What Happens To My Stuff?
Submitted by jincase on Fri, 02/07/2010 - 17:45
OK, I have a question regarding what happens if I were to be given a prison sentence. Basically I would be interested in knowing what would happen to all my property. Say I show up at court and I am given a 2 month sentence. This would result in me being unable to pay my rent and my landlord would then want to rent my place to someone else. So what happens to all my property? Do I just loose it all or what?
Also is it true that I would only serve half of my sentence, so if I got two months I would only do one month inside and then another month on license?
Thanks
The first point to note here
The first point to note here is that your landlord cannot regain possession without an order of the court. Those proceedings would have to be served on you even if you were in prison.
The landlord cannot therefore simply re-enter the property, turf out your belongings and re-let to some one else.
The action the landlord could take would depend on the status of your tenancy.
If you have a fixed term which has not expired then the landlord could seek repossession on the grounds of non payment of rent. He would have to serve you with notice of proceedings first and in my opinion the case would take well over 2 months to come to court by which time you might have proposals for payment.
If however you do not have a fixed term and are a periodic tenant , that is you simply pay rent every month or week without any agreement for a fixed period, then the landlord could give you 2 months notice of termination whether or not the rent was in arrears.
He will still have to go to court to get an order unless you agree to go. This procedure by definition will take more than 2 months to come to court.
That is the legal position.
If despite all this the landlord did obtain possession while you were in prison your belongings still remain in your ownership and he would have to give you the opportunity of arranging collection before disposal.
Having said all this if you are in danger of going to prison surely there must be arrangements you can make. For instance you could pay the rent in advance or ask a trusted friend to look after your affairs while you are detained.
I will come back on this on Monday so far as the length of time to be served is concerned.
Thank you for your reply. The
Thank you for your reply. The situation is that I am unable to ask friends to look after my property. Although it is highly unlikely that I will be given a prison sentence, In the event that I am I am interested in knowing if there is a system in place where by people who have no other means to secure their property while in prison can have it stored or managed by the state.
Also I have been informed that I can claim housing benefit for up to 13 weeks while in prison. I am not sure if this is true or not though.
Thank you.
I you were given a sentence
I you were given a sentence of two months you would expect to serve half that time.
As to Housing Benefit see below:-
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_10018926
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/p_prisoners_and_housing.pdf