In thinking that living in a B&B with two kids is going to be a nightmare?

[CharlieUniformNovemberTango]

I know I'm being unreasonable. I know there are people is worse situations but I need to get all of this out in the hope I'll sleep tonight if I offload and maybe even hear something positive from people who have done it before.

I have posted before under a different name (AllShiney) but this name better matches my mood :)

The gist is that I was served notice. I now have 18 days left and I still have not found anywhere to go. It's a combination of private rents being too high, no one taking people who recieve housing benefit, not having a UK based gaurentaur.

I have rung over 100 agencies. I have been in touch with shelter and a local housing charity. It's hopeless :(

I'm on the council list and bidding but I am low band only in need of an extra bedroom as per their assessment at the moment. They have advised that if I leave when my notice is over I am making myself intentionally homeless and they will not prioritise our needs. I basically have to stay and be evicted through the court before I am a priority.

Then I will 'most definately' be put into temporary accommodation which would be a B&B. They 'might' be able to offer me storage for my belongings at a reduced rate. However, they won't know this for certain until the day I approach them with my homeless application. That is the day that the bailiffs will evict me so I would have to leave the furniture behind as opposed to selling it if I had some notice.

Please don't get me wrong, I am gratefull we won't be on the streets but the whole situation is so stressful :(

I have an 11 yo and a 3 yo. The thought of staying in one room for months is daunting. I'm just visualising me sat in the dark from 8pm. Not even sure I'll have MN as I won't have my WiFi.

Also, the council women today said they will try to pu me in a food friendly b&b. When I asked what that meant she said some of the places they use don't allow any hit food in the room. You have to eat out for every meal. I was hoping I could pickup a cheap microwave and use that :(

It's going to be hell isn't it?

Hi sincity,

Sorry to hear you may end up a similar position. I don't think your LA will do anything for you until you have the eviction order. You can join the list and bid in the meantime but might not be a priority depending in your circumstances. An email from you landlord is probably just his way of testing the waters to see if you'll go of your own accord which will save him the effort and money of serving a notice. Did he say why he needs you to go?

If the council find out that you asked him for the eviction then you can say you were simply asking him to follow the correct procedures if his intention was to ask you to leave the property.

I hope you get some good advice.

Charlie, soon, very soon really in the grand scheme of things, you will be in your cosy little housing association house or flat that will be yours, just as you want it where no one will kick you out and you will be settled.
You will spend a while in a B&B (or hostel-type place, many Local Authorities do not use B&Bs), then you will be housed; because they have to if they accept your homelessness application.
You will be fine, take care of yourself now.

sin&charlie please don't blame yourselves; you haven't let your dc's down - this bastard society and govt have. I am livid that you all have to endure this.

:) I know. It will be lovely.

I keep saying to myself "short term hell for long term gain"

I'm distracting myself by looking for decoration ideas. I've never been allowed to paint before :)

Have fun choosing your paint colours!

Charlie, I've no direct experience of what you're going through - thank God - but just wanted to say, for all the good it'll do - that I really admire the positivity you're showing in the face of something truly scary and sickening. What a great mum your kids have .... whatever happens, I'm sure they'll be fine because your concern and love for them jumps off the page and I know you'll do everything you can to make this as easy as possible for them.

You've had loads of great advice from people who know what they're talking about but one thing which occurred to me is that you shouldn't hide what's happening from people who know you. You've nothing to feel ashamed about and if, someone in your position, were to confide in me at school, for example, I'd do all I could to help. It might well be that people can't do very much for you as individuals, but collectively, the help of several might add up to something substantial. Am thinking that it'd be no problem at all to do an extra load of laundry each week .... or offer to do a pile of ironing (imagine that ironing in a confined space with kids might not be very easy). Similarly, once people knew what was happening, though they might not - singularly - be able to store all your stuff, most would probably be able to take a box of two of stuff, or a piece of furniture. I'd have no problem in inviting a small family like yours for a hot meal once a week ..... if several people did this, you'd then have no need to cook (though do appreciate it's preferable to do your own thing). If someone like you approached me no way would I feel imposed upon ... I'd just what to try and help even if the help wasn't very much and I'm sure most people would feel the same. You know .... the way things are right now it really would be a "there but for the grace of god go I" kind of thing because so many of us could quite easily find ourselves in a similar situation very quickly. Guess what I'm saying is .... please don't be too proud to ask for help. Hope nothing I've said has offended you ...... and I wish you all the best for the future. This will pass ..... a nightmare now, but it won't be forever.

