So we're being evicted AGAIN!

[OnandOnItGoes]

3rd rented property in 7 years. Been here for 4 years. Had to leave the last two properties as landlord selling, now we're in the same situation again.

Rent always paid on time and properties always very well looked after so it's not that we're bad tenants, just the never ending game we're stuck in.

We left within the notice period of last 2 properties but can't with this one as rents are £500+ for similar properties and much smaller worse properties with no parking/horrible areas are £200-300 a month more and we simply can't afford it or find one which we are successful for as they seem to only want 'professionals' in high paying jobs.

Council have been no help and have said as both DH and I work, we need to find another rented property. I can only work part time in a low paying admin job due to caring responsibilities as need to be on hand for disabled DC for school drop/pick up and after school as no after school care (teens). We have no family support.

Also worried about being put in temp accommodation as around here it seems to be adapted office blocks with lots of anti social issues. Also as we work I understand we'll have to pay a lot for it!

Section 21 expires on 15th May and I'm aware Landlord will start court process for possession as he's very keen to get us out and get it sold. I assume he'll use the accelerated procedure as he's a professional landlord with lots of properties and is selling most of them I believe.

Does anyone know how long we may have before bailiffs? We're in the South East. I've already looked into storage facilities so we can empty the house but we have no family to stay with so not sure where we'll go from there.

Of course we will continue looking for a property and continue paying rent but any advice on timeline will be helpful if anyone has been through the process recently?

The stress is unbearable and much worse this time due to the current rental market!

£500 bills! That made me laugh. Gas and electricity is £400 alone. There are 5 of us.

Anyone would think energy bills haven't increased. Does anybody cover energy bills, council tax, water, broadband, car insurance, petrol, phones, etc on £500 a month? I think even a single person would struggle, let alone a family! Not even getting to food.

I have just sold my rental - I would have loved a nice family to live there. I had an appalling letting agent who charged for jobs that didn’t need doing and charged a premium for it. I had a tenant that was horrendous and drove the poor neighbours insane too. I would have charged a lower rent to keep a good tenant long term as I just wanted to cover costs and keep the property for my granddaughter- I wasn’t greedy to make a profit from a tenant as I know it’s hard to live in a temporary state. I am so relieved now I have sold as it was a terrible and stressful experience. Why do the good landlords get the dreadful tenants and the bad landlords the good tenants? I think I am one of many to have sold - not interested in Airbnb etc as not money oriented..

That's the one I'm buying. It will have new carpets upstairs and on stairs and a cooker hood extractor fan in the kitchen.

@ThankmelaterOkay ok low stock of available homes. But yes that’s ridiculous are these all council owned and just not habitable ? Agree the government needs to pump money into making these available affordable homes … I do think it’s horrible for renters and it’s not sustainable it’s not really good for tenants or landlords right now (Im a renter abroad too paying an insane amount) but also own a property.
Im just saying this isn’t really the landlords fault, economic measures have created it to be not financially viable to be a landlord and the new section 21 rules many want out now… but many still need to rent driving prices up (and many landlords are only going to take the risks by getting crazy high rents in )
it’s unfair, I feel for the op I do but also tenants staying beyond eviction dates is going to make them very unattractive to rent to again. The more we see this the more landlords will be done creating the same problem !

my advice to young folk would be , live with your parents while young and cheap , save save save for a deposit , before you have kiddies , make sacrifices and buy your own home don’t get stuck in a rental trap.

Our bills are £600 plus petrol. But we cycle mostly and only use the car for big shops and if we have sites that are in the back of beyond. We are 5. 2 x 19yr olds ( a non term time 20yr old). Our house also has no double glazing as we re not allowed to install it.

So we wouldn’t be able to cover bills with £500 for 5.

In my part of London 3 bed Victorian houses (with downstairs living room, dining room and kitchen) are 2500, but 2 beds are 1900-2000. When my friend couldn't afford to rent a 3 bed she had two options, the first was to move outside of the area, the second was to rent a smaller, more affordable property. She chose the second opinion so that her kids (one of whom has SEN) did not have to move schools. My friend considered the first option to be too drastic. I am aware that many properties (including flats) do not have dining rooms! but in parts of UK, in areas with a lot of Victorian housing stock, the difference in the price between a 3 and 2 bed house is significant, however the size of the ground floor may well be similar and converting one of those rooms may mean that OP can meet the affordability criteria.

