Housing situation, private rent, social housing and landlords...Advice please :)

[BellaLEL]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. My husband and I have 3 young children. We've been together for 4 years. I have been living in a borough in London for 5 years now. Within those 5 years I have had to live in 4 different properties privately renting. The first property our landlord needed to move back in after a year, 2nd I had to move as was being harassed by ex after a year, 3rd our landlord kept on putting rent up £100 each time our tenancy was to be renewed until we simply couldn't afford it after 2 years. We are now living in a large 2 bed flat paying cheap rent (as the landlord keeps on refusing to put rent up along with the market's demands) bonus! Our tenancy is up at the end of September and we opted for another years contract here. Estate agent calls and says unfortunately the landlord doesn't want to renew the contract as she no longer wants children living here. As it's only my partner working at the moment it's been hard for us to save along with going through a court process with my ex over contact with my eldest DD of which we're paying full fees to a solicitor for. We're now in a situation where we've no available money to, again, put a deposit down on ANOTHER house. We spoke to Shelter who've said that we're going to have to ask for help from our local authority of whom will only help us if we're "unintentionally homeless". This means we have to refuse to leave the property so the landlord will take us to court (we'd have to pay all fees) to then get us evicted which makes us unintentionally homeless. And to point out, we have never missed a payment in any of the properties we've lived in, the house is always clean and tidy maybe with the odd toy lying around. And so it's hard for us to understand what has triggered the landlord to all of a sudden not want children here? I know that it's her property and therefore is her right to say what goes. We don't believe that renting privately again is sustainable for a young family as we may well be in this situation in another years time. We just want a home for our kids and getting evicted seems the only option for us in order to get help from the council and live in a property that we know would be stable for at least 5 years or just longer than 2 years! And to top it off the estate agents we're dealing with don't seem at all pleased with the route we're quite clearly going to have to take. Not wanting to hear what we have to say, just shrugging us off as if they don't want to hear it. We tried to explain why but no, she kept on butting in with remarks like "you do realise this is a messy process" to which I replied "being homeless is more of a messy process". Just want some advise please. Whether you know of this situation or in fact have been in a similar situation? Is this the right way to go about it? :)

Well won't you get back both your advance rent and deposit?

Can you use that to rent somewhere else? Social housing is like gold dust, you can't have what the council don't have. You are likely to be put in bed and breakfast accommodation ... Not re housed in a council property

Have you spoken to the council yet ? You can go on the housing list but won't get the same priority yet as if you are actually homeless. Also worth asking CAB and Housing department about any local charities who may have a deposit or rent guarantee scheme.

Also, how will being evicted and then homeless, help your contact case?

@ BlackberryIce - Our rental deposit was only £850, estate agents will take £150 off of that for admin and may be more if the landlord feels the property needs painting or professional cleaning etc (which it shouldn't). We wont get the advanced rent as that goes straight to the estate agents as commission. And a deposit on an appropriate property for our family in this area will be around £2,500. We don't have that. Also, we will only see our deposit once we've moved out. Where will we go in the mean time? As I said, we want a stable home for our family and after 5 years in the rental market I have yet to be convinced that it offers such a thing.

@ LIZS - We went to the housing office yesterday and provided them with our relevant paperwork for them to photocopy and therefore 'investigate' our application. We explained our situation and the lady just told us what our options are without mentioning social housing (which was expected). We are already on the housing list as we have 2 girls and a boy. Apparently given that he's a boy means that he's meant to have his own room which makes us overcrowded. We are at the bottom, priority 3. Though we were told by Shelter (housing charity) that if we went down the root of getting evicted through the court the council will have to put us in temp accommodation. The housing officer did mention that they can give us a contingency deposit to rent privately again, though never mentioned anything regarding a rent guarantee scheme. I'll call Shelter again and see what they say about that.

Can I also mention that we aren't doing this because we feel we have the right to get help. We are honest people who simply want a better upbringing for our kids than what we had. Unfortunately our parents haven't the money to give us to buy and with the court case we've been unable to save for it too.

Thanks for your responses.x

I'm pretty sure I didn't state that the contact case is being helped by being homeless. My point was that as we're going to court over contact we're paying full fees. This money would have ultimately been our savings. Have I explained myself there?

The problem is, even if you are unintentionally homeless, in London you will be put in emergency accom. Ie b&b for up to a year, then temp accommodation until you get enough points to bid on a property.

In fact, a few north London boroughs are now telling people there is a 10 year waiting list and offering a scheme where you source a private rental and they will pay your deposit and first months rent.

There just aren't any social housing property's available, regardless if you are homeless or overcrowded, it's just temp accommodation and private rentals.

