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?

He will get his rent. I speak from experience. I was recently evicted and the housing benefit part of my rent was paid up until the day that i left. My ll first tried to sya that he hadnt received his rent but luckily i was finally able to prove that he had received it, but my contract had expired in the mean time so he was able to give me notice anyway.

I didnt wait for the bailiffs, as managed to find somewhere privatley that would take a working lone parent with hb top ups. and after dreading moving for many months, this house is so much better.
My local council did tell me though that if i was seen as not actively looking for a place on my own, then that could count agaisnt me as well.
I was told to view properties and speak to the landlord directly after viewing and expressing an interest about the hb. quite often its agents blocking the hb tenants and the ll is fine to accept them.

My local authroity are next to useless and they have no housing avaliable so i knew even if they allocated me housing it would be private rented that they had sorted out themselves.

The lady that i dealt with was very rude and blunt and showed no empathy at all, i understand you must get hardened to sob stories in thier line of work, but still!

Hully - he's issued a 'no faults' section 21. He doesn't need a reason for this. He wants, and is entitled to, his property back regardless of him getting rent from me. As far as I understood it, I could be paying three times the rent and he'd still be within his rights to evict me.

It doesn't look like an eviction order will effect the rent but then the LA say something different every time I am in there!

And thanks for everyone's replies. I should think people are bored of this thread by now! Do you think I should move it somewhere? Where though?

charlie your just fine here.

I know it seems relentless now, and intimidating, but it does end, its all so fresh in my memory, this time last year I was still fighting, yet I've now been in our home 10mnths, its wonderful, better than we had before and my children are settled and ds loves his school, I'd have never believed anyone telling me this a year ago. Your an amazing strong women, you will be just fine x

Hope you're OK OP

Thanks for the cuppa Julia :) it was much needed!

I'm plodding on ok. Waiting to hear about my official homeless application going through. They were meant to call me back this afternoon but.... Well that was wishful thinking I guess.

DD is at a friends and DS is half across me watching ITNG. I think he's coming down with something. He's slept for 3 hours today and is asking to go to bed now which is an hour early. He has a bit of a snotty nose so hopefully it will just be a cold. He's never normally a sleepy boy. He refused dinner too. Kept asking for cereal which is a sure sign he's not right as he's a dustbin come dinner time.

Hope dc's OK. Wish we had a political organisation that would rock up en masse at evictions etc
The whole situation is a disgrace
Hope you can store your things in advance
What area are you in?

Thanks Julia. DS had a restless night so I think it's going to be a sofa day.

I'm in the south east. I'm not sure what will happen to my stuff. Hopefully it'll go into storage. My brother has a garage but they have just said some stuff has gone mouldy in there so Im not sure about that now!

I'm not sure if a protest at evictions would do much good. There is suh a difference between the LA rent and private rents. Almost half in some cases. You can't force LL to take HB people. Maybe they could do more about Providing a guarantor for people that don't have one maybe. I think the one thing that needs to be changed is that they should house people before it gets to the court stage.

It's only making LL less likely to take on other HB people. I doubt mine would after this. For a start, the HB won't be high enough to cover the rent here but a working family on HB might not even get a chance now.

I think the LA needs more housing but there just doesn't se the finding for that.

I'm in N Kent but don't have much space - want me to ask round re storing stuff?
gotta go out now - later?

re storing your belongings, its worth checking with the council if they pay. I had to move my stuff into stroage myself and pay the first months rent but the council paid it bac each month. I had to forward them the bill.
I used a company called storage king and the first month was £1 so luckily only had to pay £1 plus insurance whihc was £5 per £1000 insured.

I know councils need to be cautious as supposedly too many people pulling the eviction card to get a cheap la rented house, but i dont think that is the case anymore. like you say the high rents just mean hardly anyone can afford the rents. I work full time and earn a good salary but becasue rents so high here, i still get hb for approx £150 a month. the rent on a 3 bed house start at £1000 and the lha is £899 here. so if you were on full hb im not sure what you would do. the houses that are anywhere near the lha allowance are awful, let out by the worst kind of landlords.

I know this isnt the case in all areas though as friends rent in north yorkshire and bristol and they have lovely houses and rent just below the lha. I also considered moving to one of the two areas but then would have had to give up my full time job.

hope something comes up soon.

Hi Charlie, I hope things get sorted out for you soon.

Just wanted to say you can buy a 3G dongle really cheaply, it's just a USB stick that you put in your laptop and then you can get pay-as-you-go internet. We have a T-mobile one which I think was £10, but make sure you get Pay-as-you-go and not a contract.

You sound like a great Mum, just don't forget to look after yourself as well!

Hi Julia - lovely offer but a bit far I think. We are on the coast.

Thanks for the info daisy. I am going to look at some lOcal storage companies for ideas. But hopefully the council will pay me back in that case.

Apple - I'm only on my phone as my laptop has died but I'm going to get it fixed and go down the dongle route eventually. It'll save my sanity in the long run as I can mn in queitly in the evenings when the kids are asleep. Or watch a film or something.

I'm off to the doctors this afternoon to talk about my sleeping and anxiety. I'm really not keen on going down the medication route but maybe they will suggest something else to start with.

hypnotherapy you tube hope it helps

Julia - thanks. I have a feeling I'll be needing that tonight.

