Coping with impending homelessness

[shockshockhorrorhorror]

Hello all. Our landlord has sold our beloved family home and we are desperately sad but it is what it is. The council agreed to help us find something else to private rent, i e. help with deposit etc. Unfortunately because I am self employed and get UC top up, Estate Agents won't touch us, and my husband's wages don't meet their threshold. We also don't have a guarantor that earns over £40k a year. I've been completely ghosted by an another Estate Agent, no reply to emails and phone calls not returned. 2 weeks to go and we haven't found anything and face emergency accommodation. I am terrified. Me, hubby, my 10 year old and a 1 year old baby. I feel an utter failure to my children by not providing them a home, and potentially moving them in to shit hole emergency accommodation. The only way I haven't suffered a breakdown is thinking how much money we will save because the rent on our house was crippling and emergency won't be as expensive. Is that a really weird way of thinking? . thanks

No. It really sucks but it is absolutely not your fault. Your family is a victim of a housing crisis. First we haven't been building enough private or socially rented homes for decades. Then the law changed in 2018 so now the councils first duty is to help you find accommodation in the private rented sector. As a family with young children you are in priority need for housing so if you cannot find private rented accommodation they will eventually offer you social housing but it may take a while.

Then we had the Truss budget, interest rates went up, loads of private landlords left the sector because they couldn't afford the interest on their mortgages so there are fewer of them.

And here we are. Two working people, two kids, nowhere to live.

It is ridiculous but it is not your fault. Make sure you get advice from Shelter now on your rights. You probably are only entitled to temp accommodation initially but it will be shorter if you know what you are entitled to and keep pushing.

No one working in housing thinks this is sensible or is judging you. Nor are the landlords.

I'm so sorry you're facing this, it's completely understandable that you're feeling the way you feel. I agree with PP, get as familiar as possible with your legal rights now that you're reliant on the council for housing. The more you know and understand, the more confident you'll feel in navigating their applications, etc. Don't read negative stories if you can, just the facts.

Lean on your support network, don't feel ashamed, this isn't your fault. Self care is important, but care from your loved ones and friends will help you too. You're not alone.

Oh god, OP. I’m so sorry.

I was in this position 4 years ago now. We had to move from London to the West Midlands in the end so we could afford to live with no UC (or housing benefit as it was then), top up. Our saving grace was that dh job had gone mainly remote so we could move somewhere much cheaper with no upheaval to work.

It’s a shit situation. I remember well getting laughed out of estate agents with “no dss” comments. No one would touch us either when we told them we had house benefit, even though dh was working full time and I was working two 14 hour night shifts a week and looking after a toddler in the day.

We had two landlords sell up. The first time, we managed to find another rental, but we had to take out a loan to pay 6 months in advance, we had to supply references from people of good standing in the community and our employers (because obviously, we must have been benefits scum), the landlord wanted to see my then 13 year olds school reports to “see if he was trouble”. The agent poured through our bank statements as the landlord wanted to know if we were good with money. He insisted on 6 weekly house inspections incase we “didn’t know how to treat a home” (in his words). it was humiliating, anyone else would have laughed or told them to fuck off, but it was the hope of that home or nothing. He let us rent his damp, crap, overpriced house in the end, but wanted us out so he could sell 2 years later.

Thats when we gave up and left everything, I pile t face the humiliation again. I appreciate that not everyone can do that and we were in a London, which is bloody expensive.

And it’s not your fault. It’s just shit. There should be laws against discrimination for UC claimants.

I’m so sorry that you’re in this position. This government is a disgrace, there’s not enough housing and at the same time, private landlords are being vilified so that they decide to sell up at some point. I keep all my fingers crossed for you to find something soon!

