To wonder if social services become involved if you're made homeless?

[Confusedmartie999]

We've privately rented for years.
Had to move many times, sometimes our choice to follow jobs / family and sometimes landlords selling or increasing the rent beyond out affordability.
I wonder what would actually happen if this property ( been here 2 years but apparently owners are retiring next year according to neighbours and will sell ) if we physically couldn't raise deposit / rent in advance / moving costs and find a suitable property near kids school and we got evicted after notice served and went to the council.
Would social service become involved as the children would be homeless?
Or would they house us in temporary accommodation etc as it wouldn't be an intentional homeless case?
Worrying ahead of time

Whilst it's not ideal privately renting is probably the option that will be most available to you. Get lots of advice, have a chat with the council, tell them honestly your concerns, see what they can offer. But then probably the best thing to do is to find another property to rent that is affordable for you. Before putting any money down ask the council if they will pay the deposit and rent in advance for you (they may do it as a loan rather than a grant) to secure the property. Ideally try to save some money towards the rent in advance as it always looks good and shows the council that you are trying to help yourselves as well.

Councils don't really want to take homelessness applications and make formal homeless / intentionally homeless decisions unless they have too (affects their statistics) if they can prevent you from becoming homeless by securing a property in the private sector for you they will, as more cost effective for them.

Social services as someone said earlier are so cash strapped they will only want to get involved if concerns for the welfare of your children or if you have been offered accommodation options, turned them down and their is a real chance you might have to sleep rough with the children. Even then they will try to ensure the children can stay with someone whilst you get yourselves sorted.

I know it's a stressful time but try to stay one step ahead and in control of the situation. It will be more stressful if you just wait for the council to come up with something. Horrible to see families with children waiting at a council with their belongings waiting to find out what bed and breakfast can be found for them :-(

The fact that you are thinking about these things in advance proves that you want to get the situation sorted out. So many people wait till the last minute when there are such limited options available.

It's such a shame the council can't offer any assistance until we have been served with this section 21 notice.
They can't even tell us if they would be able to assist with a deposit until we are served this.
Does anyone know how long it takes from being served this notice if it happens to actually being evicted?
Of course I think it's unfair we pay £1000 a month for a 2 bed place when 2 streets away council tenants are paying £500 for 3 need places but this would never make me try and do anything that wasn't by the book. I have privately rented for 14 years 5 of those with children but it's just got too much, we physically can't live paying this high rent as well as saving £3000 every year for another move.

Section 21 notice will be a minimum of 2 months. Ideally you would find somewhere to move to in that time to coincide with the date the notice expires.

You can still legally remain in the property after the notice expires, but agent and landlord may be a bit annoyed as extra hassle and expense to apply to court for a court order. This process can take up to a couple of months, depends how quickly your local court works. As long as correct notice served etc the court will grant eviction and give a date to leave the property. If you are still in the property when the court order expires landlord/ agent can go back to court for a bailiffs warrant. The date on the warrant is when bailiffs turn up at the property to remove you and change the locks. That whole process can take up to 3 months but maybe quicker if courts are quick.

Council may advise you to stay in property if you have nowhere else to go. unfortunately if you need the councils assistance with finance or help to find another property it us probably best to follow the advice they give you, but the end part of the process can be quite stressful.

I know it's hard renting, I was still only able to afford a room in a shared house aged 30, mot much fun.

I actually didn't care much before I had children.
It seems pretty unbearable now to be honest.
If that happened are we liable for all those extra months rent that we have been living there after the notice is served?
And is an eviction notice like a ccj? As having one of those stopped us getting lots of houses before until we paid it off and had it " satisfied "

Dear god - £1000 a month for a 2 bed house! You might not want to say but it sounds like you could be living in an expensive part of the country. Hope it's not London. I'm in the West Midland and rents are approx. £500 a month for a 3 bed house, dependent on which particular area.

No an eviction notice isn't like a CCJ.

No not London but we are in the south east.
If we left my husband would lose his job we have constantly asked about him transferring but no hope of that. Good to know eviction isn't like a ccj although I'm assuming we would still be liable for the rent whilst this is all going on, so not as if we could use those few months worth to put down a new deposit anywhere else or anything!

Of course I think it's unfair we pay £1000 a month for a 2 bed place when 2 streets away council tenants are paying £500 for 3 need places but this would never make me try and do anything that wasn't by the book

I live in the next street to the one i was brought up in. My mam bought her house in that street for 14 thousand. I bought it off her for 80 then split with my ex and had it repossessed, sold at auction to a BTL LL for 71, i was on the homeless list and got a council house then 2 years later exchanged and live in the next street to my old house house. My friend rents it, 3 bed £650pcm. My council rent on the exact same house is £360pcm. Blame the RTB scheme for the lack of council houses and BTL landlords making a fortune on them. Many people like my mam sold it for a massive profit as soon as the 3 years were up then many were repossessed in the 90s or bought up by LL's.

