to stay in current house even though landlord has asked us to leave? dilema

[arieschicke]

I am a single parent with 3 dcs. 2 have complex sn.
2 months ago ll served me notice as he is selling the property. I have been trying to secure a private rental with no such luck.
The council have advised that when we leave we will be placed in bnb accommodation, then temporary house or flat share and then after approx 6 months we could be successful in bidding for a council property.
now my ll has sold the house and is exchanging contracts in 2 weeks. has asked me to leave by then. council have advised we will be placed in bnb. shelter have advised me to stay until the court evicts us, which means another 6'8 weeks here but the landlord could lose the sale.
I really can't decide what to do. any advice would be really appreciated.

She will move up the list in terms of priority the longer she's in the system. If she goes into the system now in terms of moving into the B&B she'll have to wait her turn to move up the list. That's why she should stay put.

So will she be in the system from the date that her contract is up regardless of where she's living, or will she be in the system from the date she is properly evicted?

Maybe I've missed something, but I was under the impression that she wouldn't get on the waiting list until eviction, which is why I didn't understand you saying that the council would have longer to look if she stays put.

And it's not about helping the LL out. Sticking to a contract isn't doing anyone a favour just for the sake of being nice. The reason I'd have thought it would be better to go into the B&B sooner rather than later is that OP won't end up with CCJs against her if the ll tries to recover costs, she won't end up with a bad reference making it difficult for her to get a private rental ever again, and most importantly, I thought it would get her on a council waiting list sooner than staying put.

Back in the day when hb claimants could choose to have it paid directly to the landlord that definitely lowered the risk for landlords as they knew they would get paid, as long as the tenant didn't let their claim lapse. For some reason that right was removed and the move towards universal credit will make it even harder.

However I do wonder whether that will change things in the sense that there will be no housing benefit any more so mortgage companies won't be able to exclude hb tenants from BTL mortgages nor will insurance companies. If they try to exclude all UC claimants there will be barely any tenants left. I don't claim HB now but I do claim CTC and CB which will all be incorporated into UC. I suspect that's the case for millions of renting families.

I can't believe how much you're arguing against the ll. Very little I've said here is about the position the ll will be in, and the point I've made is not about the OP going into a B&B needlessly, it's just about her doing it sooner rather than later if it's what's going to happen either way.

Pick find your automatic LL hating quite sickening too, you have no idea of the difficulties it could cause, and while OP is the main concern here because this is her thread, it's purely selfish and and small minded not to consider the possible wider consequences.

I think you've missed a lot Ptolemy. I can't keep saying the same stuff that others are saying too as you're not taking it in and arguing it for the sake of it now. I'm repeating myself and you're not ever going to accept it, even though others have tried to explain it to you too. There's some level of comprehension/compassion missing. "I thought it would get her on a council waiting list sooner than staying put." No, you're wrong, as we keep saying over and over and over to you. You're like a stuck record! Phone up your local council if you don't believe us.

As a reminder there's a vulnerable family involved in all this and their safety overrides everything. Put yourself in her shoes and see what you'd do then. You're an idiot if you said you'd put yourself in B&B to help a LL out and stick to a contract, but I wouldn't be surprised if you did.

In my LA she would be put on a list when she received the notice seeking possession but they wouldn't start looking until she was evicted. What would be the point? Another family could turn up at any point during the process and need housing immediately.

Ehric, it was removed because LLs were unfairly being made to pay back rent that had been fraudulently or mistakenly paid to them because of a claim that someone else made.

That problem could be removed if the claimant was held responsible for their claim instead of the LL who had done nothing wrong.

My parents rented out a few times and the last two both stopped paying rent and had to be taken to court. They were sort of accidental landlords and it was very stressful and upsetting for them but I still advise anyone facing homelessness to stay put.
I wouldn't advise anyone to stop paying rent though, that's not right.

If you're not arguing for the LL why you even commenting? Anyone not arguing for the LL would want the best for the OP, which isn't going into B&B before she really has to. She might with a bit of luck even avoid it as she has two kids with SN. Again, all covered ad nauseum.

