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

no you can go on the normal list anytime at my council and build up waiting time. Some house are for normal allocation and some are for the homeless list, from going on the council homeless list i was housed in 13 weeks but that was 6 year ago, the last person i know who went through the homeless system was about 2 yr ago and she went into a temp flat where she stayed for 7m before she got a 2 bed flat in the area she wanted. It all depends on the council really i think and your situation, i was classed as homeless as i had an eviction notice but stayed in the house till the end

If u look up Horsham district council you'll see what I mean.
It's a short questionnaire but unless you are already homeless we wouldn't be able to apply.
The only other reason is having 2 kids over 10 sharing a room ( if different sexes ) so over crowding but we aren't there yet either

Have you been to their drop-in for advice? If you need to be within a 15m radius of a particular local hub there are definitely less expensive areas to live.

Have you been to their drop-in for advice? If you need to be within a 15m radius of a particular local hub there are definitely less expensive areas to live.

they didn't in my case

(was single parent and landlord gave us notice but I couldn't afford to move, so similar to op's poss situation)

dc and i got a council house in the 11th hour, literally days before eviction

was few years ago though

It's not about the rent, it's having the deposit which is 6 weeks in advance, the rent in advance, ref fees and a van cost even if the rent was £750 as opposed to £1000 we would still need to find £2000 from somehere.
In the past we have been forced to not pay the last months rent so we have the deposit however after bing taken to court given a ccj and made to pay all the court fees as well as the rent we owed I'm never doing that again we physically can't have a ccj or again impossible to rent luckily that one has just dropped off now

Do you think I'm being unreasonable having enough private renting not the cost side as much as the constant upheaval for the kids

no confused not at all

the security is what I like most about renting from council, the fact its not a rip off like private renting is just a bonus.

private renting is hideous and I don't blame anyone for doing whatever they have to to get out of it

Unfortunately there is physically no way out unless we are evicted.
But we can't cause ourselves to be evicted!
So we will have to stay put here until the landlord decides to sell.
I'm not sure what the council would do if they increased our rent beyond what we can afford, whether they would still say leaving would make us intentionally homeless although I guess not as we aren't entitled to housing benefit so it falls only on us to know how much we can afford.
I feel better knowing this is our last private rent, we aren't doing it again so if we end up being here for 10 years so be it as although the rent is double what we would pay via the council we will never be housed by the council until it's the landlords decision for us to leave ;-(

in my case my landlord tried to up my rent by 100 a WEEK grasping bastard i couldnt afford it and the housing benefit (quite rightly) refused to cover it as it was way over the LHA

I told my landlord I couldn't afford it and he chucked his dummy and sent me an eviction notice

so maybe it would be a GOOD thing if your LL increases the rent as that could well be the route that you will end up going down

feel free to PM if you want any more advice because there were certain things I was advised to do that helped the process of getting housed along a bit

You could argue on grounds of hardship - that all of the private rents are insecure and it's causing financial hardship to you to have to move every year or two.

Although it doesn't really come under the umbrella. But just looking at this. www.horsham.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/8300/Housing-Register-and-Nominations-Policy-July-2014.pdf

Thanks!
Will look into sending a pm as no idea of how to do it!
Or feel free to send me one and I'll reply :)
No we won't qualify on hardship grounds by the look of that link,
And I'm right in thinking children have to be 10 and over now not to share a room aren't they? ( different sexes ) so we can't apply on those grounds either.
It's relieving to know that if it comes to it they will help us, in some way or another ( hopefully not the offer of private rent again as apparently after speaking with them just now you can't refuse a private let as long as it's a 12 month contract :-( ) but I just wonder where we would stand if the reason for eviction was is refusing to pay an increase of rent.
So if the landlord contacts us and says he will renew but on the grounds of a rent increase, we say we aren't paying anymore and then he evicted us with this section notice would the council say we could have afforded it so aren't helping??

You send a PM by clicking "Message Poster" on the end of the blue bar with the poster's name :)

Yes the overcrowding definition hasn't been updated since 1924 or something and includes living rooms, tiny boxrooms too small for a single bed and large hallways and kitchens as "bedrooms".

Horrid position!

I suppose what you have to hang on to is you haven't beej served a s21... This happened to us when the landlord suddenly wanted to sell...

You may be able to do a deal. Our agents buggered up the s21 making it invalid... Apparently this happens in a third of all cases... This meant it would take even longer to get us out...

We went early on the proviso that they paid all our moving costs... Which theu did... Or else we could have been there for a very long time...

Hi,
Yes. No notice as yet.
Does the council decide on how much private rent you should be prepared to pay?
As in if we did get evicted if we refused to pay an increased amount would they hold that against us?

The local housing allowance defines the maximum a particular property size is worth locally, for HB purposes. If a rent rose above that you would need to find the difference yourselves and you would only be eligible for the 2 bed rate. Tbh your best bet is to investigate schemes such as loan deposits or rent guarantees do that you are prepared just in case. Charities such as YMCA offer some as well as councils. It would probably mean private rental or possibly ha though.

Our LHA is set at £180 a week in this borough and our rent is £250 a week so already way over that.
We don't get any housing benefit or anything, i was just wondering if we were to be given notice not because the landlord was selling but if they up the rent even more if the council would still be bound to us?
Also with this living in the area thing for 2 years what exactly happens if you rent a place for a year and this happens? What do the council do with you if you haven't been there the 2 years required??

Sorry cancel that last question I've looked it up and if you're homeless you have only had to live in the area for 6 months

IDK if you have seen this

Horsham District Council's Housing Options Drop In Service takes place at the Council offices at North Point, North Street, Horsham, RH12 1RL between 9.00 am and 11.30 am, Tuesday to Friday. - See more at: www.horsham.gov.uk/housing/preventing-homelessness#sthash.7INIjUor.dpuf

make an appointment and lay all your cards on the table about the high rents and the constants moves, tell them you think your LL may be going to sell and ask what options you have

You can go on the council list even if you are in adequate accomodation so get yourself on the normal list and all the HA list's as well, at least that way if something does happen your already there on the list gaining waiting time

Here is the application form, you cam do it online

www.horsham.gov.uk/housing/housing-register

This is what i got my house through, it must be national, its called homechoice and it works on a bidding system, to join you have to be on the local housing register. You join, create a log in then bid on properties. Obviously this will take probably years on the normal list but go on and bid for properties so you are actively looking for housing, i was on this but on the priority list. Normal housing on ours works on waiting time. Even if you just join and but some bids in now and again to keep it active you will start saving up waiting time. Its better to be on it then even if you don;t need housed now if you do in say 3 yrs time you will be a lot further up the list

heres the homechoice link

www.midsussex.gov.uk/homemove

If you go to the drop in center they will be able to get you set up and on all the lists you need to be on, thats probably the best way to do it so you know you have done it right