The average rent for a 3 bed in Newcastle is about £500 but some LL's charge way over the odds, a typical 2 bed victorian flat is about £380

Yes it's unfair isn't it.
I have no desire for a council property, not the cheaper rent, nothing.
But stability for my children is making me think this is now the only way.

My council estate is lovely, some are and some are not so nice. I hase lived on a council estate almost all my life and i can tell you they are a lot more strict on people now especially over the last few years. I live facing some flats which tend to change hands frequently, the ones who cause a disturbance seem to get booted out pretty quickly nowadays and they don't tolerate rent arrears anymore, at one time people could get a few throusand behind in rent now they ring me and turned up on the door step for £14 arrears. Yes it is security having a council house, I have had this one now for 6 years, before that i bought my Dms house and lived there a few years and before that i private rented, i feel a lot more secure now than i did with a dodgy northern rock mortgage i took on knowing i couldn't cover it and should never have got approved, at the time i was desperate to get out of private rented.

I got to put on the homeless list on the bidding system and it was basically pot luck, i got what i was given. I got one miles away, won an appeal and got the one i had before this one, i then done a 3 way exchange to get this house with a friend and her work friend.

The way our homeless list works is you are put on the list and pick an area, N.E.S.W of the borough, you then check weekly and bid on properties in this area, the bidding runs for 13 weeks, if you don't bid on a property if it is deemed as adequate for your needs your homeless advisor will bid on it for you. So week 12 i finished second on a house i wanted, the following week my advisor bidded on a house i would never have bidded on and i finished first, i then immediately appealed it and it went to the panel, I won the appeal then it was a case of you take the next one, if you don't your removed from the homeless list.

and BTW they can put you in a hostel with children, i don't want to scare you but i know a few people placed in bnb's where they had to get out after breakfast and stay out till bed time, one used to sit in the council office all day with her kids as she had no where else to go, another was in some sort of hostel but could stay there all day and another friend was given a flat in a tower block with flats reserved for homeless people until they could house her. This was only about 4 year ago, idk unless it has changed

Thanks for your honest reply
If I'm honest this is kind of what I expected hence thinking it would them possibly become some sort of child protection issue, raising children in a hostel or BNB environment.
Of course I hope this doesn't happen however how long this rental is for is anyone's guess and if it's not this year it could be next or the one after.
Feels like a pretty shit way of living to be fair.

And what happens when I'm on a pension in private accomodation??
This worry is getting too much, surely this isn't fair.

Surely you are getting a bit carried away with worrying over 30 years' hence. You have the option to take control by saving and finding somewhere else before the ll sells , if that is even their plan. You need to spend time reviewing your budgets and optimising your income, whether through you working pt, your dh looking for a different job , maybe in a cheaper area or within a reasonable travel distance of a cheaper area. You still haven't clarified how you are required to live in a specific area yet he doesn't often work there. Have you contacted local HAs in case you can join their lists?

Are you on the council list already? i would always advise anyone in private to put their name on the normal waiting list, it took my ex SIL just over 2 years to get to the top for a flat, her DM put her on as soon as she was able to and she had lots of waiting time, she just used to refuse them which you can do on the normal list as you get more choice of where you want to be, you cant do that on the homeless list. She ended up buying a house but she is still on the council list as you never know what could happen.

In your situation i would get on the council homeless list and the normal list, as soon as you can start doing what ever procedure your council has for the waiting list start bidding or whatever and see where it goes but have the backup plan for private. You could hit lucky and get a really nice council house then in the future look to buying it. It is just pot luck what house or estate you are offered.

As fr as i know i think SS would only get involced if you were not helping yourself, following council procedure and going into a hostel, BnB they have allocated you is following procedure as opposed to remaining homeless

i know a few people who have gone through the homeless procedure for a council house and as far as i know SS have not been involved, loads of people end up homeless for whatever reason, i think SS would only get involved if you were intentionally homeless or through DV etc as the council are putting people in temporary homeless accommodation regularly, i can't see it being viable for SS to be involved in all of them just for being homeless and in council allocated accommodation

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think even in
f people are deemed to be intentionally homeless if they are in priority need as they have children, there is still a duty to offer temporary accommodation.