The green belt is an out moded concept and arbitrary. We need homes flats ,studio bedsits it’s an unmet need. Green belt causes problems by restricting land supply, which is pushing up house prices in London ,raising prices and pricing the lower rungs of the property ladder out of reach of many. Green belt is deepening London’s affordability crisis. Green belt isn’t all beautiful landscapes & parks, it’s golf courses,much of last reviewed in the 50s and 70s

On top of the costs associated with the running of every household I think some posters also aren’t realising how much having a disabled child costs. According to Scope, on average households with a disabled member spend an extra £975 per month.

@Zone2NorthLondon Well to me the idea of humans taking over every bit of green space is outmoded. We've no right to concrete over everything.

Especially as the houses that will be built will just be flooded. Not even getting into the huge negative effects of a lack of trees, flora and fauna, to the eco system and our much needed pollinators.
All of which humans need to breath clean air and pollinate our food.

No tenant wants to stay until eviction either but what are we do if we have nowhere else to go bearing in mind rents are currently the highest they've ever been and demand is unprecedented. It's all over the media. You probably wouldn't be aware if it didn't affect you.

Should I just leave and live in my car with disabled DC (one of whom needs a fridge for medication) so as not to inconvenience my millionaire landlord?

We did buy a house before we had DC, it was much bigger than this. Unfortunately we didn't foresee my career ending when the older one's disability became apparent and another child (who was already born before the older one was diagnosed) being diagnosed with a completely unrelated disability a few years later. I went from £35k a year to carers allowance of £60 a week. There is no history of either disability in our families. We had to sell our house and rent, couldn't afford the mortgage anymore. I've only been able to work again in the last few years.

No amount of planning would have foreseen that.

All new homes flooded? That’s silly hyperbole & yes,inevitable handwringing .
Flood plains flat are adjacent to rivers,streams. Not all green belt is a flood plain. Or Flat
it’s possible to breathe air and accommodate build houses too. people need mixed tenure houses in high demand areas and that includes the green belt

@OnandOnItGoes of course I get what you’re saying, I’m not disagreeing , you’re forced into a situation where you may have to stay in order to get council housing, but what I mean is these circumstances make people not want to be landlords, worsening the problem in high rental prices and low supply all round and then people moan about landlords … but they still want a landlord to provide reasonable rent, maintain properties and not evict and sell up, but it’s not in their interests now and that’s bad for tenants too.

is your landlord and actual millionaire or are you just making that assumption because he is able to let a property ?

anyway I wish you luck, I’m not sure what the answer is but hopefully you’ll be housed somewhere suitable.

@Whisper23 noted , ‘ we’ve no right to concrete over everything’ .
I picked up on this comment and gave examples of what a nightmare this would be.

You’ve missed the point of my remark.

Kerrybemmy · Yesterday 18:48

I'm in this situation, I have no money, no other landlord in area accept benefits, council waiting list is 10 years for priority. Oh and my BF has Schizophrenia so no one will house him including the council. The YMCA kicked him out and the Salvation Army. Apparantly unless you are trying to kill people mental health services are not interested. Even living on my own won't work, can't get good references because of all the damage he did to the last house. So I better get used to living on the streets. This country is a joke, leaving a woman with MS to care for a Schizophrenic man with no help from anyone else and I end up on the streets as a result.

I realize you won't like this solution but I'm pointing it out in case you don't realize it's a possibility. You can get rehoused by the council. That's you, not your boyfriend.

He isn't not being housed due to having schizophrenia but due to not complying with the conditions of the tenancy. Sounds like he gets upset and smashes the place up. I realize this is likely happening due to the schizophrenia and that he needs MH support. I also realize there's very little of that. At some point, things will get bad enough for him that he's locked up for his own good. Behaving badly/strangely in public most likely and possibly once police become involved due to him committing offenses. Often it takes things to get that bad before someone is helped at all.

