To ask what would happen in this scenario?

[greenmint]

I have been asked to advise and I honestly don’t know.

‘Eleanor’ has a baby and is a single mother. The child’s father plays no part whatsoever in her life.

Eleanor has no other family to support her. She works full time in an expensive area of the country and rents a small flat and pays for FT childcare for her baby. She gets no benefits other then CB.

Eleanor owns a property that was left to her as part of an inheritance that is let out. The income from this means she can rent her flat and contributes to her baby’s nursery costs.

Eleanor has now found out her landlord is selling the flat. She is unable te rent anywhere else because of poor credit. Is there any onus on the council to help Eleanor and her baby?

I don't think any local authority will now house someone who owns their own property.

She can’t buy anywhere due to poor credit

Sorry I missed this, but surely a healthy deposit from the sale of her flat would help towards buying somewhere, even with poor credit?

Poor credit isn’t permenant, it can be resolved easily with time. I got someone a flat with poor credit through an agency which used Experian, and their CCj was registered on the other rating agencies but not Experian. Result.

Anyway how bad is it? The only really bad thing is CCJ. Everything else is can be “massaged”

Well, she is obviously looking for a private let but is having no luck.

Two CCJs I believe.

ultimately she’d have to move back into it and claim benefits

Obviously that is really not an ideal situation, but given how many people need housing it would be absurd for a council to prioritise her over a family who didn’t own a property. If she owns a place outright she is in a better position than a lot of people. And if she moved into it, once her child is in school she’ll be able to work more easily, and won’t have a mortgage or rent to pay, which will make a huge difference.

Oh and the other option is housing associations, many are lax with their credit checks. When you get desperate you get creative!

Also the answer to this is specific to the Council where she lives as each Council sets its own housing allocations policy.

No she is unlikely to get a private rent with 2 CCJs. She’ll have to get a job near where her house is surely?

Yes - not quite that straightforward though!

A landlord would accept a tenant with a poor credit history if they paid 6 months rent up front. She could easily get a loan/small mortgage against the property she owns outright and do this. Problem solved.

I was going to sugggest paying the rent up front but assume Eleanor doesn’t earn much money (all the more reason her job should be easily come easy go) and she won’t get a loan with 2CCJs

No, actually, they don’t. Problem not solved and she’d still have to sell the property.

Eleanor’s job pays well but that’s offset against it being in an expensive part of the country.

Sorry missed the update about her not wanting the council to give her a house. What would she like the council to do then? Genuine question, not snarky, because they can’t make a private landlord take her, and it’s not really their job to try to find a landlord who will. They can probably give advice but I imagine their response will be, sorry not a lot we can do.

Nah it doesn’t pay that well. She’s got herself 2 CCJs and doesn’t have savings to pay the rent upfront. She’s fooling herself

She needs to sell the house and use the proceeds to pay 6 months rent up front to a private LL plus presumably keep using it to pay for childcare etc.

She's on a pretty healthy salary if she's not entitled to anything other than CB so that should be covering everything else hopefully.

Has she satisfied her CCJs? They'll be marked as that if she has and will be removed after 6 years from her record.

She’ll have to sell up and pay a landlord 6 moths in advance, not ideal but there’s not another solution. Surely £100k will pay for rental for a long time, and with that in mind she can sort her credit rating.

Oh, do you know her?

She’s only been working in it for a short amount of time. It pays £48,000 a year so not bad going.

Well if she doesn't want to pay rent up front then she will have to move into her property. Councils are not going to home someone who has their own home.

I don’t think she should sell the House. In 6 years the CCJs will be off her credit file and she can use it to buy a house with a mortgage which provides security for her daughter. Absolutely golden opportunity that she should not give up easily

She’s approached letting agents with the six months in advance but this isn’t accepted.

I think it may be a bit of a MN ‘half an hour with a solicitor for free’. Some offer it but many don’t.

Sell the property, pay 6-12 months' rent upfront, she will absolutely find Landlords who will take her on this basis, especially if her job will give her a reference and confirm her salary (she clearly has a decent salary if no benefits except CB).

Then save the left over sales proceeds and the money that she would have spent on the rent each month, so she has a really good deposit for when the CCJs are gone and she can get a mortgage for a property where she lives. Its not ideal, but there are absolutely solutions.

Whilst not all landlords would rent to someone with CCJs, if she can provide 6 months rent up front a lot will allow it, especially if she has a property of her own. The council won't help here I'm afraid, local authorities' budgets are incredibly overstretched as it is without helping people who own property.

Childcare is approx £22k before tax on that salary. Rent of more than £1k a month is another £22k pre tax a year. She obviously doesn’t earn enough. I’m not having a go- i earn twice that and would struggle with housing and childcare alone.