to want to go outside and slash down the SOLD sign outside our rented home?

[rocket74]

I am so so upset. Our happily rented home for us with 2 small children has been sold and we will have to move out. We wanted to stay here indefinately. Been here 3.5 years but never realised when we moved in our rent was paying for the owners care home fees and that when she died it would be sold. Thought they meant it when they said long term rental.
So gutted. Some couple came round with their kid and dad who was obviously putting up the deposit for them. Alright for some!!
ABSOLUTELY bereft - we have tried looking for somewhere new - but we need an extra £400 month to get somewhere even vaguely similar as rents have gone crazy in this area - Brighton and Hove.

I just want to scream and slash the sign because if I don't I will end up slashing something else - which won't help issues.
Our little boy loves this house - he has autism - and the garden is big enough for him to run and do his laps - as is the living dining room.
I just want to be able to provide him with a home to suit his needs but I don't see how. I'm just crying all the time and feel totally hopeless.

Will I be done for criminal damage if I do smash down that fucking sign?

No you didn't. i don't see any mention of children in that post and I asked if you would do that with children. Sleep rough with children. Through choice. Because you didn't want to cause someone else a problem.

You would do that with children? you would have children sleeping in a car for however long rather than stay put until they had somewhere to go?

I am not saying she shouldn't give a stuff. I am not saying she shouldn't be out there right now pounding the streets looking for somewhere to live, anywhere at all.

I am saying that she doesn't move without somewhere to move to.

That if she needs council help - there is a procedure to follow. And there is. Like it or not they won't help if you don't stay!

Midnite - as I said up thread the new owners will have been advised of the risks of buying with tenants in situ and should not be depending on dates to move themselves. They will probably also have negotiated a discount due to the tenants.

Agree Hecate....it is utter crap and the procedure is all wrong but they leave you with no option because if you don't follow it you are "intentionally homeless".

No Midnite.....this is not fair on you or anyone else either though. I agree with you but if I was in that situation with a child I would have no option but to follow it.

Thankfully although I have been in a similar situation my in-laws were in a position to lend us the deposit so we could move. Had they not done so we would have had nowhere to go as we had no family in the area. In that situation I might have had to fall on the mercy if the council who would have told me to stay put......I would have done but would also have felt very unhappy and uncomfortable about it.

It wouldn't happen now Hecate. After that incident I now keep enough set aside for a deposit and first months rent on a new property in caseit ever happened again. Fortunately I now own because I was fed up with propeties being sold, which is why I bought in the first place. I still can't bring myself to use tht money though, even though I don't have that worry anymore. I wouldn't risk having children and having to sleep in a car. Renting always carriesthat risk and you need to be prepared for that eventuality.

But yes, if I were told to leve a rental, then I would do so. Children or no children. If I hve no right to be living there, then I would leave.

Rocket - you need to seek legal advice asap!

Do not leave the house, whatever the new owners say, unless you have new accommodation.

Also, they may not even be able to evict you. You cannot just evict a tenant whenever you like it! So seek legal advice.

Hope you would remember to find somewhere else to live before you left

Sorry, above re: Midnite.

YANBU to be upset op.
If you were in a council or housing association house you could sit pretty for years and have a 'proper' home.
It is not fair but private renting is a bugger for insecurity.
I feel for you and wish you lots of luck finding a new home.

Hm, get a glowing reference from the LL as a good, long term tenant to help you find your new home ( many LL would consider negotiating on rent if you were in this position) or get a crap reference where you cause huge stress/expense to a bereaved family - and no decent private LL will take a chance on renting to you again.

Your choice.

I also think there's a huge backstory here - you must have had MONTHS and months of a notice since the owner died, house went on market, viewings took place, etc. Were you hoping a sale never went through and sat on your hands?

May I point out the OP may not have had months of notice?

Our current flat was sold over our heads without us even knowing it was on the market. First we knew of it we were told we'd have someone round to look at it, and they bought it. The 'owner' on our paperwork had actually been dead since before the tenancy began but no-one had thought to mention this to us!

It is possible the OP is shocked because sometimes people really don't tell tenants much. I would imagine if your relative is dying, you are rather busy doing other things and may not take time to do loads of viewings on her house and to explain to her tenant what is going on.

I hope that people who say the OP can afford to rent somewhere else are correct. If so she won't need to worry about eviction and can just go - though it's really not a fun situation to be in.

