conclusion that many of the people who had got deeply into debt buried their heads in the sand.

My daughter was taken to court by her landlord.
She had letters galore, which all added to the cost.
The agency the property was let from maintained they were unable to contact the landlord for over 18 months, and she had already been paying off quite a chunk of arrears each month.

The problem stemmed from the council paying 4 weekly rent, whilst some months have more days.
It got into a huge battle, with talk of "lunar months" vs 28 day months.

The judge said he couldn't understand any of it, ruled that she owed £300 instead of the thousands that were racking up, and that was an end to it.

Yes MissAdventure, I worked for many years in social housing and housing benefit payments caused no end of problems both from the length of time claims took to process and timing of payments. Especially complicated when tenants were in and out of short term employment. As a social landlord every effort would be made to assist tenants struggling with rent arrears, eviction was very much a last resort and personal contact made at all stages so arrival of the bailiffs was never out of the blue. A private landlord may well not have the resources to carry such loss of income. On retiring I was 6 years short of receiving my state pension and the lump sums received from mine and my husband pensions was used to purchase a small property to rent out to supplement our less than adequate income until we qualified for state pension. Hardly a business suziewoozie.
I can't see the entertainment value in these programmes and don't watch them. Exploitation of people in sad situations , on both sides of picture.

Happyme

Yes MissAdventure, I worked for many years in social housing and housing benefit payments caused no end of problems both from the length of time claims took to process and timing of payments. Especially complicated when tenants were in and out of short term employment. As a social landlord every effort would be made to assist tenants struggling with rent arrears, eviction was very much a last resort and personal contact made at all stages so arrival of the bailiffs was never out of the blue. A private landlord may well not have the resources to carry such loss of income. On retiring I was 6 years short of receiving my state pension and the lump sums received from mine and my husband pensions was used to purchase a small property to rent out to supplement our less than adequate income until we qualified for state pension. Hardly a business suziewoozie.
I can't see the entertainment value in these programmes and don't watch them. Exploitation of people in sad situations , on both sides of picture.

Businesses come in all shapes and sizes.Some provide additional income, some provide the main income. Any business ( unless you’re lucky) carries a risk and benefits. You makes your choice and accept the consequences.

The problem is twofold if the risk is great.

Firstly any business with a high risk of financial loss will charge to cover that. Landlords are no different. Those who don’t pay push up rents for those who do.

Ultimately, if the risk outweighs the benefit the business ceases to exist. The rental stock goes down. Repairs and maintenance become minimal.

It benefits nobody.

Peasblossom

I think there was a poster, not long ago, whose son was in exactly that position. He and his family were homeless while the tenant lived rent free in his house. He was paying mortgage and hotel bills.

There’s already a shortage of good quality rental property and telling landlords they just have to accept the risk of not being paid won’t improve things.

There has to be a balance.

Of course they have to accept the risk. What’s the alternative?

I don't think they are paid. I recall one news item where someone was ostracized by her neighbours because they wrongly thought she was being paid.
My daughter found herself on A & E Emergency programme. No prior warning or payment.
They followed her up the next day. She could have refused consent but she felt it might help someone to know what happens with anaphylaxis.

Yes, I was wrong Ro60. They don’t get paid in Britain. I didn’t realise I was looking at a USA website.

One of the bailiffs visited a local property owner on TV, he lives in the most expensive road in town, made every excuse in the book to get out of paying.
In the end wrote a cheque and settled, a total try on.

The trouble is that there is debt caused by people who won't pay (or who have recklessly spent money they can't afford), and debt caused by a sudden and unexpected change of circumstances, which mean that they can't pay - you can't pay what you don't have.

In the former case, I have very little sympathy, but in the latter, I really do. Decent housing should be a right for everyone, and I don't think that people should profit from it.

The sale of council houses years ago was the precursor to all of this - some people made a quick buck, but condemned generations of others to a precarious existence with high rents which make saving to get a house of their own incredibly difficult.

A fellow lecturer didn't know the bailiffs were coming, we were team teaching at the time when the Principal came into our lesson. She lived in the same road as the college and I had to walk past her house on the way to the bus stop, her possessions were in a skip. She came to my house later asking to phone her husband in Spain, as well as asking for money. It was dreadful, I was pregnant and didn't have any money to give her, only her taxi fare. She'd been put in a hostel with her daughter, her dog had been sent to a rescue centre. I found out years later that her husband had suffered a stroke shortly after her phone call. Her husband had been working away and sending money home to pay the mortgage/bills, she just hadn't managed without him and their house was repossessed.

I think a lot of people think that a little flat to let out will bring in a nice bit of extra income, without thinking through the implications of being a landlord.
I've lost count of the amount of times my home has been flooded, because a succession of owners have "done it themselves" before renting it out and disappearing back to wherever they live, with no way of contacting them.

The flat my girl lived in was the opposite, in yhat the agency dealt with everything - and added the cost to my daughters debt,