Council housing eligibility

Can you not fashion the bunk beds into a room divider for the bigger of the 2 rooms? There are lots of images online about how to do that.

The thing to bear in mind about 'overcrowding' is that that, on its own, is very rarely enough to get you rehoused, unless there are other needs (eg technically homeless, staying with family and overcrowded)

To give an example, years ago when I worked with homeless families the maximum number of points they could be awarded for overcrowding was 15, 5 per room needed, up to three bedrooms short. The minimum number of points realistically needed to ever be offered a property was 80 points. So overcrowding could give you an advantage if they were 'additional' points, but were never enough on their own.

Sorry to be negative just don't want you to sell your house unless unless you have a realistic chance! Your local housing office should be able to give you an idea how things look in your area.

If your credit report is that bad, you’ll need a guarantor for private renting. Have you got one? It’s not a choice I’d make.

You won’t count as overcrowded for another 8 years and in 6 years, adverse credif history will be completely wiped, so you’d be better to focus on the financial situation than the housing one.

The barrier for getting a room for your son for medical reasons before then will be pretty high, especially as he doesn’t have his official diagnosis’ yet.

As others have said, you are currently not considered over-crowded because you would only qualify for 2 bedrooms if you apply for social housing. However, if you do go down the social housing route then it may be worth looking into whether your DS needs his own room for medical reasons, in which case you would need 3 bedrooms and would currently be over-crowded - but owning your own home will probably impact your rating.

As others have said, moving into rented accommodation is not necessarily going to make it easier to get into social housing. The council's assessment of your priority will likely be based on your housing circumstances, not your financial situation (unless you have high income/savings).

Why don't you talk to a Housing Advisor at your council? They can advise you on all of this.

I don’t think selling your house in the hope of being housed by the council is a good idea. Could you have a sofa bed in living room and the children each get a bedroom? Or maybe rent out your house and rent a 3 bed flat or house in a cheaper area?

It's definitely worth checking out what the criteria is for your locality.

Here you wouldn't get onto the list with a house or a rental agreement at all. You would have to literally be kicked out then show up at the council offices and get put into temporary accommodation for a year or 2 minimum.

If you sold your house then they wouldn't let you onto the list for a year at least, and that's only if you were considered homeless ie sleeping on a relatives couch.

Some places may be less strict.

It's worth exploring all of your options though, see what grants and funding you may be able to get when your ds is diagnosed, you may get enough money to split one of your rooms in half to give him his own space.

Is the kids room big enough for a dividing wall to give them both a bit of privacy for now

did you get into debt because you cannot afford bills? Because that isn’t going to get any better without a change in circumstances. If it was for a one off expense then it might well be better staying put as there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

Please bear in mind that you may find it hard to rent privately with adverse credit so even if you sold you may be in a position you can’t get private rental!
We had to pay deposit plus six months rent so nearly 10k to be able to privately rent due to adverse credit history.

But you'd potentially be in private rented for years, waiting to get a council place. It may never happen. And private rent is insecure, the landlord can want the house back then you have to find somewhere else in budget, near work and school, moving costs etc, possibly several times. And rent can go up. I understand your issues but you'd be making yourselves so insecure.

Its far from ideal but if your son is violent to his sister then I would put 2 single beds in each roon and basically have an adult share a room with a child each.

Have Adults just use the rooms for sleeping and basically let the kids have separate rooms until you can either afford to move or become eligible for a council property.

Agree with this, op, i wouldn't sell x

In the interim could you have a day bed / sofa bed in the living room and give a bedroom each to the children?

I would be very wary of moving to private renting to try and get higher up on any council list.
I don't think it will help and rent is higher than a mortgage plus the insecurity compared to having your own home.

Could you do a debt management programme/ IVA?

In some local authorities, owning a property automatically means they won't accept your application, unless you meet specific criteria such as needing to leave an abusive relationship.

In other authorities you may get on the register, but realistically you wouldn't have a chance of getting housed as you would be considered 'adequately housed'. I think you need to be prepared that that is still likely to be the case if you were renting a two bed, unless you're in an area with exceptionally low demand.

The issue is, when you're on the housing register you're banded according to priority. So if you're in band 3, and there are homeless families in band 2 also bidding for 2 or 3 beds, band 2s would always get offered first before a band 3 would be offered. That's even if they've been on the register 6 months at band 2 and you've been on the register for five years in band 3.

Can you afford to private rent though? Where I am that's by far the most expensive housing option, more than council rent (obviously) or a mortgage. A colleague pays more per month for an ensuite room than I pay for my mortgage on my house!

You can often port your mortgage across, if you moved somewhere cheaper you wouldn’t need to borrow more.

Just be wary.

You may find that renting privately is more, possibly much more than your mortgage.

And private renting can be an awful position to be in.

I think the main issue is your debt and poor credit rating.

How old are you and your kids?

Could you do a budget to get out of debt, fix your credit rating, and hope to move in 3 or 4 years?

Also how tiny is your house? I know parents who sleep on fold out bed in living room to give bedrooms to their kids....but I know it's far from ideal.

You’ll probably be waiting many years even if you do sell and rent privately.

How old are the children? In my area you’d still only be entitled to a 2 bedroom house until one of them is over 10. It may be different once you get an official diagnosis though so that’s something to check.

You mention money issues, have you applied for DLA for your son? Checked you are claiming everything you can?
Got support with your debt?