I understand. And I hate the idea of being put in a B&B with my children. It seemed clear to me yesterday, when we went to the housing office that we'd only get proper help if one of us had an illness. Perhaps we'll have to try our luck again with privately renting and hope that our landlord is consistent. Thank you for your reply.x

It seems to be the only option.

However, you can approach the council with help with the deposit and first months rent even though you are not homeless, if your council offers this scheme.

It's worth finding out.

Although, I have just looked at my local authority's website and it states that they can only house people in a B&B for a max of 6 weeks. Any time after that they're breaking the law. And temporary accommodation within a council is probably more stable than privately renting as we were told that we're likely to be in temp accommodation for at least 5 years. To us, that's great! Better than having to move around like travellers every year losing thousands of pounds on deposits and moving costs.

Would you have to pay the rent for the B&B yourself?

About 8 years ago I knew a woman who was living in a B&B waiting to be housed by the council. Her rent was £350 per week for a grotty room with a shared kitchen and bathroom, the breakfast element was 4 pints of milk and a loaf of bread brought by her landlord once a week. Thankfully she was recieving housing benefit so didn't have to pay any of the costs and was housed in a flat after about 9 months. If you have to pay the costs yourself research into how much it would cost.

Yeah our council does offer that scheme. Though one problem (after another!) is that my husband may have to take a huge pay cut soon as his job is a little unstable at the mo. So we may not even be able to afford to rent privately (albeit that actually happening).

Have you spoken to the landlord directly (not through agents) to see if there is any give there, or even if agents are telling the truth?

I'm guessing that we would. We do claim a meagre amount of local housing benefit now but do still pay the full amount of rent per month. That was 8 years ago and it seems laws have changed in my borough.

To be honest I am absolutely despising the estate agents. I had requested the landlords number but was fobbed off by them as my landlord is deaf and you'd have to speak to her through a special system (not sure what it's called). So we've not spoken to her directly, no. I would love to because part of me though "what if the estate agent told her I never had kids?". Now the only reason I thought this was because when getting the property the estate agent told me the landlord was flexible with the furniture (it's part furnished). We didn't need a bed in the children's room so asked if it could be removed. H said, no worries we'll get that done. Contract was signed and the bed was still here. He claimed he sent us an email to explain the landlord wanted the bed to stay here, we didn't get it! He then started to suggest we let his brother have it or he's store it in their offices basement! So we knew he f*ed up! Therefore I now have a personal hatred against the estate agents!! Lol...Talk about venting!

Glad the rules have tightened on B&B landlords!

I wonder if your EA have decided they want you out as you are paying below market rent, perhaps they have potentionl renters lined up who will pay more. They know you can't contact your LL so can do this to you without being found out.

Okay, I'll do that. Yeah I'm not a big fan of the 'middle man'. We did try to explain to the agents that we're not doing this out of spite to the landlord but it is unfortunately the situation we're in. Agent didn't seem to care much to be honest. More work for them to do I suppose!

Ugh! I really do not hope that is the EA's motive! For their sake! I will go ballistic!!! Though, someone put a deposit down on it the first couple of days being on rightmove as he/she knew the previous tenants. Didn't even view it! And he is renting at £850 too. The previous tenants had been living here for 5 years and were paying the same rent all along. Landlord doesn't want to budge!

Just spoke to the estate agent who said he has to ask for the landlord's permission to give me her address. Though, if it's a legal requirement couldn't he have just given it to me anyway?

Our rental deposit was only £850, estate agents will take £150 off of that for admin and may be more if the landlord feels the property needs painting or professional cleaning etc (which it shouldn't). We wont get the advanced rent as that goes straight to the estate agents as commission.

Sorry don't understand this. Is the deposit in a proper legal scheme, which means they cannot deduct fees from it ? Commission is paid by normally ll, deducted from the monthly rent. The advanced rent is not an extra amount but you may be able to negotiate using it as the last payment , giving you money in hand towards the next property.

I tried doing this before with another lettings agent. They said it's part of the agreement to receive my deposit once we've moved out. My current agents said that is their way of doing it (regarding their commission), or so they say? I'm beginning to think the lettings agent I've been dealing with knows buggar all! I've just looked on google regarding commission and you're right, they take it out of the monthly payment!! Arghh why has this guy still got his job?!

When we were told our tenancy wont be renewed they said that they will be deducting £144 from our contingency deposit to cover admin fees and a check out inspection. And followed with it's possible that the landlord may require professional cleaners. Therefore the charges will too come out of our deposit.

So is it held in a deposit scheme ? Are the agents members of ARLA or NAEA ?

Bare with me, I'll read over my contract.