To refuse to do this.

[Minus273]

I have just had the Council out as they are trying to have us taking off the list, we are homeless thanks to redundancy and are camped out in my mum's spare room. Before I get flamed for this I know we would be waiting years, I know there are no homes but not being allowed on the waiting list just feels psychologically like a kick in the teeth. I hope someone knows what I mean.

We are overcrowded as there are 3 adults, 1 child and about to be a baby so quite stressed living conditions. My Mum is elderly, I am 37.5 weeks pregnant so I have been struggling with the basic housework never mind anything else. I haven't seen DH for 5 weeks as he has been away finishing up at work away from home. The only good thing about this being his last day is I won't be trying to do everything myself any more.

There is a box room with the boiler on the wall, not in a cupboard but just in this small room. She objects that I didn't move the storage cabinet in the room for her. I could do it normally although would take a while I'm just not up to it at the moment when even walking hurts and I spent the time leading up to the 37 week mark on MW orders to rest to try and avoid premature labour due to signs I was showing. She then said I could fit a cot in if I slid it under the boiler so we wouldn't be overcrowded. When I objected saying it wasn't safe as the boiler regularly drops pressure letting the seal go and leaking boiling water. She said this was my choice not to do this so was deliberately making ourselves overcrowded and should do it as she thinks we shouldn't then be over crowded and have no right to be on the list. She spent the whole quick visit looking down her nose at me and making it clear she though I was scum. I can't stop sobbing now.

Am I really so unreasonable not to move heavy things when so heavily pregnant and to refuse to put my baby's life in danger?

Minus come back to the thread. Don't be put off

I am worried about you Minus - and it won't get easier with a new baby. At least you will have your DH at home with you FT.

I've followed the other threads and nobody's being hurtful by suggesting there is something seriously wrong here.
It's one of those situations where I'd far rather the OP was on the wind-up than the other option, which is that she's not a very well lady :(

The OP alludes to posters, including me, thinking she is scum for questioning her facts, in a reasonable way, setting out the actual legal position. Nobody said anything about her being scum. I think it is therefore fair to question the OP's judgement about the Council employee talking to her as if she were scum.I have not read other threads, but agree the OP should seek medical help.

The OP has also failed to answer several people asking HOW MANY BEDROOMS ARE THERE??

It won't make any difference with the Council of her mother asked her to move out - the relevant home for homelessness is your last settled accommodation, and in this case, that is the house the OP refused to sign a new agreement for, so is intentionally homeless. If she is presently homeless, that was the cause of her homelessness, and being asked to leave her present temporary accommodation at her mother's house won't change that. Likewise if she were to "get put into bed and breakfast" as has been suggested. It doesn't matter where you are, it's how and why you ended up there. The facts remain she is intentionally homeless from her last settled accommodation.

Calm down and scroll back peppa! She clearly states how many bedrooms.

Really? Where? How many then?

Found it!! 2 bedrooms then, plus the disputed box room.
What about extra living rooms or dining rooms?

The midwife said she would report to ss if they slept in lounge. Which would be correct if a gas appliance is present

Having seen first had what a relatively new very well maintained boiler can do, when things go unexpectedly wrong (in our case the release valve got stuck and we had about 10lt of boiling water on the floor of the loft instead of being discharged outside) there is no fucking way I would be placing my baby's cot anywhere close to the damn things let alone underneath one.

Your council assessor is v unreasonable.

You definitely need to go to Shelter or your citizen advice bureau. They might be able to help you.

\england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice

I thought you're not allowed to sleep in the same room as your boiler?

When we were having adaptations, we were looking at having little room on ground floor converted into a bedroom. The HA, disability team and ss said no. You aren't allowed to have a room with a boiler in it as your bedroom, they'd have to move it.

Check that out.

It may be it was just their policy or something, but if it's the law then you have something to throw at them!

You lost the HB due to the total income once you got married, didn't you love? So now if DH is unemployed, you can reapply.
Unfortunately though, I think a few people are right in saying that you willingly made yourself homeless by not renewing the tenancy, regardless of the reasons. Does sound like that woman was a cow though.x

Hecate, that's what I said further up thread. My HA moved really quick when I mentioned in passing I slept in a room leading off from the boiler, and with a gas appliance in it

What the woman from the council said is illegal. Get in touch with the Housing Officer again AND the local councillor. You are not allowed to put a newborn in a room with a boiler due to carbon monoxide risks etc.

I can't pm from my phone, or I would! But I really hope minus see's this as she left the thread before we all posters boiler/baby/bedroom stuff

And carbon monoxide poisoning is a real concern

Can a room be counted as available for sleeping, where a gas fire is fitted?

In terms of a Gas Fire being present in one of those rooms; with affect of October 1998, HSE guidance states that; any room converted to use as sleeping accommodation should not contain the following types of gas appliances:

A A gas fire, gas space heater or a gas water heater (including a gas boiler) over 14 kilowatts gross input unless it is room sealed.

B A gas fire, gas space heater, or a gas water heater (including a gas boiler) of 14 kilowatts gross input or less or any instantaneous water heater unless it is room sealed or has an atmosphere-sensing device.
If the appliance does not comply with either A or B, then the room cannot be considered as 'available for sleeping' until either the appliance is changed to comply or removed completely. The exception to this would be short term use - for example temporarily sleeping in the room as a result of illness.
underoneroofexchange.com/exchange1.html

Yes Dawn. I sleep in my lounge. I was straightaway given extra points and 6 weeks to bid on a property. So I get 3 bidding rounds and then I can have whatever I bid on ( apparently)

Never known them move so quick.

Sirboobalot probably has a point! Minus, noone thinks you are scum. You have been given lots of good advice here. We WANT to help you. But as it is your story doesn't add up - you DO sound paranoid. Either you are missing something key out of what you are telling on here, you are getting REALLY shit advice from EVERYONE you come across, you are making it up, or you have problems we can't help with.

There was a thread once where people said you were a troll. I actually stood up for you on that. It's probably long deleted. If you WANT us to help you, please come back.

minus?

minus has hidden this thread. She has appallingly low self-esteem and the battering she gets on threads like these do her a fair amount of emotional harm. She should know better than to start them but, like we all do, when angry and upset about something we start venting threads.

I don't know the rights and wrongs of any of her situation but I do know that

1. she is in Scotland so any English rules may not apply
2. the woman from the Council is an unmitigated idiot if she thought that a boiler-containing boxroom is appropriate for a baby's cot
3. she lives in constant fear that her ex will somehow manage to take DD1 away from her (and he seems to be a manipulative cunt of the highest order)

I DON'T know about all the ins and outs of the relevant people telling her she is not entitled to this that and the other - I think she has had bum advice, or is not explaining herself very clearly, I just don't know.

Her DH currently lives many miles away because that is where his job was; there is little work where minus lives. She cannot move beyond a certain radius because of the court order placed on her by her exH, so to be together, her DH has to move to a place of limited employment opportunity. So it's possible that things changed when she was married and yes, she hasn't been back to get them re-assessed now in the light of his unemployment, which she must.

But it is really quite sickening to see some of the stuff that people say to her on here. In the end, this is a very sad woman in a very difficult situation - why be so awful to her?

Yes I have read the thread. And there's no "perhaps" about some posters coming across as less than sympathetic at all.