But I think the people who are trying to guilt-trip her into going and living on the streets with her autistic child are barking mad. I'm sorry, but you are. Think about it for one minute. Why on earth would that be a solution? I'm sure evicting a tenant in order to get them eligible for help from the council is absolutely horrible and no fun for anyone, but it is far less bad than that.

Or her's a really radical idea.... why doesn't the OP, you know, TALK to the new owners and try to discuss timeframes for needing to move, and try and actually have a less stressful move that works for both parties and assures her of a good reference, instead of smashing signs and sulking like a spoilt child because she doesn't getto live in a low rent house of her dreams for the rest of her ife?

I agree, midnite.

But, but ... she hasn't actually smashed the sign, you know? She's just moaned about it on MN?

She moaned about an elderly lady dying because of how it inconveniences her. She lost any sympathy I would have had for her at that point.

This is getting a bit heavy, talking about 'piss poor parenting'.

I know you didn't use the term first, midnite, but I think you are being ridiculous here. Where do you propose the OP gets that 'emergency fund' from?

People have explained why evictions sometimes happens, as it is an alternative to going and voluntarily living on the streets.

I don't have a child and I certainly don't know what it is like to have a child with autism, but I have read a lot of posts on here and I am willing to bet that the OP didn't actually plan that one. She may have found she is unable to get back to work as she'd expected. Sure, it might be very nice if all parents of disabled children had planned to have large savings so they never wanted for anything, but isn't there a limit to how much you can predict? Especially with the way funding for disability has been cut recently?

the other side could look like this?

Our grandmother recently died following a long and painful illness. We rented out her house to a family 3.5 years ago and this has helped us afford her the best care whilst she was ill. However, as a result of the way my gran divided up her estate between her grandchildren in her will, it is necessary that we sell the house. We have found a buyer who are keen to proceed as quickly as possible which is a relief to us as we obviously just want the matter finished with so we can all move on. We feel dreadful as the family has a special needs child but there is no choice in how we deal with the issue. The family are very upset - the mother has torn down the 'sold' sign on the house and we are incredibly concerned about what we will find when it is finally sold. What if they do something horrible like rip wall paper, pull radiators from walls, put the plugs in and leave taps running? what if they refuse to remove all their rubbish - are we going to be liable for that? We have done our best at keeping the family informed - I have power of attorney for my gran so was legally responsible for her affairs - but it's our house to do what we want with and now we've got all this additional worry. The destruction of the sign has really upset us at what was already a difficult time and we now find that they are going to have to hang on in the property until we/the new owners evict them. I dread to think what this is going to cost us in legal fees. We just want to mourn our gran's death and get on with life as best we can.

If someone had written that, what would you say?

Well the OP hasn't said she wasn't given notice and since most places do give proper notice, it's not far fetched to assume that rather than she hadn't. She also quite nastily described a potential viewing she was present for.

And sorry but this crap about - tenant being made homeless because they are served a notice on their lease agreement is nonsense.

By that logic, if a tenant gives an LL notice and landlord can't pay their mortgage, the LL should be crying that the tenants moving out are going to cause foreclosure on their property and they'll lose their house.

Entitled. Nonsense.

mum, she hasn't torn down the sold sign.

Piss poor parenting, for not being able to save enough for an emergency fund? Do you really think that midnite? That includes me then, unnecessarily harsh IMO.

YANBU to be upset, but YABU for the comment about the couple buying the house. You have no idea how they are paying for it. We got my FIL to come and visit our first house with us because he is an architect and we valued his advice, he had no part in our deposit whatsoever. And it's hardly the old lady's fault that she died. 3 1/2 years IS a long-term rental and you can never assume that a rental situation is indefinite, that is sadly the nature of renting. You'd have had her family keep the house and become reluctant landlords even though they may have sorely needed the sale money themselves?

Very harsh and uncalled for IMO midnite and any sympathy I had for your opinion was lost at the point you said "piss poor parenting". Do you know how hard it is to manage working and caring for a disabled child?

Despite having 30 years of employment behind me I have been out of work for the past year as I just could not juggle both a demanding job and caring for an autistic child. At this point if I were to lose my tenancy I would be in the same position as the OP with no deposit to see me through to a new property. Does that make ME a "piss poor parent" too?

Fact is that life can be fucking hard sometimes without judgemental comments from those who haven't a scooby about what it is like to cope with little support.