Landlord selling up and can't afford to rent elsewhere

[Freeasabird76]

Dont know the point of this post to be honest,just need to vent I think.
Have lived in this house with my 2 Dds for 5 years now and been very lucky with no rent increases,although the rent was a bit steep when j first moved in,it is now the cheapest in the whole area.
My landlords visited today to do an inspection and dropped the bombshell that they're selling up asap.
My dilemma is,equivalent homes are now £200 more than I'm paying now a month and at present only 2 available in whole area anyway.
How can if ve that I've lived here all my 46 years and now I can't afford a house here anymore.

Sorry to hear this.
How old are your dds?

are you in uk ?
do not move out until evicted by court order, and bailiffs come.
that way, with children, you can seek housing from the council.
otherwise you will be regarded as having made yourself homeless, and they don't have to help you.
look up Shelter website for advice.
good luck

That's really shit, I'm sorry.
We're renting, have been here since rent was affordable (10 years ago) and it's only gone up once. If we had to leave, there's nothing equivalent within the same county for less than £400 more a month than we pay now. Average rental for a 3 bed house a month in our area is almost double what we pay now. There's no way we could afford to rent anywhere else.

I live in constant low level dread that this situation will happen to us. That's the curse of renting. It isn't sustainable and it certainly isn't fair.

I was just wondering if your dds are school age, op.
If so, I would look into a less than equivalent property ( ie drop a bedroom, or garden possibly) in order to keep them at the same school ( if they're happy and it's an OK school)
A shit situation and you have all my sympathy.
Failing that, dependent on circumstances (childcare) I would look at increasing income, but that would be my back up plan.

This advice although strictly correct is basically rubbish. Op you should do all you can to leave with a good reference. Negotiate with your LL if you can to stop paying rent for the last few months so you can save for a deposit on another accommodation. He will probably agree as it will be cheaper for him than getting you evicted. Can he recommended you to another LL? They all know each other. If you are evicted you will never rent privately again. Your reputation will proceed you. Your council is not really obligated to you even if you are homeless. Locally we have families who have lived in b& b's for over a year. You would get one room. With no cooking facilities and the opportunity to collect food parcels every other day from a soup kitchen type place. You are FAR better to downsize under your own steam .This will only get worse as private lls sell up en masse.

@MissyCooperismyShero I agree.
The social housing route is a treacherous one. If the op does manage to finally get housed, it can be substandard and her dd's will share a room anyway.
All wrong imo but this is where we are.

I also agree with the above. The ‘stay til evicted’ advice that’s trotted out on mn on all these threads by people that don’t really know what they’re talking about is not necessarily the best course of action at all.

Is there any way you could buy it? The LL would save on estate agent fees if he could sell to you so may agree to a delay while you explore the options.
Mortgage payments are generally lower then rent. Could anyone give you a deposit?

I'm a retired homeless officer, I would suggest anyone who is being evicted under these circumstances needs to contact their own L/A to ask what THEIR policy is on being evicted. Where I worked, we did NOT make the tenant await the bailiffs' visit. We considered the applicant to be homeless once the landlord had obtained a PO, we gave assistance with a rent deposit as soon as the correct notice had been served and ,although I say it myself, I found a property via the private sector for a huge number of people. We were even in the situation where we sometimes housed before actual homelessness occurred. You really need to take advice from your L/A and then decide on the best way forward, but if you are going to rely on them actually housing you then please do exactly as they suggest, as failing to do so could render you IH.

@loislovesstewie makes a very good point. Although I haven’t been in your situation the house we bought last year had tenants who were in your situation and they were able to get rehoused by the council before the end of the notice period (it was about 3 days before mind you do not exactly stress free). The point is the previous owners did not have to formally evict her for her to be considered homeless.

How can if ve that I've lived here all my 46 years and now I can't afford a house here anymore

I am afraid that most people in most big cities are in your situation. Virtually nobody can afford to live in London unless they are hugely wealthy or able to access social housing. The reason for this is that the UK population has grown massively and successive governments have failed to build sufficient new housing to meet demand. This issue will not go away until they remedy this.

Your options are to

Access social housing - will depend on the area and your family circumstances.
Move to a cheaper area. Hundreds of thousands of people do this every year.
Get a job which pays more money.
Down size - children sharing.

I would echo the comments above about not waiting for the bailiffs to evict you. As others have said this will mean that you will never get another rental property anywhere. And emergency accommodation offered by the Council can be much worse than another private rental in another area. Try to work with your landlord. The suggestion regarding a rent am esty to allow you to save for a deposit is a good one.

I had to wait for a bailiff eviction this year. I simply could not find anywhere else to live, already lived in a cheap area, income of 40K, looked in 12 different areas for 8 months - nada - because I’m a single mother.

The things EAs and LLs are demanding right now are outrageous. “Working couples only” “Minimum income of 2.5K per month, benefits not included, House is £600 a month”

Being evicted by bailiffs doesn’t mean you’ll never get another private rental - there’s no record or register. I have a new private rent. It’s not something they ask for.

I had to move me and my 3DC in with my Grandparents for 8 weeks, rather than go through the horrific different hotel in a different area every night, with no cooking or laundry facilities.

