Evictions. Please don't judge

[Homesweeethome]

Quite some time ago I was evicted from my home under section 21. Leading up to the evicted was stressful as I did not know what to expect for my family. I was ripped apart on mumsnet. People were really nasty. Then people did not know how things worked just thought I could wave a magic wound. ",just do this" "just do that" thought it was all so simple. Then when I explained why it was not that easy . I was ripped apart some more.

My situation is now much better and and I have now been housed and I'm very happy so are the children.

I have noticed there has been a massive rise in evictions and familys becoming homeless. I have seen people on FB housing support groups reaching out for advice. I have also seen people posting on MN posting their situation. I have seen the comment "why have children if you can't house them". But mostly people seem much more supportive than a few years or so back. There seens to be more understanding and empathy.

Please be kind to people who are losing their home they are not in that situation because they want to be times are tuff for them.

Hi, thank you for this post. We will be seeing 21 section notice soon, as landlord was selling for past 1 year. I have no family in this country, so will likely go through the dread of applying for homelessness. It all seems extremely surreal and scary, but stories like yours truly make me hopeful that once it happens, once it is over we will soon find peace again. I find the biggest problem is that there is so much unknown.

My biggest fear: where in emergency accomodation you can do your laundry? As silly, as it may sound!

hopeforchanging

you take it to the local laundrette. That sounds very blunt / uncaring, but that is actually what you have to do.

If you're in a crappy hotel like I was, they had machines on premises that you had to pay to use

I was homeless when my DS was born 27 years ago, thank you OP. I remember using the launderette, good memories actually, it was warm and cosy and I could sit and read a book whilst DS slept. Don’t worry @hopeforchanging

You can also handwash lots of stuff - other than that it's a launderette or ask a friend (offer a contribution towards costs though if you do this).

@OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon Oh gosh. Well, I am spoiled to my washer dryer that is on hand daily. I just cannot imagine how all this will operationally work with working almost full-time (I work in school on national minimum wage) and a very messy 4 year old with his school uniforms. It is just beyond my imagination. But as I said, I guess you just do what you have to do and survive for as long as it takes.

@Devilsmommy do you remember the costs of that "crappy washing machines". Just out of interest.

@hopeforchanging yes it was £2.70 for a 40 min 40° wash and then £3 to tumble dry it. Wouldn't have hurt so much if I hadn't got a newborn baby who as you know make crazy amounts of washing. Stopped using the tumble dryer when they finally got the heating working after about 4 weeks of being there🙄

Maybe pick up some extra school uniform so he has one for every day . And a bit extra . Limit clothing in general as well. It might be a case of wearing something more than once. Do you have family that you could take your washing over to ?

When I went into emgency/temporary accommodation with 5 kids I packed enough clothes for each person for 1 week . Plus extra couple if tops just incase. It turned out I had a washing machine so was very lucky. But I done it so I could keep clothing/washing down a bit. Also in emgency accommodation gas and electricity was free.

@Homesweeethome you are an absolute superhero mum for doing it with 5 children.

To everyone that replied, this is all very helpful. Thank you. It really calms down your mind for a moment when you at least know what to more or less expect.

🙂All my family is abroad. But I have got few best friends that I am sure would be very happy to help. I am just praying we can stay within reasonable distance from our work/school/friends location.

It's definitely the unknown that's most scary. When your offered emgency accommodation. You must accept or they can end their duty . Appeal it once your there. Also if you get help with your rent via uc. You must make a claim for housing benefit as uc is not paid for emgency/temporary accommodation. Definitely call on your friends for help 🙂

@Homesweeethome yes, I am claiming UC. That is maybe another worry. Where the housing element covers all our rent except £15 a month that are above our local allowance. It is not perfect, but we live quite comfortably now. It was right slap in a face getting to know I do not fit the private renting market anymore (Had a really well paid job in London before so renting this property was not a problem, but lost it after maternity leave because of becoming a lone parent unexpectedly with no childcare arrangements and then impossible to return at the time of COVID redundancies. Got into working in school and position I truly felt in love with, but with very low pay). I only got the "wake up call" 2 months ago by visiting the Citizens Advice that applying for homelessness was my only option. It seems like the emergency/temporary accomodation tends to be very expensive and the Housing Benefit not as high as UC. So, I am guessing our disposable income will be also much tighter. But as you said, you cannot decline an offer, or complain. Well, I'll just have to "close my eyes and jump" every hole including the homeless one has its bottom you can start to build your future from again. 🙃

Apart from speaking to Citizens Advice, have you contacted the Housing dept yet ?

