To want to give up on private renting completely..

[Bornfizzle]

Hi all

I've just recently given birth and due to unforeseen circumstances I'm going to have to look for a home to rent privately but this is proving to be an impossible task as most landlords are listing in their ads "no dss" or "no housing benefit", some for homes that are 300 a month and under so I am no way looking too far out of my price range. The LHA in Belfast NI is roughly 363 for a two bed.

I know some landlord's mortgages don't permit tenants who are getting housing benefit but after surfing the subject for a while on MN and other sites there seem to be those landlords who tar anyone who is getting benefits as scroungers who will ruin their property and spend their rent money on drugs, alcohol ....you name it! I understand being spurned by previous tenants but surely blanketing us all is slightly unfair!

I am in no way any of those things and only want a place to call home for my DC.

Sorry for the rant ...after DP abandoning us at the last minute and a difficult pregnancy everything just seems hopeless. Waiting list for council housing for non priority is roughly 3 years, even waiting for a hostel would take a good while....I just feel like crying and screaming all a at once!

And sorry for derailing your thread, OP.

Thank you for the support everyone, it helps to know that there are some landlords out there who don't judge and that others have been in this situation and came through.

Appletini, here in Belfast, Northern Ireland our council housing has a waiting list of 3 years before they will even make an offer and that's with children so it doesn't make us an automatic priority . Our hostels are packed as it is and for emergency and will rightly take higher risk cases in first.

References are a problem since this would be my first time in the private renting sector but currently we have a guarantor and four months rent saved for a property going up to at least 550 a month though by the time we actually find a place it might be more. I've offered this and assured that since I'd be four months ahead in rent I couldn't possibly fall behind but none of this seems to matter.

I know it is the lack of social housing and the fact that some benefit claimants have been nightmares in the past but I'm genuinely trying and offering every angle I can to prove I'm not the same and that I understand the landlord wants to keep risk to the minimal. I wouldn't try to weasel out of my rent or keep my HB since I want a roof to put over my DC'a head my rent would be my priority.

Muddlewitch, some of the 300 and below properties aren't exactly decent or in good areas so if I didn't pick a home that charged exactly 363 or below I'd be in charge of paying the top up on my rent, which I'd be more than happy to do of it meant a decent place for my little one.

Firstchoice, I'm so sorry for what you've been through. I can hardly imagine the strain and stress it's caused your family.

I'm already registered with our local housing executive but I'm going to go back on Monday and ask about their list of housing associations and landlords, I'd totally forgotten about gum tree and even Facebook !

We are landlords. Our tenants are claiming benefit and have a cat. They are the best tenants we've ever had and look after the house with love and pride. This is an huge incentive for us to look after them well too, so they'll stay.
Perhaps those landlords with multiple properties have less sentimentality about their properties, ours used to be my home, so I wanted someone in it who loved it like I did.

My daughter who lets her flat in London is not allowed under her mortgage and her insurance to let to people on housing benefit.

I do recommend working full time when you have babies. It can mean that you don't need to claim benefits at all although of course that depends what you earn. Couldn't the father look after the child whilst you work full time?

For NI it's the Facebook buy and sell pages that you need. If you're willing to move out of Belfast to say Antrim or Ballymena the H. exec waiting lists are shorter. The Simon Community will point you in the right direction also. Good luck!

That's so lovely to hear, Shockers! I'm glad someone is taking such great care of you're home

Sadly no, Greengrow, my DP left us for another woman (who he'd been seeing behind my back through most of my pregnancy! ) shortly after DD was born and wants nothing to do with her, I'd never give her to someone who doesn't want her, she deserves more than that.

What a bastard. Did you have a house together?

Honestly, I'm in two minds about pursing child support, isit. On one hand I know very well that he can pay support even if he wants nothing to do with her and that the money is for her and no one else's benefit, but on the other I want nothing to do with someone who would throw away his claim as a parent to an innocent child because of his relationship with this other woman. A lot of people would call that silly but it's probably just my pride kicking in

Thankfully no, IfNot, we were staying in his parents as they recently turned their spacious garage into a type of guest house, but since we've split up they've given me a few days to gather my things and be off with DD.

You will feel like that now, but trust me (I know) you won't always, and much easier to set up the CSA stuff right from the get go, than suddenly decide 5 years from now that, damn, kids are expensive.
Good luck, and don't worry. Do go back to the housing office, too, and tell them what has happened-it might help. Part of their job is to fob you off at the outset.

X post. Wow. Lovely people, eh?
You do realise you are very seriously threatened with homelessness, and that this affords you priority for housing?

Do you think it would help, Isit? I've looked at a Child Maintenance calculator and roughly he would be giving 35 pound a week which would be 140 a month.

My grandparents have offered us accommodation until we find a place, IfNot (bad relationship with my own parents, we never speak and they've stated they want nothing to do with DD). I'm so grateful to them but they're elderly and my grandfather is severely disabled so I don't want them having the strain of having a new baby around 24/7. Im going back to the housing executive on Monday, I'll have to torture them to make them listen and maybe then they could find us a hostel because I know even the threat of homelessness doesn't give us priority to a home, just a hostel. They honestly don't care, a friend of mine with two young DC lost her home and had to share her father's one bedroom bungalow for 2 months until they gave her a place in the hostel she's in now. The fact of overcrowding and everything else just didn't matter to them.

Go for CM now. Get him into the mindset that he cannot walk away from his responsibilities.

If you don't and a few years down the road you change your mind - it will be much harder if he then has other children. Paying you regularly might, just might, dissuade him from doing that.

The best revenge is to live well. Make him pay mantenance. It will give your DD a better life and she deserves it.

I know it will, Beastbabd of course you're right, Andrew, he just likes to make things difficult. He's threatened everything if I try for child maintenance, claiming she's not his, she wasn't want, that I'm an unfit and unstable mother not in the right mind to make choices like this. I know none if that will matter in court but the last one about my health (he knows personal details about my mental health and history and has threatened to use them) does make me incredibly uncomfortable as a small part of me does fear them taking his claims into consideration.

Bornfizzle I am so sorry. Sometimes I hate my bloody gender so much.

The real travesty is that a person can create a child and then just walk away without paying for it.

Not to worry, Andrew, not every man is like that, this is just one rotten apple

He can't and shouldn't be able to, rainbow, and while I'm still on the fence I think I will pursue him. My DD deserves it, my only fear is losing her or being deemed an unfit mother because of his claims with my history.

You poor thing.But at the end of the day, he doesnt have a leg to stand on wrt your previous mental health. Mental illness is just that-an illness. No court is going to listen to that little shitwad. Arseholes like him will say anything to wriggle out of their responsibilities, and the courts have seen them all before. They will see a strong, capable woman trying to do her best for her child, that's all.
For the record, in my LA, the threat of imminent homelessness DOES give you priority for housing. Contact www.gov.uk/civil-legal-advice. They have dedicated housing specialists who will give you proper advice. This is a really tough time for you, but focus on the practicalities , one step at a time.
x

They're evicting their infant grandchild ???

When you find somewhere... never look back. Wishing you all the very best, and if it helps, our wonderful tenants were recommended to us. Do you know of anyone who knows anyone...?