Or am I fucked?

[pabstblueribbon]

Single sahm to 2 year old dd. Looking to move house to a nicer area (where dd's nursery is) but no one seems to accept housing benefit. I also have 2 cats which also seem undesirable to every landlord I've come across so far.

Looking for part-time work but even then it still won't be enough and will be topped up by housing benefit. What on earth do I do?

Look at openrent.co.uk deals directly with landlords, no horrific agency fees

Have a chat to estate agencies - they told me that about half landlords say no pets and half don't mind. Ask what would reassure lanlords: guarantor? Long stay contract? Increased rent for cats? References? Etc. everything is negotiable.

You've got the hat-trick love! pets AND housing benefit AND children!

there are landlords who are fine with pets
There are landlords who are okay-ish with HB if you sell yourself well
there are landlords who are fine with kids

but you'll struggle to find one who is cool with all 3

That's really helpful, YuckYuck ! OP can really benefit from your assessment of the situation and wise advice there.

She asked what to do?

My advice is target landlords that are okay with 1 or 2 of the "less desirable factors" (either by going FT OR getting rid of cat) rather than search for a holy grail who is okay with all 3

How is that not what she's asking for?

Probably could have worded it better rather than listing all of my (less desirable factors) that I'm clearly aware of.

Well it is the way it is.

We found that while there are lots of landlords who do accept pets, they were the ones who were firmest "no children".

If you want more landlords to chose from, you need to look for the HB&kids or kids&pets or just kid friendly ones. All 3 are too hard to find

They are, I agree. I have a viewing next week with a LL who doesn't allow pets but everything else seems perfect. If I'm accepted I'm afraid the cats will have to go

I have rented twice with a cat, the first time the LL accepted without an issue, and the second the cat moved in a few weeks after I did (she had been living elsewhere but I had to take her back) - no one ever knew, but the LL never visited / inspected (his choice).

The first time my cat ripped the kitchen flooring so I paid to have it redone when I left - that's the risk you take.

I also claimed HB but as it was paid to me directly it was not something I mentioned. I did have a guarantor though, as I wouldn't have passed affordability otherwise.

I suppose what I am saying is both things are likely to make it more difficult, but not impossible, to find somewhere - so you have to make your decisions based on that.

The housing benefit is paid directly into my account but wouldn't they still want to check where my money is coming from?

The biggest issue for landlords is ... Can you afford to pay? Keep in mind when you find a new job, it's better to apply when you are past the probationary period. Not sure how some posters are "fudging" not being on benefit. Around here, agencies and private landlords ask for 3 months of banks statements too.

The housing benefit is paid directly into my account but wouldn't they still want to check where my money is coming from?

Yes unless you're lucky, I had to show bank statements and pretty much "sell" myself as a tennant in order to get our place before last: and I'm not on HB and had a guarentor

Concealing claiming HB can lead to all sorts of troubl for the LL, some mortgage and insurance companies don't allow them to rent to HB tenants so in the event of a fire their insurance would be invalid. Who does that to someone?

Not working and having children means a lot more wear and tear on a house, add in pets and it's even worse. Then there's the giving notice when the tennant won't leave as they want social housing so the LL is forced to pay court costs etc.

It will be 2 to 3 years before your child goes to school so you don't need to panic about moving just yet. Also primary schools, even in rough locations, tend to be more nurturing and less threatening than secondary schools. Actually some primary schools in rough locations are bloody amazing. So that might buy you even more time.

You could give yourself another couple of years or more before you have to get a full time job. Keep looking in the meantime. You may get lucky.

I don't know about the part housing benefit, but re cats, my husband and I found our last flat through gumtree. We didn't have a pet at the time, but really really wanted to get a dog, but I had insisted that we be transparent with any landlord. We felt after looking for a while that agents couldn't be bothered dealing with people with pets so we used gumtree to find landlords that we could deal with directly. We also posted a wanted ad on gumtree explaining what we were looking for and it turned out that our landlady found us! We own a home now, but that flat was the best rental we ever had, and we got our sweet boy from Dogs Trust 5 days after we moved in. We paid nothing extra for bond, but I wrote into the lease that we would replace carpets and repaint flat if required when we left the flat (didn't have to do either just got carpet cleaned & flat professionally cleaned).

It would be nice to try and find somewhere that would accept the cats; poor creatures facing an uncertain future through no fault of their own.

If you are interested, there are some things you can try to address the destructive behaviour you've described.

pabstblueribbon

Re the Housing Benefit - it's not always either a judgement or the way they pay if they pay direct to the landlord. Unfortunately it's a clause in my mortgage prohibiting me 🙁

I might have to rent my house out next year and will probably put 'no pets' on any adverts but if someone had 1 or 2 cats, offered to pay a higher deposit etc and listened to my main objection first I'd probably allow them to rent it (main objection actually being it's really, really unsafe for cats here with the carpark/road even though it appears to be a quiet residential street).

So, my advice is to ask & offer whatever deposit you can afford. Be patient & persistent & you'll get there, you have time on your hands. If it were me, unless the area is scary bad, I'd only work part time for as long as possible. They're only little for such a short time & if at all possible I'd sacrifice pretty much anything to have that time with them.

Oh...and this is a nice area! Despite what others have said about you not finding somewhere in a nice area (with kids, HB & pets).

Don't tell them about your cats.

Now you see the cats now you don't !! No eviction is speedy and I write the deposit off the moment I hand it over, it's seen as a little bonus for LL's in my experience no matter what.

Most evictions are stressful though, aren't they? Why would you put yourself in the way of that? And wtf are you doing to your properties if you always lose your deposit - is it unlawfully keeping pets in the property by any chance? Landlords are legally required to use the Tenancy Deposits Protection scheme and the penalties for not doing so are substantial. The days were they just got to keep your deposit and there was nothing you could do about it are long gone.

I'm sure getting evicted for having cats will look great to any future landlords too!

V's not having anywhere to live it's not too big a risk. Our landlord hasn't ever done an inspection, knows nothing about my children or pets. People do seem to make things harder for themselves in Mumsnet world 🙄

Full time work and get rid of the cats. I think you have no other option.

The cats would be fine with me, but someone who wasn't working would be a big no from me.