Feeling like the worlds worst mother tonight. I just need to write this down and I'm not expecting any answers. There is nothing to be done but I need to get it off my chest and don't want to start another thread.

It's not really related to the practicalities of the situation either. Just how we are dealing with the stress of it all as a family. I was out for a hen do this weekend. Something that financially I should have maybe missed but emotionally I felt I needed. I had agreed a long time ago. It wast future sister in laws who I am close to and other family had bailed out and let her down. My brother offered to pay as he felt I deserved the day and he wanted the support for his OH. It was a lovely day and it felt amazing to be away from this whole crappy situation.

DD had spent the day at my sisters. We met my sister and others for a meal in the evening after our day trip and when I sat at the table and asked how DD was my sister announced loudly that I really ought to make time to talk to my DD. That maybe a day with her would be better spent. Apparently, DD was heartbroken and sobbing about the situation. My sister kept implying I needed to pay more attention to DD like I was oblivious to her suffering through this. I know she is scared and feeling so uncertain. I know she is. We all are. She is allowed to feel this way but I try very very hard to put a positive spin on it all. I can't just make it all perfect though. I've tried. I really have.

The thought of DD sobbing is awful. She does talk to me though. I think my sister just caught her at a time when she was thinking about it after her cousin had asked what would happen to her cat.

I'm so angry at my sister. She didn't need to do this at a table full of people. She just relished makin herself look like the favourite aunty who DD turned to in distress. I feel so so crap at what is happening anyway and if my sister bothered to ask how I was she would know that.

I didn't know what to say. I went to the bathroom and tried to hold in the tears because I didn't want to ruin the hen do. Now I feel like I should have spent the day with DD. time to ourselves is rare with DS around and maybe I need to make more of an effort. But right now, my time is taken up with this stupid packing and making a million phone calls etc.

I don't think I can talk to my sister again. It's always about her and this has been the last straw. She deliberately tried to upset SIL on her own hen party to because she wanted to dictate where we went etc. I am really angry but the wedding is in a month and I don't want to cause friction. If there was no wedding I'd tell her to leave me alone. I'm hoping I'll calm down in a day or two. But tonight I am angry and feeling like I've let DD down. I don't know how to make her feel better. I have to hide my own feelings better as she must be picking up on them. It's all such a mess. I just want them all to see that this is pulling me apart.

God that was long :(

Sorry! I honestly needed to ramble though.

Charlie, the whole situation is so emmotional and hard. I have been there. Homeless, two kids. I was really lucky that bidding on a property in a crap area meant we got housed just before being officially evicted, as once we had that notice and points we bid. It's such a hard, shite time. Don't beat yourself up about the kids or anything this weekend. Tomorrow is a new day and I hope you get your priority points soon and get rehoused swiftly.

Thanks smokinaces. (good film. Watched the outtakes on you tube the other day :))

I know we will be ok. This thread has shown me many families do it and come out the other side. We will too. It's just going to sting abit along the way.

On another positive note, my house in the crappy area has turned out to be secure, quiet, solid and with good neighbours. It is one of the most notorious estates that everyone warned us against, but its turned out ok for me in the end. Have they given you any indication of when you will get your points? I know in Kent the bidding list came out Friday and is active till Wednesday so fingers crossed for you.

We get to bid every fortnight. I've bid three times now but am still in a low band. Not sure when I will get extra points really. I don't think it will be until I've been given an official eviction date but I don't know where that will fall with the bidding times. Hopefully it'll work out that way but it seems as if people who are already in b&b will have a higher priority so it won't mean all that much maybe.

Have you researched which areas etc go for lower bids etc? We did it - the house I won had sixty less bids than the others that issue simply because of the area.

You might get lucky and get a temporary flat or bedsit or even house. They do exist.

I recently won a bid with a low band because I looked into where I was likely to get a house and bid for the not popular areas.

The last three bidding sessions there has only been 3 three bedroom properties on the books so I've bid for them all regardless of area.

I'm just so emotionally drained tonight. Physically I feel I can get on with the packing and clearing but I just wish I could switch off from it. The one day I did has now been ruined because I feel guilty. Which is what my sister was aiming for all along no doubt.

Just take each day one at a time. Each day is a step closer to it all being sorted. And there's a whole bunch of mumsnetters just seconds away to listen to your every vent.

So today is the official end of my section 21 notice.

Does this officially make me a squater I wonder?

Anyway, the agent has been around lots this last week or so. He knows I won't be leaving today. He has tried to be quite forceful though. Kept stating that I HAD to be out by today legally.

The house is almost packed up.

I surprised how brutal I've been with the decluttering. It's been cathartic and I'm actually excited at the thought of only having useful, essential stuff to unpack eventually.

I'm feeling very anxious already though. Today marks the start of the uncertainty really.

I just wanted to thank everyone for all of the useful advice and support you've given. There are days when I would have been a jubbering mess if it wasn't for having this thread to read back through.

I will try to keep you updated but I'm not sure how long I'll have my Internet for now. I have been given an old (a bit broken) iPhone which I'm using with my wifi but it's completely locked so I have to find some dodgy person to work their magic before I can actually use it with a sim card.

Good luck with everything Charlie. I hope everything works out well for you and you end up with a lovely home you can enjoy without threat of ever having to go through all of this again. Thinking of you.

Good Luck.