This situation has largely been created by the government and their attitude towards private landlords, so many people are in this situation. So many landlords selling up - this has recently been discussed on another thread.
I wonder when the government will realise that they have actually created a housing crisis and do something about it. I'm so sorry for your situation OP but can't offer any other suggestions other than the good ones above.

You could talk to your landlord about the reasons why he is selling, if it's just that he doesn't want to be a landlord anymore you could talk to him about something called rent to buy, which is where you pay a small amount over your rent each month and eventually that is enough to pay a deposit and buy the property yourself. It's a longshot but some landlords will consider it.

I don't really have any advice I'm afraid but I know someone else in this exact situation and it's crap.

To be honest, you can't blame the LL for wanting to sell their property. In the case I know, the LL wants to increase the rent to match similar rental prices in the area as their rent hasn't been increased in many years but they can't afford it. I'm not sure what they will do as the school their dd is at is the best in the area, hence the house/rental prices.

All I can suggest is making sure you are claiming all you are entitled to benefit wise and/or look for more/better paid work, which is what I'm having to do to take on a mortgage on my own. I love my job but it doesn't pay enough.

Hi my Dds are 16 and 10 and we are already in a 2 bed where 16 year old is in box room and I share with 10 year old,I'd go to a 1 bed where they share and I sleep in living room but there are none available locally,literally only 2 3 bed properties and £300 more a month.

Landlords selling up as want to retire and this goes towards retirement fund.

Not a big city either,small town in welsh valleys 😟

Have you considered that the landlord might rely on this income? Ex. I rent out my property as I moved, but I pay rent towards where I live now. How can people be so selfish.

I was in a small Midlands City, trying to get a house within 6 miles of the City Centre for schools and work; ended up back in my hometown, 15 miles away with family, and I now live rurally, in the next county over, and the only reason I have this house is via friend of a friend of a friend. Or I’d still be with my Grandparents.

Fortunately I’m a 20 min drive from my work and University (part time Masters, also work there) but DCs have had to move schools, which isn’t ideal as ones going into Y10, one into Y7 - there is one school here, it’s full, we’re appealing. Primary has been a doddle to sort, though.

I didn’t think my council would insist on bailiffs, or stick us in hotels - especially considering two of my DCs are disabled, but nope. The crisis reaching my small Midlands City has been a fucking shock to the system.

Relocating - twice in just a few months - has been very hard on them, and I’m worried about them recovering from it, mentally and emotionally, as well as dealing with a new school that’s a 37 minute bus ride away, rather than a 10 minute walk.

And it’s not always an option, for multiple reasons.

It’s always harder as a single parent to find a rental, but I thought that with my income, a high earning home owner Guarantor, and flawless credit, that I’d find one just before the S21 ended, at the very latest.

Didn’t happen. As soon as I said “No, I’m the only adult in the household”, nobody wanted to even let me view, let alone apply or move in - I ended up on Diazepam for 5 months due to the stress it caused me.

Same as buying a house - most lone parents just don’t have that option. We can’t save more than 16K without UC being taken away, and 16K deposit wouldn’t even be enough to buy an ex council flat in my (deprived, opportunity-less) hometown, where prices are low-ish, let alone anywhere else. The maximum I can currently borrow is around £100,000. Thats fuck all.

As for a better job? Well, my earning potential is knee capped due to having disabled children, and 1/3 of my income is DLA and Severely Disabled Child Allowance from UC.

Even if they weren’t disabled, I'd still be restricted because I’m a totally lone parent to my youngest, so I can only work the hours that paid childcare is available for.

And I already do that. I can’t take a second job from home, because then who feeds them, does homework, baths and bed time routine? Who cleans the house in the evenings once youngest is asleep? Who watches them at weekends if I’m shut in my bedroom, coding fucking websites and apps for people?

As for CMS, don’t get me started. They’re toothless and he is excellent at evading them. It’s also not counted as income for rentals, let alone a mortgage, as it wouldn’t be a reliable payment.

Selfish? So where do you expect tenants to go when they can’t find somewhere? Also, it’s the law and every landlord should be aware of that and plan for it, way ahead of needing to evict someone. If they aren’t aware, then they’re shit landlords who should never have been landlords in the first place.

This is more and more common with landlords looking to realise their equity in some of their rented properties. The house prices have rocketed and many think will fall sharply to correct and so sell now. I pity people buying now though with high percentage mortgages.

Some good advice on here @Freeasabird76 contact social housing and say how it is, don't go for the don't pay and await eviction route since you will wreck your credit history. It's not a great way to do things either with bailiffs kicking you out - usually spouted by someone with no experience of bailiffs and forced moved at last minute. Listen to others with experience of social housing etc.

Alex's advice isn't quite right but the but about not moving until she has somewhere else is bang on. No one is saying withhold rent. Do you honestly expect your tenants to go homeless and sleep on the streets if you decide to sell your house tomorrow?

What's your financial situ? Are you entitled to any help with rent?

BTW, legally a tenant is entitled to await a PO, landlords should be aware of their legal responsibilities when they wish to repossess a property and should do nothing which might be seen as attempting to illegally evict a tenant. The Courts take a very dim view on that.

Jere that would mean temporary b&b accommodation for goodness knows how long and an offer of accommodation elsewhere in the country.