Desperate Housing situation please can I have advice - benefits, disability, homeless

[FallingOnTheShiftingSands]

My contract on shared accommodation if finishing next week. I cannot sign the contract on my own and cannot find someone to take on the lease with me.

I am disabled and on housing benefit. It's very difficult to find a landlord willing to accept me. The council told me months ago to start looking for a place and they could help me with a private rental scheme.

I found a landlord willing to accept me and called council to say I had somewhere. Council then say no way is this ok I have to go through a lot of paperwork and so does potential landlord which takes weeks. Obviously, I will lose the flat.

Council want me to stay in this current flat and wait for eviction letter, then go into a hostel, then find a flat somewhere cheaper in London. It feels like every time I meet with my adviser at the council the information changes slightly. They also frequently suggest things that aren't actually compatible with council housing law ie suggesting I take over the whole lease on my own and then find a lodger - er no because that would mean I can't get my own housing benefit legitimately.

However if I stay here and refuse to budge my landlord won't pay the deposit back meaning my fellow tenants won't get their money?

I have had severe mental health issues in the past, attempted suicide two and a half years ago and done so well recovering. I am utterly terrified of having to sit it out here in this flat alone illegally waiting for eviction and bailiffs, coping with hostile fellow tenants demanding their money off me because I will be seen as the problem - which from their side, I am.

I have posted about these tenants before, shitting in the bath and stealing stuff etc. I feel stretched to my limits of coping.

I'm on waiting lists for 3 different health services in my borough and if the council move me out I go back to the bottom of the list in whatever new borough it will be.

I feel so demoralised. Posting here for traffic. Some people might recognise bits of this I have posted before - so yes, before you say it again, I fucking know, I shouldn't expect to be able to live in an expensive part of London like I do as I'm clearly undesirable disabled scum in the eyes of landlords - but this was never the plan when I moved here originally, to be broke and in poor health and needing help for the forseeable future.

What would you do?

It doesn't work like that OP, your in shared accomadation, the landlord has to separate their deposits from yours, so the landlord would have give a reason to court on why the deposit was withheld, once they have moved out of the property the landlord has a legal responsibility to give the deposit back, if landlord did not do this, the tenants can raise andispute with ARD

Ok, that is different to what the rental agency have said so far.

That would be a massive relief at least if the agency or landlord have no choice but to give them their deposit back.

Msjaime that isn't quite right if they're all on one tenancy the OP will be the lead tenant who the deposit will be returned to. As they're all on one tenancy they're all jointly liable for the rent which can then be taken out the the deposit

I don't deal with shared tenancy, However manage in thousands of social housing properties, however have dealt with a few shared accomadation tenants going into social housing, and they have all got their deposits back, I however had raise disputes through the ARD, on dealing with the cases I have helped, the ARD always got the individual deposits back.

Sorry feeding baby neice while typing the above, baby neice keeps hitting the buttons

I'm not sure who ARD are. But so it's likely the deposit won't be given back without a fight if I need a specialist outside body to get it back?

This is all such a total nightmare.

If your still resident in the property the landlord does not have to relinquish the deposit if you have a joint tenancy and one deposit.

If your tenancy is joint and several (all on the same contract) your deposit will most likely be one lump sum. Do you know who it's held with? It should be the DPS, TDS or MyDeposits. They all have slightly different mechanisms for getting the deposit released. Are you lead tenant? If so you shouldn't need any specialist third party to help, if the deposit isn't released you can go through the scheme's dispute resolution service. They're all quite straightforward.

Just to add - all tenants would need to move out first of course

Thanks. Ok, back to square one where if I do what the council are saying now and basically sit tight here and refuse to move - then my cotenants won't get their deposit back. They will get nasty with me. It's very unfair on them, even though we have had our differences.

I am literally trembling at the idea of telling them they won't get their deposit back because I have to sit here and wait to be evicted. My heart is hammering in chest. I don't know what they will do, but I know it will be along the lines of wrecking some of my stuff and inviting even more drunk strangers back to the flat who come in my room for a laugh. They know I hate that because I've tried asking them to not do this.

