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? :)

It says that the estate agents have protected our deposit with Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited in accordance with the Housing Act 2004. It doesn't say that they're members of ARLA or NAEA.

It says that they have protected our deposit with Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited under the Housing Act 2004. Doesn't mention anything about them being members of ARLA or NAEA though?

@ Toughasoldboots - I have a feeling our landlord does want to remain anonymous as her address isn't on our contract, it's the estate agents address we have. Okay, so what if the landlord instructed the lettings agent to not give me her address? Should I argue that it is the law that I have it?

It does say that I can ask, in writing, for some of the deposit back but doesn't state when I can do this? Not sure whether it means before the agreement has finished or after?

Honestly if I were you I'd go for the eviction route although it is stressful.

Temp accomadation would just be a normal council property sized for your needs but just on a temp basis though that could be up to 5(?) Years. You wouldn't be in a B&B or a hostel for that long and in the long term it would be worth it.

@ Toughasoldboots - Yeah I'll do that too as it clearly didn't state any information behind the landlords reason in to not renewing the tenancy on the letter from the agents. But what if they say "we can't do that"? Or come up with an excuse? I suppose by then I'd realise I'd been done over by them?

@ Amberleaf - It does seem the only sensible route for us. Though we'll have to see what our landlord's response is to us doing this as that will then justify where she stands. If she agrees to take us to court then she definitely doesn't want us here, if she doesn't I think the estate agents will have some explaining to do.

Wasn't there a thread last week where a family in b and b were told they would be there longer than 6 weeks

We were all shocked when people came on thread and said it is some sort of loophole. Be careful op

My contact comment was in case it was an ex partner looking at gaining 50/50, residency etc...

I don't find your situation that unusual, albeit stressful for you. It seems like your major difficulty is getting together the deposit for a new private rental place. This is hardly unusual as it is the same for everyone else, rich or poor, who rents in this country.

There is no reason for a legitimate LL or EA to hold back a return of deposit with the deposit protection scheme in place. You can challenge any deductions easily and quickly and IME they are very fair.

I would try to approach a bank about a temporary overdraft or loan that will see you through until your deposit is returned. This would reduce the amount owned straight away and it would simply be a case of paying off the remaining amount bit by bit over a few years ?

I hear what you're saying. Though cost isn't the major issue for me. We can get a deposit from the council, fine. But my problem is that I've lived in this borough for 5 years and have lived in 4 different houses, soon to be a fifth. We've had to borrow money for 2 previous moves too, of which we're still paying back. We can't keep doing this every year or 2 otherwise we'll be getting ourselves deeper and deeper in debt. That in itself is a huge stress.

The LL won't actually have to agree to take you to court though! If she wants you out she legally has no other option.

Its sucks for all concerned but that's the way it is.

This is the downfall of private tenancies and all the while you are in one you face this potentially.

A friend of mine was recently in this position and didn't even go into B&B she went straight into a temp let council property. That is obviously best case scenario but its a posibility. That was in a london borough with a huge waiting list too.

@AmberLeaf - Yeah that is what we're hoping for to be honest. Our local authority seems to be trying to get the number of people ending up in B&B housing down so hopefully we could end up straight in temporary housing, although we've been warned by Shelter not to expect this as most normally just deal with you once you've been formally kicked out by bailiffs.

After speaking to my husband tonight I think we're left with three options:

1 - Attempt to get hold of our current LL and see if we can convince her to change her mind. Failing that, then we have 2 other options.

2 - Renting privately but through the council with rents set by the rent service. This seems to be cheaper than actual market rents which is good. However, not many private landlords are on their books (we were told that our councils list is months out of date) and there is nothing to stop the landlord 'changing their mind' as they have done in this case.

3 - Grizz it out and go down the social housing route, possibility of emergency accommodation, then temporary accommodation for an indefinite period of time and then keep bidding until we get a more permanent solution. It sounds crazy but spending 5 to 6 years in temporary accommodation sounds more appealing than moving every 12 months!

If anyone has any other suggestions then please, fire them my way.x

Have you looked at your boroughs bidding lists?

@BlackberryIce - By bidding lists do you mean the housing register?

Yep. Ours goes in fortnightly cycles, you can see what bids it's getting , where etc. There should be a website

Yeah we are on the list and have used the website, although for the last few weeks there have been no adverts at all which is pretty odd, must be a glitch or something. Unfortunately at the moment, we are band 3 (overcrowded by 1 room) so we don't have much hope but obviously that might change depending upon what route we go down. x

I am not a huge fan of agents....sorry for mumsnetters who are agents. As a landlord, I have been lied to multiple times by agents...finally got to the point where I dont' use them anymore. I'd rather meet the tenants myself and get my own take on how likely they are to respect my place. It really doesn't sound right that your landlord does't want children. That's usually an excuse that's given if you aren't paying the rent, or if neighbors are complaining about you (you have mentioned this, but I'm assuming this is not the case). I have seen agents play games, if the rent is good, to get their own friends and relatives into a place. Can't you look up the owner of the place in public records. I'm sure there are websites where you can see who owns the place (presumably that would be your landlord) and then you can search for their address and phone number.

@SofiaAmes - Yes I've read that many landlords are trying to avoid agents. Yes we have had problems in the past with our neighbours complaining of noise (albeit the noise is mainly footsteps due to poor soundproofing). Having said that, we haven't received a complaint recently so I'm not sure if that is actually the case.

As someone pointed out earlier on, I checked it out and the lettings agents have to release the landlord's details under Section 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 within 21 days so I have written a letter requesting their details.

To be honest, I think we may be able to convince the landlord to change her mind. We dont miss rent payments so it isn't as if we are costing them money. In addition, they live up in Coventry so I doubt they would want to go through the process of court hearings etc. That being said, they may have a real problem with children, who knows.

Hi,

With the current rental property nightmare I am experiencing, I thought I would ask all the helpful people on Mumsnet for advice.

I have been renting privately from a friend since April 2011, but sadly received the news that he requires his property back for personal use. As I am a single mother with a severely damaged credit rating due to seperation and family court proceedings, I've not been able to rent through an agency.

Despite the fact that I have the income to support us, I am unable to locate an agency willing to rent to me. Any suggestions? Or if anyone knows of a 2 bedroom house/flat in the Eastcote, Ruislip, Northwood in the Middlesex area, even better.

My dislike of unhelpful estate agents means I'd rather not contribute to their salaries.

Thank you.

Advertise on gumtree and craigslist and spareroom.co.uk. I found tenants for my house and flats for my dh through those website and ne'er an agent did I deal with. My experience is that a reference from a previous landlor counts for much more than anything else. If you can assure your new prospective landlord a good reference from your previous landlord, you will be more likely to get a flat without the conventional things like good credit. It also helps, I think, to offer to have the rent direct debited out of your bank account (it sends the message that you are financially stable and responsible).