@sincitylover-your landlord needs to serve you with the correct papers as notice. You could turn it around by saying you won't go without a legally binding eviction notice then you won't be classed as intentionally homeless. Take anything he sends you down to shelter to make sure it has been written up properly.(they checked my letter to see if it was a proper eviction notice)

Thank you frothy and Charlie this thread has made me feel more positive about things.

I'm plucking up courage to email my landlord to ask him to issue the correct paperwork.

We've been here for a long time and he wants to completely refurbish the place and then prob put the rent up.

I've been a good tenant I think and always paid rent regularly and on time.

"I've been a good tenant I think and always paid rent regularly and on time."

Same here, the system is really unfair.

Same here. It's interesting to see that the exact same flat next door is getting £150 more in rent then I am paying. There is no way he can raise my rent as he knows I am paying my maximum housing benefit allowance so I think that is why her wants me gone :(

I understand he needs to make money and probably has a mortgage to pay but there really is no way I could afford the private rents in this area now. The whole rentals system is impossible. The rent on a LA house is almost half what I pay now. And I'll be getting an extra bedroom. The difference between the two is so vast. Even if was working full time is never be able to afford this place. At Least this way I'll have a much more affordable rent when I finish university and get back to work.

Hello Charlie and all the others, just wanted to offer my support. You are being very positive and you WILL get through this. A similar thing happened to me last year, but luckily I found another private rental 3 weeks before the end of the term of notice (I live in the SW where properties are relatively easier to get hold of).

You've received some excellent advice, and the only thing that I can add is to be wary of advice from the housing officers at your LA. Mine openly lied to me- he told me we'd have to stay in a B&B for about 6 months, miles away from our area, when in fact our LA doesn't use B&Bs AT ALL - they use council houses as temporary accommodation.

It doesn't sound at all right to me that they're expecting you to be physically evicted before giving you temporary accommodation- in my case, at least, written notice from the landlord was sufficient.

I would try talking to another housing officer at the LA- they may well have different stories..

GOOD LUCK!!

Also....God, I wish I could email this thread to the Housing Minister- and make sure they read it. Fucking shocking.

Maybe we should

Also the popular myth perpetuated by the press is that single patents get so much help and assistance - this thread demonstrates that this is not actually the case!

sincity you really don't need to pluck up the courage to ask your Landlord for the correct paperwork, if he wants you to leave then he has to go through certain procedures to act within the law. He has to serve you with a notice to quit, stating the latest date by which you must leave. The notice period is generally not less than two weeks and is usually two months.

Because the local authority won't house you, you are left with no option but to stay in the property. The landlord will have to send you a 'notice of intention to seek possession', this is to let you know that he intends applying to the court for a possession order. He has to serve you with this notice before he can apply to the court.

If the court grant the possession order you will be given a date by which you have to leave the property. If the council still refuse to house you and you have to stay put, then the landlord will have to apply to the court for a warrant for eviction. And this is where the bailiffs come into play. It all takes time and will cost the landlord money so he won't get his property back as quickly as he might like.

It is a horrible time and my heart goes out to you both Charlie and Sin. I went through the same thing, a few years a go now. I was fortunate and given keys to a temporary house on the day I was due to be evicted so didn't have to go into a B&B.

Thinking of you.

sin I applied to the council for help to leave an abusive relationship. I couldn't afford private rented, I was trapped with my abuser. They weren't interested. Not until I ended up in refuge. We have to be at absolute rock bottom before any one will help. It's disgraceful.

Good luck Charlie, you sound very positive & Catsmother's advice about sharing details of your situation is very wise. I would definitely let your children's schools know about the situation, for a start.

I was at college with a girl who had been living in temporary B&B accommodation for 2 out of the 3 years of her degree course - she was finally able to move into a flat with her 3yo DS a couple of months before her finals, I have honestly never seen anyone as happy as the day she came in and told us she'd got a flat. (This was back in the mid-90's, I don't know if families are allowed to be left in B&B for that long now).