I'm just holding down my job after being unable to work for a long period. I'm not sleeping with the constant strangers in and out of the place, it's all about to get even worse.

Falling - if they all move out at the end of the lease but you don't because you need to wait for the council, how will they be able to wreck your stuff and invite people in if they don't live there and have access? You could change the locks if they keep the keys, the bailiffs would anyway I'm sure.

I'm a housing officer. Legally, if you have an assured shorthand tenancy, you do not have to leave. The landlord has to give you two months notice in writing. The particulars of the notice are dependent on when your tenancy started amongst other things.

Once the notice expires, your ll applies to the court for an order if possession. They will be granted one assuming the notice is valid. It's likely you'll be given 28 days. Once THAT has expired, the landlord applies to the court for an eviction order. It's likely you'll be given 14 days. Then you have to leave.

The landlord cannot withhold a deposit for no reason. He will have to have protected it in a tenancy deposit scheme to prevent such things from happening.

You need to speak to the council again, and find out exactly what you need to do to get help with another private rent, so that you are prepared if/when you find somewhere suitable.

At the moment, you will not be classed as 'threatened with homelessness ' because you aren't, legally. Once a valid notice is served, then you will be.

What an awful situation, I am so sorry.

Please could you explain one part. Why does the council have to agree to your new accommodation? Why cant you just sign the new tenancy agreement & move in and claim housing benefit?

Is it because the new landlord demands a deposit? If so, can you negotiate anything with the new landlord, eg deposit later?

Why are the other tenants moving?

I don't think they will leave either now, if I don't go, as they won't get a desposit back. I think they may stay and wait to be evicted as well, and basically destroy the place, with me in it.

The others are going because the rent is going up.

Yes the council had said I could go on their scheme which helps you with deposit and first month of rent. I only have about a third of that, that's with wiping out all the money I have in the world. No cushion left. I'm fucking scared witless.

No I can't negotiate deposit later. The council have made it very clear if I try to move into this I'm on my own. They won't give any help with deposit at all with this landlord.

Many charities and organisations provide loans for deposits or rent bonds. Have you searched all these?

Crisis directory

list by area

Scope

From a website - The Directory of Social Change should be
available in your local library, and lists
over 2000 charities, and gives information
on how to apply.

turn2us

I'm so sorry to hear all this op, it sounds dreadfully unfair. I'm afraid I don't have any new ideas/ information.

So is it because you don't have enough money for a new deposit and first month's rent that you need to go via this Council scheme and complete lots of paperwork? If you had that money you could move into a new place and apply for housing benefit more easily? Do you have any options for getting that money in time? Anyone who could lend it to you? Anyway your current landlord could return your deposit sooner eg do an early inspection of your room?

"You need to speak to the council again, and find out exactly what you need to do to get help with another private rent, so that you are prepared if/when you find somewhere suitable. "

Yeah, except I did all this, but then they pulled the rug from under me.

I have actual emails advising I go off and attempt to try to find a suitable new flat. Which I did.

I literally cannot trust a word of it, it's all doublespeak, and I have no idea how to escalate it to a manager or someone else. Plus they probably just would think I'm a troublemaker if I did that and the fobbing off would keep going.

I did contact my local MP this evening and spoke to a member of their team who was very sympathetic and said they would make enquiries at the council on my behalf. I'm not sure if that will inflame relations between me and the council but oh well.

My current landlord will absolutely not do an early return of deposit. In fact, I anticipate a fairly long battle trying to get it back. Which I could stomach - if I was battling from a place of safety, but not in a hellish situation of living with the other people who blame me and will do their damndest to make my life shit.

Which authority. Look at their homeless and letting policy. If you have medical support you can't get outside the borough then they should accommodate you in the borough or nearby so your care is not disrupted. They should no longer be advising you to stay put and wait for bailiffs - keep going back.till they sort you out.

Not really any options for getting money. I can see now why people get desperate and resort to payday loans.

Maybe escorting for a short time? I could probably charge a lot for niche services if I fetishized my disability? Only half joking, again I can see why women do this.

Policies should be on the Internet.