Back to you...if you go down the council's homelessness route you'll get rehoused. It may not be in your local area. Once you're housed, although nobody can stop you being in a relationship with this man, you'd need to conduct that relationship well away from home. Otherwise whether he stays with you or not, he's likely to cause you to be in breach of your tenancy agreement due to his behaviour, which as the tenant you'll be held responsible for. This leaves you prone to eviction. So if he is causing trouble of any kind or if he was not allowed at your home but he turned up anyway, you'd have to ask him to leave and if he didn't you'd have to call the police, each and every time. This is how you'd protect your tenancy and avoid eviction.

I know it's a crappy situation to be in, but you don't have to be on the streets, you can choose to prioritize your own health and wellbeing if you wish, and get yourself rehoused

Move to a cheaper area. Your landlord is probably at risk of losing the property, and likely can't put the rent up due to regulations, however, the banks are still increasing interest rates, and the government is increasing taxes and regulations for landlords, therefore is unsustainable for them to keep housing you at the current rent rate you are paying. I see many people's comments saying how heartless the landlords are , truth is no one knows how that landlord became a landlord, could be a pensioner using that asset's rent to pay their rent in a. Smaller place, or their care (oh yeah for those that don't know people with property are forced to pay for their own care by selling the property or renting it, inline those that never bought a home and are housed by the council or these heartless landlords) it's a very complex issue, and there is no quick fix. I am not a landlord btw but have always loved very frugally as I knew it was going to be the only way to get in the property ladder, started in a not very nice area (those where renters don't want to live in, as indicated by multiple threads in mumsnet) ....then eventually was able to move up....I hope that all affected people are getting relentlessly in touch with their local government to put pressure into more social housing and taking all the necessary steps to save as much as possible to one day being able to buy, and not just making everyone else responsible for their situation.

What happens on these threads mostly is a vilification of landlords led by the daily hate and the government. Using critical thinking the government has let people become landlords while now berating them for doing the job they the government were supposed to do ie house people having enough stock at a suitable price. While everyone vilifies landlords blaming us the government are doing nothing to address any of it

Rents are crazy my partner just moved from Berkshire paying 1000 for a 2 bedroom flat no parking no garden. Tiny place. He has come to me in the east of England and our rent is 950nfor a 4 bedroom house. I really feel for you as was in this place 10 years ago. Had to go into temp accomodation. I actually went to social services in the end saying where I was my children weren't safe. They gave me a deposit and first month's rent as well as.put on serious breaches and complaints about the temp accomodation.

Developers private and social pay crazy money to farmers around here for land. What needs to be done in Wales is compulsory purchase by the government at agricultural prices. Then handed over to a housing association/developer to build. 2 million for a couple of fields is a lovely for the farmers but £250k a plot is too much

Not all landlords are very good. I was kicked out of a private rented property as we had severe damp. The landlord refused to fix it. The council got involved and asked them to fix it. The landlord's solution..... eviction. Always paid rent on time and looked after the place.

The reason developers like farm land is because it is so much easier and cheaper to build on. So they are very happy to pay a premium. This is why so many of our brown field sites lay idle.

If they were forced to use up all the brown field sites there would be no saving on the costs and no reduction in the property price.

Should I just leave and live in my car with disabled DC (one of whom needs a fridge for medication) so as not to inconvenience my millionaire landlord?
You should be as strategic as possible and do whatever is in your long-term best interests. The landlord is your opponent, he will do whatever he can to get the best outcome for himself. Therefore you have to fight as hard as you can and as dirty as you can get away with to get the best outcome for yourself.

Your landlord is probably at risk of losing the property
I doubt it he's a wealthy property owner he just thinks he can get more money if he gets a new and different tenant in, fair enough he's acting within the law but he still playing dirty and so should his tenant.
She shouldn't defer to him just because he has more power than her, rather she should fight back harder.

Playing dirty ? When I transfer my credit card balance to an interest free one to maximise my capital investments is that playing dirty or is it being financially savvy ?

Housing and education have become monetised, health care is next. If you don't like what you're seeing as a result of the first two. Make sure you prevent the latter.

Which is why the government needs to compulsory purchase at agricultural value