It's not selfish and small minded to try and advise an OP to do what's best for her children, fuck the wider consequences in this situation. You're obviously a LL or your parents are or someone.

Thanks Ehric, so my assumption that the council wouldn't start trying to find her somewhere to live until she was in the B&B was probably right then.

So again, what this all rests on is wether the council will put her in a B&B from her end of contract date (before eviction) or not.

EhricLovesTheBhrothers
The social services comment the person I know as had it threatened if they lose their appeal.
Last year there was also a program on this on itv where a dad had lost his job, he was again given incorrect advice to leave his mortgaged home as it was being repossessed. He was appealing the councils decision that he 'intentionally made himself homeless', if he lost he would lose his B and B place and he was told his boys would go into foster care.

It may not have ever come to it (I don't know the result of the itv program and the appeal Is on going of the mum I know) but the threats do seem to be used.

I'm commenting because it's a thread on an Internet forum, and that's what you do. The OP isn't participating in the thread anymore, so the subject is open for discussion if it's something that people are interested in.

Cost of foster care in monetary terms - about £1000 a week per child at the very minimum. Human cost - unmeasurable. Cost of setting up a family in a private rental - £3000? Trust me, no local authority wants unnecessary children in care. Their statistics are too important to them for one thing, not to mention their budgets.
Basically, all departments try to shuffle responsibility from them to others. Senior managers within the same local authority will argue endlessly about whose responsibility it is to house and pay for some families - if they fall through the housing loophole then section 17 money must be used when there are children involved but it would be insanity to put the kids in foster care when they could just stump up for a deposit and close the case.

Well of course you can comment but your obvious bias towards the LL is very telling and not helpful to the OP.

Oops, forgot I was supposed to be an automatic LL hater on MN or Im signing up for a virtual bashing!

Oh I agree EhricLovesTheBhrothers it doesn't make any sense financially or otherwise to even threaten it let alone follow it through.

I wish I could find a link to the program again, it was their news investigative program. It also followed the plight of a couple who as adults without children had no support so had to sleep in hostels. It was eye opening the reality of it.

No, not an automatic LL hater - I'm not even one - just the advice to the OP is the correct advice as agreed by many that have experience of this including LLs, so your stance on it is very telling.

So is yours Annie.

Unfortunately Ehric, it does happen. Maybe not in every LA and probably not as often as it could, but I have worked with families who have been homeless and whose children have been accommodated whilst their parents were not :(. it's awful.

I really hope the OP is ok.

So, people think that LL's should be more accepting of HB, but at the same time they are advising people on HB to cause chaos for the LL....

I doubt that this particular LL will ever accept a HB tenant again, and I can't blame him/her!

Free stripe - the ll could have avoided this by evicting the OP months ago rather than waiting until the very last minute. They could have talked to her and to Shelter.

But they didn't.

I cannot fathom how some people are more concerned about the LL being inconvenienced and possibly being out of pocket rather than the prospect of a woman and her 3 children with SN being homeless.

What fucked up values some of you have

Yes, Ptolemy I think any LL that is advising her to get out now is a selfish arsehole, you're right. Any LL doing the decent and correct thing and telling her to wait for eviction are on the other hand not arseholes and are not selfish with only their own interests at heart. I know which side you're on.

I think I will point any LL who wonders whether they should take a risk and accept a struggling single parent on HB with children.

The LL could have avoided his sale being jeopardised, but he could never have avoided having to go to court to get OP out, that is in her control, not his. Even if he has started the process earlier and talked to shelter, it wouldn't make any difference to the ops ability to house herself, or the councils ability to place her.

To this thread. (Phone not cooperating)

Freestripe - it could just as easily have been a private tenant doing this. Maybe the LL needs to get out the game if they don't like the risks. Also, as oddfodd said this could have been avoided if LLs didn't keep wanting rent right up to the point of sale through greed and have given notice well before this.