I don't know where you are, I do believe you are in the U.K.

I am in Devon - username gives it away.

Homelessness is a frequent topic on my local facebook group pages.

So many people / families are being served section 21's for a variety of reasons - not because they are / have been bad tenants.

The advice from my local council is: stay until you are evicted, they will not help until you turn up at their offices with all your stuff.

So be prepared mentally.

It is possible when you are evicted by the Bailiffs that you only need to pack x amount and the Bailiff will arrange with you to come back on x date at x time to remove your furniture etc.

The housing officer when you contact him/her may tell you to pack enough for 2 weeks i.e. as if you were going away on holiday. Pack towels ! as they may not be supplied at the temp accomodation.

Arrange at your cost :( storage for your furniture.

Do you have pets ?

Hopefully you will be ok . My emgency accommodation was 700 a week . And it was covered by housing benefit. The rules are different when your in emgency accommodation/temporary accommodation. It's scary to start with but once it's all sorted you will be ok .

@hopeforchanging being homeless is tricky but maybe not the end of the world. If lucky you could get half decent temporary accommodation and decent permanent housing association flat at the end of it.

You may have to pay the usual utility bills in emergency accommodation, depends on the accommodation. Rent is often all covered by housing benefit (especially if have no income) although it can be a higher than usual amount the rules are different with temporary.

I'd go on entitled to website and put in your hypothetical circumstances for once you're homeless, that should give you an idea of what you'll get from benefits. I don't know what your situation will be because you work. Depending on how much you earn you may not be eligible for housing benefit so might have to pay some or all of the temporary accommodation costs yourself. I'm not sure if that website differentiates between permanent and homeless-temporary housing but hopefully it will, otherwise the results won't be accurate. Shelter is another charity that may have information.

If you're in a hostel or b&b for temporary you'll have to either hand wash everything or use a launderette, unless a friend will let you use their washing machine.

It's worth asking if you have a good friend. People might not be able to help much but this is something they might do. Most washing machine has a quick cycle for around an hour or less so you could be having a cuppa and a chat while it does it's thing then take your clothes back to your accommodation to hang up to dry, so not inconveniencing anybody much just a little cost for electric and wear&tear on the machine.

Can you afford to put your personal possessions into a storage unit? If not, consider selling them. It sounds as though you currently live in a self contained home ie not just renting a room. If your temporary accommodation is just a room (it may or may not be) you're not going to be able to fit all your possessions in. If you can't afford a storage unit you'll end up potentially in a position of having to pay the council to come remove what you can't take or donate it all to charity. If you're going to lose everything I'm sure you'd rather have some money for it.

I think the key words here are "5 children"

For the life of me, how do people think this is sustainable?

Even with a father around, you are still asking to be heavily subsidised by the state, which puts you and your family at risk.

This is also not about judgment. As a woman you still need to make rational decisions in a country like the UK (with no real rental protections due to S21).

Ok I will put a few back 🙄

@Homesweeethome Are you on your own with your five kids or with a partner?

That was your choice. Not mine I made my choice you made yours . Well done for making the choice you feel is right for you and your family..

I have a secure place to live we are not at risk of becoming homeless.

homesweethome

it looks like you are going to be ripped apart again !

shame

as all the other comments were helping hopingforchanging

Why do people enable this behavior?

Its not even about welfare.

Its about "personal responsibility". That falls squarely on the parents.

Please don't think I am "ripping apart" by saying this, but I do see where @BouncingJAS is coming from.
Husband and I have one gorgeous little girl between us and would have dearly have loved another, but despite both working ft we simply could not afford another child. We don't have enough money to buy our own home so we have no choice to rent privately which is so incredibly expensive but we just about manage. Our toddler certainly doesn't go without ♥️
.

Bouncing bollocks the thing you don't seem to understand is that one of the pleasures of living in a free country is the ability to be oneself, to formulate one's own morals and opinions without being dictated to by the state or its subjects, to basically live ones life in freedom just so long as one complies with the law.

Your personal moral choices aren't the law. They're irrelevant to the thread, as is your opinion of OP, since she asked for neither.

I'll pray for you. You're clearly not at peace. Eaten up by your decision to have only one child and full of resentment for anyone who chose differently, unshackled as they were by your personal morality.

I will ignore . Its meant to be a thread for people going through a hard time with evictions as they are very common now. It can happen weather you have 1 child or 8. It happens to people who have jobs single parent or 2 parent. Some of the things being said are not even relevant to me .