I am so sorry OP.
The lack of social housing is an absolute disgrace and unfortunately the tightening up of Tenants rights has meant that its so hard to evict a bad Tenant that LL's are either selling up and/or are very picky about who they rent to. With more people needing houses than are available its very much a LL's market.
I really hope you manage to find something

Thank you all. Yes the rent skyrocketed after Liz Truss.... She's released a book hasn't she? And the section 21 ban is what I believed to be the final nail in the coffin for our Landlord.
From what I can gather from our housing officer, emergency accommodation will be a few weeks and we would then go into Temporary Accommodation. But who really knows. We are on the council list already but so are about 5000 other people.
Yes I run my own business and my husband works so the UC is a top up, but we aren't fit to lick an estate agents boots frankly. Our I&E for the council wasn't impressive either, I think they know we are stuffed.
Just going to save the extra rent money and grit our teeth and hope for a council house (I've heard the Temporary Accommodation could be a self contained flat or something if we are very fortunate)

To be fair to EAs if they KNOW the LL's they work with won't accept you it would be wasting everyones time to allow you viewings. especially when they might have 3 or 4 other people wanting to view who they think MIGHT be accepted
Doesn't stop them responding to enquiries though.
It's very tough OP, I feel for you. We really should have more non Private rentals here

Have you considered getting a job so you have a steadier income?

It's shit OP.

It's all been caused by idiots demanding "high quality" housing.

Would you prefer a cheap shithole, but have money to live on, or would you prefer all rentals to be pristine, but unaffordable?

Unfortunately, you are stuck in an awful position.

I did have a job, I've always worked. I went self employed when the childcare costs got too much. She gets the 2 year funding next year so that changes things. But my business is actually doing well, and yet it doesn't seem to count.

I don’t know if you really will save money because temporary homeless accommodation usually isnt temporary you can be stuck there for a year or more all the money you’re spending now on rent will go towards paying for your belongings to be stored or removal fees or and will also want to replace furnishings they give to you I was in temporary homeless once the sheets were like hospital ones scratchy mattresses worse I’ve ever slept on

2 weeks to go until what? The expiry of the section 21 notice, or have you been to court already? A section 21 notice doesn't end the tenancy.

I'm sorry I don't have any practical advice but I just wanted to say that you haven't failed. The system absolutely stinks

Has the council explain to you . That if you can't find anything private and have to go the homeless route . You'll need to wait for bailiffs. If you don't do this the council could say you have made yourself homeless and then not help you. Because by law you could have stayed longer.

Emergency accommodation can be anything from a B&B to self contained flat /house . They can over crowed you.

Temporary accommodation can be very similar sometimes your Emergency cam become your Temporary accommodation.

Also if your on low income. The council should help you move and store your belonging. They don't always let you know this. I had my stuff put into storage the day before bailiffs came . This removed so much stress. Had no one pushing me to get a move in no bad vibes it was very straightforward.

Try not to worry about your children to much . Kids are pretty strong. When this happened to me I told my kids we would have to stay in a temporary place for a bit because there's notvebough houses so we have to wait till one comes along.

If you end up with a housing association house at the end of it then overall it might make things more stable for you.
I think this is going to happen to a lot more people unfortunately.

Landlords are generally ok if they are mortgage free but the landlords with mortgages will all start selling up at some point as the tax rules have changed and most of the mortgage payments can't be seen as an expense. So overall they will make a financial loss each year renting a house out.

We were given 2 months by the landlord who is selling the property. The council accepted this and our Housing Officer said we have the option to stay in the after the 2 months but it is not mandatory and they have agreed to help us and sent a letter confirming. We produced all the gas certificates, how to rent leaflet etc and they said it's valid. And the legal system is very clogged up with people remaining in properties and court cases are delayed because of it, so the authorities actually shoot themselves in the foot by advising this now because everyone is doing it. That's what our housing officer told us

Hi OP,
I’m so sorry this has happened to you. We are in a very similar situation. I just wondered if you managed to get your situation sorted in the end?

I know this is an old thread and I hope the OP is doing well but....this is now going to get much much worse....those with disabilities who rely on PIP to either work or enable them to cover private rent, (as UC element alone rarely covers it), will now quite possibly be facing evictions if they lose their award...here's hoping Angela Raynor build those houses quickly (🙄)

Oh God OP you are living the nightmare so many people worry about. I'm really really sorry