It actually states in the Children Act 1989 that homeless is not a reason to take children into care. Hence they should be negotiating with the Housing Dept to re-house the family, although this doesn't always carry much weight. BUT if push comes to shove, the LA Social Services should provide set up costs of a private rent out of S.17 of the CA 1989 but they will do everything to prevent this as their budgets are seriously depleted.

Fifi I absolutely agree with you about the "right to buy" - thanks to Margaret Thatcher. Then of course new council houses were not built and it's easy to see why we are now in this ludicrous situation when Housing authorities are having to house people in private rented accommodation and pay the high rent demanded by the owner.

In the 1970s there was a Fair Rent Act - that's what's needed now to stop owners making rich pickings from buy to lets, but that's never going to happen regardless of what happens on 7th May. Things will only get worse as many people who can now withdraw their pension at age 55 are apparently planning on "buying-to-let" so keeping people renting for ever and a day.

The other issue is the social cleansing of London carried out by the Tories - moving people who were claiming high levels of HB, to anywhere in the country where rents are cheap, regardless of the fact that people are being moved from their families, support, children's school etc. What do the Tories care about all that - nothing. So ghettos will be created in areas of the country where rents are low and people uprooted from the area in which they've always lived.

Hi again all,
I guess I'm worrying ahead of time as I don't see a change, my parents don't have money they'll be leaving me so buying looks never likely
I just feel like I'm constantly waiting to get a months notice.
It makes me feel like I'm failing my children.
My children who are my absolute world and who I adore, I'm not providing them with a stable home am I? Moving every year or so.
A house is never their home.

I must admit, i never felt secure in private and wanted to get out after a few houses but i have got friends who have got lovely LL's and just want to have them rent as long as possible. It's not your fault confuse, thousands of people probably feel the same way, im in the NE so it's not as bad here and quite easy to get private housing.

Our council have a list of approved private LL's, maybe try these and you might be able to find a more secure tenancy. If i was you feeling like this i would go down the council homeless route, there's absolutely no shame in living on a council estate, our's is nice and there is a real sense of community. I think for people who have never lived on one they see the sink estate and think that is what it is going to be like, it might be for some but i can honestly say where i am the estate are a lot better than they used to be.

NanaNina Tue 07-Apr-15 18:18:11
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think even in
f people are deemed to be intentionally homeless if they are in priority need as they have children, there is still a duty to offer temporary accommodation.

Yes i believe so, the last person i know who found themselves homeless split from her partner and was moved into a high rise flat the council had put aside for for people on the homeless list as temporary accomodation, she was there about 7 month but finally got a lovely 2 bed flat for her and her daughter. It wont be nice and it will be stressful, you will probably have to stay somewhere you never thought you would.

Op many before you and many after you will go through this, there is no shame in it, it's not pleasant but at the end of it you will probably get a council house, you might hit lucky and get a really nice one, even if its on an estate you deem not so nice you will still feel that it is your home and won't have the threat of tenancies coming to an end. I can see how its scary for someone who has never been in council accomadation

and btw if you want to go down the council house route i wouldn't say you want to take private, say you are fed up with private, you cant afford it and cant keep moving, you will have to go with the council procedure and work with them, they wont house you where you want to be house on a certain estate, you will basically get what your given, if it is the same as ours you can appeal the house offered but you would need strong grounds to do so, i don't want to live there wont wash, after appeal you will either win and be offered another house but will have no say in that one either or you will have one more chance to take the first one. I have no idea what your council do, which council is it and i will have a look, its better to go into it prepared

and have you also applied to all the Housing Associations in your area, you need to find out how to get on their lists

I was made homeless by a landlord suddenly selling the house we rented. I had deposit etc for renting a new house but there were few private rentals available in the area, and was up against several other applicants each time and lost out every time (possibly due to having pets).

The council saved us by finding us a house. I don't know what we would have done otherwise, there was nothing else. Terrifying.

SS did not get involved, there was no need. A difficult situation but very obvious the children were looked after well and I was doing all I could to find them a home, any home.

The council rent here is slightly below private rent, but only slightly, nothing like the op's area.

I agree with previous comments - why not look in a wider area? P/t work for you, even one evening a week would help you save? Put applications in to housing associations and council, you don't have to be threatened with homelessness to apply. Doing something proactive takes away from the terror.

Honestly do you have to actually be homes less in this borough to join any sort of list.
Or the house deemed unsuitable to live in or overcrowded.
I don't think I would feel so bad if I knew at the end of it we would be in a secure place.
But surely they are just going to palm me off with another private rent, I won't be able to say no will I :-(

That should read you do not do you