I'm a bit ashamed to say most of the rest of us students weren't much practical help - we knew she was in B&B but couldn't really imagine what that entailed (and perhaps she saw her college-time as a space to get away from that) but I think the college must have been supportive of her situation.

Thanks again everyone :)

Catsmother - thank you :) I wish I had someone nearby who would do that for me. I will tell people when we have been placed and I've told a couple if friends now who have given me the chance to vent a bit but I don't want to spend my days moaning to them in case they get fed up of me. That's what you lot are for

I'm so pleased I started this thread as I've read lots of positive things and it really has helped to put my mind at rest.

And it's also helping someone else in a similar position.

It does feel like the system is at fault from this end. I don't think the LA place any thought to how stressful it is to have to wait for the court process. I have been served with my notice. It's obvious I will need to move out but they are hoping I'll find some where private in the meantime. That is just not going to happen. I don't know what they could do to change it all though.

I was surprised to learn that they have started the right to buy scheme again though. It's odd to think they are selling houses when they have such a desperate need for them.

Hi Charlie, glad you found the Facebook selling pages helpful :)

I'm sure your friends don't mind you venting one bit, they might have some ideas or advice that nobody here has offered.

The whole rentals system is impossible.

That there IMHO is where the problem lies. Its all about buying and being on the property ladder in this country. Why? What is so wrong with renting?

There are a lot of people who will never get on the housing ladder myself included. The only chance I have is a lottery win or some long lost relative remembering me in their will. Neither of which is very likely. From what I have seen the only people who can afford to rent privately are those which are either very lucky to have found somewhere they can afford or dont have children so have less outgoings.

The other main problem is that there aren't any houses for people to have any more :( Unfortunately the councils and housing associations have to be very harsh on people looking for social housing. In my area some houses were having over 200 bids for the one house. That just shows how many people are looking for these houses. I feel sorry for the people that work for the housing departments because they can't just give a house out to everyone who asks for one and it must be a difficult job to have to say no to some people.

charlie I dont think they ever finished the right to buy scheme. I have been in council accommodation for just over 7 years and Ive often had junk mail asking me to buy my council house. Although Im sure Cameron has said for every house they sell they will build another in its place, though Im no sure I trust that. Esp I can't see it being like for like. A family will buy their 4 bed council house and the government will then build a 2 bed house, or equate it with a flat.

I agree FartBlossom, and most likely the rent for the new build 2 bed house/flat will be more than it was for the 4 bed house. The system is all wrong.

I have been on and off the property ladder twice and due to bad judgement and relationship breakdown was unable to hold on to those properties.

I have no problem with renting but it's made so hard. I was just looking on an estate agents website and it said that a renter needs 2.5 x their income to rent their properties.

It almost seems to me that there should be some positive well thought out help for single parents with a single income and low income families. Incidentally how much do you normally have to pay if you are placed in a b&b? Is it cheaper than market rent?

The cost to la's of placing people in b&b must be high - surely that money would be better invested in affordable housing. Ditto the reliance on the private sector market led rental housing.

I think this thread should be sent to Grant Shapps and maybe Shelter although the latter are well aware of the issues and the housing crisis in the UK.

And the irony now is the amount I pay in rent would have covered the mortgage we paid in the mh. But because my exh defaulted on the mortgage (he paid that and I paid childcare) I felt at the time we had no option but to sell that property before it was repossessed.

In hindsight I probably should have fought harder to keep it. But I wasn't thinking straight and just wanted to escape my EA marriage.

"The cost to la's of placing people in b&b must be high - surely that money would be better invested in affordable housing. Ditto the reliance on the private sector market led rental housing."

£400 per WEEK where I was placed.

I strongly believe Grant Schapps does not give a fuck.

His HB cuts are driving more and more families into this position.

He will come out with some spiel such as "why should people on benefits live in homes working people can't afford"

Or state that there a loads of homes that low income can rent. When there bloody well are not as many landlords won't take people on HB even if you work, have good references and have a guarantor. (only 1 in 8 hb recipients are unemployed)

The affordable homes that will replace the ones they are flogging at well below market rate will have rents of 80% of the market rate. So not so fucking affordable in many areas. Many will not be social housing at all but part buy schemes. They are not replacing like with like.

If you think the London social cleansing is bad enough-you aint seen nothing yet